User Profile Corrupt in XP
With windows XP you may run into the issue were your user profile becomes corrupt. Having a corrupted user profile is simple to fix if you follow these simple steps.
The first thing we are going to try is to do a system restore. You will not loose any work from files you recently edited like word or excel. We are simply taking your computer back in time a few days to try and resolve this issue.
Boot into windows safe mode. To do this shut your computer down and then right when you turn it back on start pressing the F8 key on the top of your keyboard. Press it every other second until you get a dos like screen. SAFE MODE. You may be asked what operating system you want to start. You most likely will only see one. Just hit enter. When asked to login select the administrator account. Now when you see a dialog box pop up in the middle of the screen asking what you want to do select NO. This will start the restore process for you. Once the restore process has started you need to select the option RESTORE MY COMPUTER TO AN EARLIER TIME and click next. Now pick a bold highlighted date on the calendar and select next, select next one more time.
Your computer is now restoring itself to an earlier time. This will hopefully fix your corrupted User profile. I would say it works 90 percent of the time. Once the process is done your computer will automatically reboot.
If the did not work you can follow this to create a new profile and copy your old settings over.
You may need to login as the admin through safe mode.
Create a New User Profile in Windows XP
1. Log in as admin or an account with admin permissions.
2. Select the windows START button and click CONTROL PANEL
3. Click USER ACCOUNTS
4. Select CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT. You may need to select pick a task first
5. Type in a new name for the account
6. Click create account and ensure it is an admin account.
Copy Files to the New User Profile
1. Log on as a user other than the user whose profile you are copying files to or from.
2. In Windows Explorer, click Tools, click Folder Options, click the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders, click to clear the Hide protected operating system files check box, and then click OK.
3. Locate the C:\Documents and Settings\Old_Username folder, where C is the drive on which Windows XP is installed, and Old_Username is the name of the profile you want to copy user data from.
4. Press and hold down the CTRL key while you click each file and subfolder in this folder, except the following files: Ntuser.dat, Ntuser.dat.log, Ntuser.ini
5. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
6. Locate the C:\Documents and Settings\New_Username folder, where C is the drive on which Windows XP is installed, and New_Username is the name of the user profile that you created in the "Create a New User Profile" section.
7. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
8. Log off the computer, and then log on as the new user.
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