Missing User files upon disabling a user account?

Ok I always had 1 desktop at home that any household member could just walk up to and click on. But my girlfriend needed a less confusing E mail set up. And with outlook express it is impossible to have a separate private e mail accounts within the "same log in ". So I created a separate XP User login for the both of us. So 2 XP user accounts were now in place. "ED" and "SUE ". This only made the email situation even worse because even logged in as "ED" now whenever I went into Outlook Express and used the "Send and Receive command" it would still download BOTH USER mail! Including mail that should have went only to Sue. Now if "Ed" logged off XP and "Sue" logged in and went into Outlook Express and tried to receive her mail, there wasn't any! Because it was already sitting in "ED' OE inbox. (But that is another story ENTIRELY!) Anyway we decided to revert to a single XP login and just respect each others mail. And this is OK except for one BIG Problem. To do this I went in the control panel and only "Disabled" not deleted the "SUE" account. Now here is the shocker. All of the resumes, and .doc files she worked on for weeks were saved in C:\Documents and Settings\Sue and when we went back and tried to retrieve any of them, the folder was gone. So I "ReENABLED" the "SUE" account and did a system restore for the day before the original disabling of that account. Everuthing went OK it restored the "SUE" folder in Documents and Settings and all of its correct subfolders but all of the files were gone! Can anyone tell me why a good restore point did not restore the files inside the subfolders? I also did this 2 more times with even earlier restore points which in fact should have those documents. But they do not get restored even though the account was re enabled prior to the restore. And does XP compress these and hide them in the event of any account disabling or deletion? Why would XP just trash the data? (No there are no back ups on other media. only the restore points) I do still have shortcuts to those documents but when I click on any of them I get the "Flashlight" and a missing shortcut error message. Can anyone teach me about this or point me to some further reading? It seems to be a XP default action and has really blindsided me. I'd never have thought it would delete documents from a login disabling only

 

Seperate E Mail accts in the same log in acct...

First of all Steve. Thank you for reading it. I tend to be long winded, sorry. But as for your 3 suggestions...all of that was done already. Multiple times. we tried everything prior to posting. its just that no one, and I mean "no one" has any answers. It seems OE is lacking in tons of common sense usage. There is always a technical catch that requires a freakin research path on the users part, that if done enough times (LOL) makes you a expert in your own right! Try it. Log in to a single XP computer with only 1 default Administration account set up, then try to have 2 separate E mail accounts. And they must be private and any one must not be able to access the other when send and receive is hit. That is all I/we wanted. OE can't function as such. And I can easily adjust to a new program, but everyone else seems to HATE DOING THAT! With all their hearts. So...?

Thank you again

PS: I really wouldn't know which would be a good E Mail client choice to replace OE. So we exist with pain in the ass "Don't forget to do this and that" each time one of us needs to access any one of our accounts.

 

Hi Egor50,

This may be over-simplifying the situation, but did you do a search for these missing files by file extension? For outlook express files the search would be *.dbx and for word docs it would be *.doc The *. tells windows to search for all of any particular type file during a search.

Also did you following the default path to where outlook express files sit on your hard drive, other than trying to see them through outlook express? either:

C:\Windows\Application Data\Outlook Express\{GUID}
or
C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

A great little program for search that I use other than windows default search is locate32 found here, http://locate32.webhop.org/ , if you decide to install it, after install click on file then update databases so it can index your hard drive. Then put the above mentioned searches in the search box, make sure look in everywhere is listed under the look in box.

If they are indeed lost, how do you know the restore didn't lose them as opposed to the turn user off option you used?

I remember losing my user name folder before too. I think there is a post I did on BBS about it. I did evetually find it AND my files contained therein. I will research my past posts and see if there are any answers there that might help you. Good luck!

Tarheelfan001

 

Hi again Igor50,

I found my post about losing my user folder(s). My problem seems to have been unsimilar to yours as to what caused them to disappear. If you want to read it here is the link for you -

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=61571&highlight=tarheelfan001

Again, good luck on finding your friend's folders. I know it is very disappointing to lose all that hard work.

Tarheelfan001

 

Hi Egor50,

I recall that when deleting a user identity, I am always asked if I want to keep the user files associated with that identity. If you elect to not save them, they are gone forever. It sounds like you may have done that, if so you have little hope of recovering them.

You could try some file recovery software but they are generally limited in their abilities, especially if you have written data to the drive since the files were deleted.

 

I Did the wildcard search...NG!

Sorry for all your efforts but it seems they are lost forever. When you disable an account those fies are by default, deleted. Its a program truth. I guess Microsoft had to think it thru and figured it was a logical need. Disable an account and its gone! Trouble is that was the first time I had to "disable" any E mail account. Thats "Disable" not Delete. Live and learn. Any account files
in the default "documents and settings paths" are treated as such. Although the folders stayed intact? What programmers can really pre guess every scenario? The *.pst turned up nothing and 2 successful restores didn't have any of the files in the folders either. However professional resume services did cost us $275.00 to replace the work. So the frustration is valid. Thanks everyone for your efforts.