Strange issue with User Account

[LoneCrusader]

Hello everyone.. hoping someone here can help me sort out a strange XP issue that I'm trying to fix on a friend's computer.

 

First of all I have no idea how the system got into the shape that it's in now, so I have nothing to go on as far as what happened to it. This friend of mine always seems to have the strangest computer problems... I've never seen anything like this; but of course I never set up or deal with multiple user accounts on any operating system and always run as Administrator (and if that statement causes you any distress, I'm not interested in hearing about it).

 

So, I set this machine up for my friend a few years back. The system is multi-boot but only XP seems to be having issues. It's XP Professional with SP3. When I set XP up, I entered my friend's name when it asks who will use the computer, so it associated his name to the "Administrator" account. I did not create any other accounts or set a password since he's the only person using it, so when the system boots it goes directly to the Desktop and does not ask for those things.

 

Now, somehow he has managed to get "shut out" of his own account. I won't say "locked out" because it isn't really locked, there's nothing actively preventing access to the account, it just never allows the option to enter. When the machine boots up, it creates a brand new user account without asking or offering to switch users. This account reverts everything back to looking like a fresh installation... the default theme and background are set, there aren't any shortcuts to his programs on the Start Menu or on the Desktop, there aren't any files in the "My Documents" folders, etc etc. If I try to "Log off" and "Switch user," it only shows up his name and claims he is already logged in.

 

An examination of the "Documents and Settings" folder reveals that his original account name folder, "Harold" shows up as it should, but a new user folder, "Harold.HLG" has been created as well. This folder contains the empty "My Documents" folders and such that I am seeing. If I delete this folder and reboot the same process happens again. "Harold.HLG" does not show up under the User Accounts panel, only the original "Harold". If I boot into Safe Mode and choose Administrator, I am still not able to see any more accounts other than the original "Harold."

 

So, apparently the system believes that "Harold" and "Harold.HLG" are the same account, but how does one get back into the correct "user profile" and escape reverting back to the default new account?

[Tripredacus]

It sounds like the main user account is corrupted. When this happens, Windows will log in with a temporary account.

Look at the possible next steps here:

http://superuser.com/questions/138402/temp-profile-used-when-user-logs-in

[LoneCrusader]

It sounds like the main user account is corrupted. When this happens, Windows will log in with a temporary account.

Look at the possible next steps here:

http://superuser.com/questions/138402/temp-profile-used-when-user-logs-in

 

Thanks for the link!

This procedure from that link worked to fix the problem:

In the user profile options under computer->properties->Advanced->user profiles it show that there are three profiles with his name. Two are the exact same size with the same modified date (5/5/10) and the other is what I would expect size wise for a new profile with a modified date of today.

....

ok so all I did was delete the profile that was the smallest around 18 Mb from the Computer Properties->Advanced->User Profiles I then rebooted the machine and had the user log in and it used the correct profile. I would say the reason it continued to use the Temp profile is because it has associated the temp profile location with his log in and once the temp profile was removed it reverted back to the correct profile.

[Tripredacus]

Good you got it fixed!

Sometimes when this happens Windows will actually show a message at login about profile corruption or use of a Temporary account, or sometimes the username is actually Temp.

[LoneCrusader]

I was surprised that no further issues showed up.. but once the secondary profile was deleted it just booted into the correct one without any complaints. Still bizarre, but at least I know how to fix it now.

[Tripredacus]

Well you should create another admin account on there just in case the primary one becomes unusable in the future.

[submix8c]

FYI - All well and good (the "fix" link) but I'm dealing wih a PC (temporarily side-tracked so will be getting back to it soon) that the owner thought they were "fixing" it and (crap!) they installed stuff while in the "<usename>.<computername>" account and worse, they wound up inadvertantly creating "<username>.<computername>.<nnn>" (nnn being a number) for each time they flubbed up, in addition to several variations of similar "temp" accounts. IOW, I have to "recreate" the Hives. They even stomped on the SystemProfile folder trying to fix it. Lots of corrupted "config" Registry stuff. I actually had to dump the Software and System Hives (to 9x REG files) and manually merge the uncorrupted stuff (i.e. manually deleted the bad/unreadable/corrupted) into a "clean" one (created in a VM) to repair it.

 

What I'm saying is, you got lucky they brought it to you right away rather than depending on Teh DubyaDubyaDubya for the fix. Too many bad solutions out there. MSFN is *the* place to go for the correct ones.

 

(sheesh! the geniuses on the internet!)