Erratic boot with XP Home

Occasionally, my computer does not go through its standard boot cycle. Sometimes it is quick, sometimes painfully slow; programs started on boot up arrive in different order; sometimes I get a message that my profile is corrupted and then I get the windows cow-pasture wallpaper and little else (a re-boot usually solves this).

I am working from MS Support Article 811151 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151) to set up a new, clean profile. Besides my original login I now have two more Administrator logins (new_login and Temp). The idea is to login as Temp, copy the files from original_login to new_login, eliminate original_login and Temp. I get as far as "Copy files to new user profile" (3). On attempting to access c:\Documents and Settings\original_login I am greeted with an error dialog:

C:]Documents and Settings\original_login is not accessible.
Access denied.

original_login was password protected but is not now.

Can someone tell me what to do now? (I am bald so instructions to tear my hair out won't help. ) Thanks

 

Sounds like an over full Startup list?
What all is starting when you boot your machine?
How much memory is available?

 

Thanks, Evan. I did that. After that SNAFU!

After taking ownership, and still in safe mode, I continued with the instructions in MS811151. The copying was a complete disaster. I would get a message:
"Cannot copy Icon COBO893D: Access denied
Make sure the disk is not full or write protected and that the file is not currently in use.

After going round in circles for a while I gave up and restored ownership of C:\Documents and Settings\Old_Username to the Administrators group from whence it came. Rebooted in normal mode.

Got message:
Windows cannot load the users' profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system. I noted that it still used my personal cursor (big and red so my squinty eyes can find it).
Start->Programs->(Empty)

No wallpaper, No icons (not even the recycle bin), and the message that
C:\Documents and Settings\old_username\Desktop is not accessible.
Access is denied.

Changed the login to the Temp user ID, got the MS Cow-pasture, ran System Restore to a point set yesterday. Reboot as old-username, all looks okay except no wallpaper. Outlook will not open - message:

Cannot open your default email folders.
File Access is denied.
You do not have the permission required to access the file C:\Documents and Settings\old-username\Apoplication Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.pst

I note also that my IE Favourites file is empty.

How do I get back to how things were before I tried to fix things?

 

I reverted to the previous day's Restore Point then I went back to safe mode and took possession of c:\documents and settings\old_username under old_username.

All is back to normal and boot-up is behaving itself for the moment.

Could it be that the original problem was caused because of confusion accessing the profile which was corrected by possession being vested directly in the login? It was originally vested in the administrators group.