Win XP Profile Problem

[d0nny]

OK, I've got a weird one here that has stumped me.
My friend did something to his PC which effectively caused it to lose it's profile (I'm guessing here!).
So I went to look at it and he had lost all of his desktop and My Documents. He's running Win XP Home Edition, MS Office 2003 and some other Patient software (he runs a clinic).

I noticed that there were several user profiles listed under the "Documents and Settings" folder. When I checked the User Profiles list, there was only one profile - it is called Compaq_User.
On checking the Documents and Settings folder, there is a Compaq_User folder and also a Compaq_User.RECEPTION folder. Windows is picking up the Compaq_User.RECEPTION settings and not the normal Compaq_User.
I think I've found that the machine name is now called RECEPTION and is in the workgroup WORKGROUP. I don't know what state these were in previously, but the girl on reception said that when she booted it up it was like starting on a brand new machine (so she obviously went through some sort of setup).

I've tried several things including creating a new profile and copying all the files from the old profile into the new profile, which works to a certain extent, but MS Office refuses to work as I get the message that it is not installed for this user.

Basically, all I want is for the machine to boot into the old profile. I've try System Restore, but that wasn't turned on so I can't restore to a previous version.
I've looked in the 'profilelist' in the registry and it only has the user Compaq_User.RECEPTION listed.

Any ideas??
I'm quite proficient around a PC but I simply cannot get the OS to recognise the old profile and therefore get his other apps working.

 

[IllogicallyLogical]

The presence of both a Compaq_User folder and Compaq_User.RECEPTION folder are indicative of a corrupt profile. To resolve this issue you would need to create a new user profile and copy all the files over to the new profile except the ntuser.dat, ntuser.dat.log, and the ntuser.ini files as these hold the registry settings for the profile that you do not want to copy over. Follow this Microsoft KB Article for the steps to do this.

- How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

As for the Microsoft Office issue, try the solutions in these two articles to see if they can resolve the issue. The first one just involves changing some security permissions on the Opa11.dat file to allow the proper user permissions for Office to use the Setup files for installation. This does not require you to have the installation media to resolve the issue. If that does not work try the second article, which does require the office installation media. You would need to uninstall Office and then remove all traces of Office from the registry and the 'Program Files' location. You would then need to reinstall Office.

- You receive a "Microsoft <Program_name> has not been installed for the current user" error message when you try to start an Office 2003 program or an Office XP program for the first time

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/898512

- "Microsoft Word has not been installed for the current user" error message in Word 2002

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322206

Joey
CCNA, MCSA 2003, MCP, A+, Network+, Wireless#

 

[d0nny]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try when I'm next in front of the machine.

One issue I might have is that although I have a copy of the MS Office media, I don't have a spare license and my friend doesn't have a copy of his own license key. Is there anyway of extracting the existing key from his current setup and then reusing that when I do the reinstall?

I used a free key extration tool (Jelly Bean Keyfinder) but this didn't extract the MS Office key as I suspect it only looks in the current profile and obviously Windows doesn't think it exists, certainly not in the profile I'm using.
It must be in the registry somewhere?

 

[linney]

See if Belarc Advisor can help you.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html