Re: Where's the saved files from deleted users

Bill <Bill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on Tue, 12 Aug 2008:

N,

Thanks for your attention. P accused me of shouting at him and I guess
that's true. But when you tell someone something four times that he seems to
ignore, one has to do something to get his attention. If it were a phone
conversation it would be different, but when several hours pass between
communications, miscommunication is a time waster. I am normally pretty mild
mannered.


Hi Bill,

You're welcome. Don't worry about the shouting -- I understand (and I'm
sure Pegasus does too) how frustrating it can be if you're trying to
explain a problem and feel someone has not paid attention to what you've
said. Pegasus is one of the good guys though :-) and as he said, reads a
lot of posts and helps a lot of people; it can be difficult to keep all
the details of a long thread on a particular problem fresh in your mind.
Not to worry -- let's start again.


To answer your question, I think I deleted all users but mine, Bill Hepburn
and renamed it Board.

I intentionally did not set up a password and I think I can currently log on
with the user name Board or Bill Hepburn. The computer in question is off
site from here and I can't verify what I'm now saying but am pretty sure. I
also think I logged in both ways in an attempt to find the folder/file to no
avail. I know I did not try logging in as Administrator - can I do that?

If you renamed the account to Board, that wouldn't have renamed the user
profile folder; that would still be Bill Hepburn. That does seem to be
the case, going by the output of the commands Pegasus had you run.
However, if this is *your* user profile, it's very odd you can't see the
folder under Docs and Settings and if the account is now called Board
you shouldn't still be able to log on using the Bill Hepburn name (which
you were using, as the command line showed).

What I'm wondering is if somehow the changes you made have left the
remaining user account without access rights to the folder, hence you
can't see it even though we know it exists.

Does the Board account have admin privileges? A quick way to tell, if
you're not sure, is to right-click the Start button and see if you have
Open All Users on the menu.

A couple of easy things to try:

1) Click on Start | Run and type in:

%userprofile% <Enter>

Where does that take you?


2) Open the problem file one of the ways you have been doing, via Access
recent files, then Save As to the folder C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Desktop (*not* anywhere under Bill Hepburn!) Does the doc show up
on the desktop now?

If neither of these work, I'd definitely try logging in with the default
Administrator account and see if the folder is then visible. I'm not
sure if you have XP Pro or Home; if Pro, at the Welcome screen, press
Ctrl-Alt-Del twice in quick succession and you should see a login box
pop up. Unless you renamed the built-in admin account, type in
Administrator for the user name. The password by default is blank. If
you have Home, you'll need to boot to Safe Mode, when you should see the
Administrator account as an option at the Welcome screen.

If you can then see the folder and file, try opening it. If you get an
"Access Denied" message, you might need to seize ownership of the
folder: see this link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421


A power user friend told me that windows file system can get confused and
not reflect what is actually on the hard drive. What about my idea of using a
Move cmd in Dos?


It's possible that profiles can get cross-linked and other odd things
happen :-) You could try to move or copy the file, but wasn't one of the
problems that when you tried before, you still couldn't see it in the
new location?

It does seem there's something odd going on with this user
account/profile, more than just the problem of seeing this file; the
fact that the folder under Docs and Settings isn't visible, for example.
You could well have more problems with it in the future. If you don't
mind my making a suggestion, I think, if it were me, that if/when I got
the file safely saved, I'd create a fresh account, copy your profile to
it and then delete the problematic one. Here's a link for the procedure:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151


Just out of curiosity, why have you been following this thread with
interest? Have you had the same problem or are you a bored computer detective
seeking mysteries :)

Hehe, well, I'm certainly not bored, but the second idea is closer to
the mark :-) I read and learn something new here every day and hopefully
can help out now and again.

Take care,
--
Nightowl
.