disappearing user profiles

[n2jesus]

Hi all,
Has anyone else had the problem of windows 2000 pro user profiles disappearing? It's happened on two of our computers now.

The computer starts acting weird, the user reboots, and when windows comes backup, there is no record of that user ever having logged on. Their desktop is gone, favorites, documents, etc. along with all registry entries.

Any ideas on how to recover from this, or how to prevent it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bcastner]

Logon as Administrator. You will find that a new profile was created in each instance, with something like username.001

Copy the data from the previous profile (either username.00x or just username) to the username.001 or whatever highest numbered profile.

Use these instructions:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

 

[wolluf]

If this is a recurring problem, there's probably something wrong with the machines (eg, how they're set up/hardware)

 

[bcastner]

A very good and important point to make, wolluf.

This may be an indication of something not right: such as a sticky application, or something failing on the hard drive. Or improper shutdown procedures by the end user.

This can be exacerbated by stuck applications. I would install the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service and hope the incidence of corrupt profiles disappears:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en