Windows profile corrupted

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
So I woke up this morning, threw on some jeans, brushed my teeth, and headed to my computer to make my daily morning rounds (job search, gaming news, comics). I logged in to my computer and my heart nearly stopped when I saw an error message pop up saying that this profile was not available. The first thing I thought of was how I had been meaning to back up all my OneNote files, since there's where I type out all my story ideas. Windows created a temporary profile, which let me log in and survey the damage.

I looked through my files and was relieved to discover all files under my profile were intact.

Now I'm left with the undesirable task of either (a) rebuilding my profile or (b) wiping and reloading this computer entirely.

If my profile somehow got corrupted once, how likely is it to happen again? Am I better off just wiping and reloading, even though that would mean spending four or five days re-installing programs?

Is there any way to just restore my profile and get back to work like none of this ever happened?
 
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Okay, so after spending my entire afternoon backing up files, I created a new profile, rebooted, and signed in only to find that I didn't have access to files in my old profile. So I rebooted, logged into my own profile, and...

...found everything worked just fine.

>_<

On the plus side, the scare motivated me to back up critical files.

I'm still considering wiping my computer and reloading the essentials. While I was backing up my documents and such, I realized just how messy my hard drive has gotten.

EDIT: That, and my computer doesn't run as quickly as it once did.
 
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If I were in your predicament friend, I would back up my data before anything else on an external storage device or another computer if you haven't already. Then I would run Virus and spyware checks (Spybot and spyware terminator for the spyware and AVG for the viruses), then I would run a check disk which would correct any errors on your hard drive. After that, if everything looks green I would continue on making sure that I periodically backup data (Once a week should do you fine).

As for your computers loss of speed, run the malware removers listed above and then run a defrag as well as a the disk cleanup application. That will quickly restore a lot of your PC's lost horsepower...
 
Tek7 said:
Okay, so after spending my entire afternoon backing up files, I created a new profile, rebooted, and signed in only to find that I didn't have access to files in my old profile. So I rebooted, logged into my own profile, and...

...found everything worked just fine.

>_<

On the plus side, the scare motivated me to back up critical files.

I'm still considering wiping my computer and reloading the essentials. While I was backing up my documents and such, I realized just how messy my hard drive has gotten.

EDIT: That, and my computer doesn't run as quickly as it once did.
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i ahve one word for you in terms of backup

carbonite.
 
If you're running XP, I heard about a cool program out there to help modify the entire Window's package. You make a mirror of your install disk, and then deselect the XP features you do not want. It modifies the install disk, you burn a new one, and then use that to reformat your computer. This way, you can get rid of the clunky features that might be killing your computer over time.

Anyone know what it's called?
 
I believe that you are talking about nlite, if so it is a great program that does more than just edits what features of windows get installed. It also allows you to integrate service packs and other updates. If my memory holds true, it can allow you to add drivers and maybe even programs to the installation disk...

Site: http://www.nliteos.com/
 
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Tek7 said:
I have to admit the Han Solo reference was pretty awesome.

I'll check it out.

EDIT: Eh, nevermind, it costs money. That's a deal-breaker for a poor unemployed soul like me.

Also, an online backup service wouldn't work very well as many of the files I want to back up are very large.
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it's 50/year not a month...a year. if you need me to i'll pay the first year. storage amount is unlimited. it works on it's own..install the software and it uploads everything you tell it automatically. Once the uploads are done when you make a change it's uploaded automatically as well. The account is AES enrypted with your passkey not even carbonite can see the data. It's isntall.setup. forget it.
 
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