Help: User profiles erased

Hi all

I wondered if you could help with this. First, the system restore wasn't on when this happened, so I can't do that.

I'm on WinXP, recently installed a PCI network card on my other Win98 computer. Connected it to mine with cable and everything was ok. Later I log in to find all my settings and documents are gone (though not program files) and Windows has reset everything.

I look in \Documents and Settings\ and find a folder \TEMP\ which contains all my stuff. So I copy it back to my profile.

I logged in later and not only was my profile gone, but all of them, plus the contents of the TEMP profile.

So I show system and hidden files, folders, and have a good look round to see if I can find anything. No luck. I opened Control Panel>System>Advanced and clicked the User Profiles button. There are details of the users installed.

It had:

Account Unknown Status: Local Size: 868Kb.
\(My Account)\ Status: Backup Size: 8.7Mb
\(My Account)\ Status: Temp Size: 890Kb

I thought the 8Mb one could be mine as I had a lot of stuff. And it was listed as backup. So I clicked it, clicked the button Copy To, and tried to copy it to a folder:

"Failed to set Security on the Destination Profile. Error - The configuration registry database is corrupt. "

I've tried searching both the registry and the HD for "backup" and my account name, with no luck.

Can anyone offer advice other than "should have sys restore fool" or "it's erased, tough luck "? Thanks for reading this long post

 

Nothing? I'd hoped someone here had a clue on solutions... any sort of data recovery tools I can use? Help please?

 

Sounds like viral activity - maybe from the XP box or maybe originally from the 98 box. Do a complete scan of both using the latest virus def files. Post back with results.