Corrupted profile - HELP PLEASE!!!

[ivy]

Hi there

I have a computer with Windows 2000. It was turned on
this morning and the following messages appeared:

"Windows cannot load your profile because it may be
corrupted"

Then it said:

"Logging on with a temporary profile"

The problem here is that when I open Outlook, all the
email messages and contacts are no longer there. I guess
this is to do with the profile not being correct. The
computer was not set up to take a username and password
(i.e. everyone that turned on the computer had access to
the admin profile).

Tried running in safe mode, but the same message
appeared!!!

Could anyone suggest how I can get the profile back / how it can be repaired.

I would be much obliged...

[rswyatt]

I'm not sure how you might repair the profile - however, if you log in as administrator - you should be able to go to C:\Documents and Settings\ and find your profile name... Then you can copy out the information you need (Such as your MS Outlook information and other program specific ino)

delete that profile - then recreate the user...

[sage45]

What were the things that you did yesterday before you shut your system down???

-sage-

[Roy Sinclair]

Don't delete the damaged profile right away -- move it to some other area of your drive for a few weeks until you're sure you've gotten everything you need, then you can go ahead and remove it.

[ivy]

Hi guys

Thank you for you feedback...

OK...

(sage 45) : As I am not the user of the computer, I have very limited information as to what went on prior to shutting down the computer before the corruption occurred. APparently, a fuse blew in the extension lead and so I guess there could have been a power surge (???) and the computer was possibly still on (???) and this is what caused the problem (???) - Lots of guessing here.

(rswyatt) : I have been able to get into the administrator profile under docs and settings where the files there have been backed up..

Problem I have now is the Outlook files.. There were loads of email messages and aontacts in Outlook. I have gone into application data/microsoft/outlook/ and seen the following files:

outlook.pst === The outlook data
outcmd === ????
outlook.srs === ????
outlprnt === ????
views === ????

So the outlook.pst is the data file (holds all contacts and emails as far as I am aware), but what are the other files? Does anyone know?

I guess if I set up a new user profile and put the outlook.pst file into the outlook folder (over-writing the outlook.pst in there) this should retrieve all my email and contact data... I realise that attachments will not be with the emails. Is this correct??

(Roy Sinclair) : Thank you for your tip - I wasn't going to delete anything - I never delete anything - too many bad deletions in the past have made me aware that I keep EVERYTHING!!!!! Thank you!

Thank you once again for all your help...

[Roy Sinclair]

Save the new files in the new profile just in case but you should be able to overwrite those new files with the ones from the older profile and get everything back.

[rswyatt]

Yes - move the outlook.pst and the others to the new profile - then when you load Outlook - import the data from the .pst and all will be well.

Yes - shame on me - I always back up my profiles - but delete them out of the c:\docs and settings (Bad advice I was giving!!) :D

[ivy]

Thank you very much - cheers guys!

Will be finishing it off on Monday now... Will update then!

Have a nice weekend!