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Resolved XP loses all settings will not restore

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by muruga, 2014/10/21.

  1. 2014/10/21
    muruga

    muruga Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I have a good old HP XP box that is networked to by new Win 7 pro. worked great for a long time till one day I could not boot into it. That went on for a week till poof one day it booted BUT
    All my personalized setting GONE
    All quick start icons gone
    1/2 desk top icons also gone but I could search & find them
    and the big thing was all Chrome & Mozilla FF data, bookmarks, passwords all account info GONE GONE - could not even locate folders they are in.
    I tried a system restore to the most recent date given - it started the process but when I got back to the last boot screen after entering password it said "Windows failed to complete restore. "
    So all for naught. None of my other data was lost. Although I had to do some fiddling to get the apps to run. Does not look good
    Advice?
    Thanks:confused:
     
    muruga,
    #1
  2. 2014/10/21
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Hi muruga. Have you opened My Computer and navigated to C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name and checked to see if your desktop icons, favorites and other personalized data is still there?

    Windows XP could have logged you into a temporary profile so make sure you are using your regular user account where your settings are stored.
     
    Evan Omo,
    #2


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  4. 2014/10/21
    muruga

    muruga Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Hi Evan
    I do log in to my normal account - I did not look in that exact place - but I did navigate through both Mozilla & Google to look for all the account data and they are not there at all- but Q remains, why did I lose all my setting, why can't I do a restore, and why are apps not acting right when I start them - They do have the data and will come round after I do a bit of tweaking - but that is not the normal behavior - have not checked all the apps there are quite a good number.
    thanks
     
    muruga,
    #3
  5. 2014/10/21
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    There had to have been something to cause this issue. Windows doesn't just lose its settings for a user profile without warning.

    Check to see if your data isn't hidden by following the instructions from here, Display hidden files and folders.

    You might also try copying the settings from your current user profile into a new profile and seeing if the issue remains, How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile in Windows XP.

    If that doesn't work then the data might be gone. If System Restore isn't working then your only option is to restore the data from a backup which I hope you have available.
     
    Evan Omo,
    #4
  6. 2014/10/22
    muruga

    muruga Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I found some NTuser files on my clone not sure if all are actually there there are only 6 or 7 files not in any folder just by them selves under App data, another weird event is that my Office 2010 disappeared and I was sent back to the old 2007 Office - which again lost all my settings and personalized tool bar. Not looking good. I am frustrated. Glad I have a new Win 7 desktop YAY - I back up everything multiple times.
    thanks
     
    muruga,
    #5
  7. 2014/10/22
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Well how did the migration of the user profiles go? Did you try showing hidden files and folders as well?
     
    Evan Omo,
    #6
  8. 2014/10/22
    muruga

    muruga Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    ahh well not good - here comes the real bizzaro bit -- I could not locate any of the original user files - look in all iterations of the machine my name, admin, all users AND even more bizzaro not in the clone I made long ago BUT there is one more possible place - way way way back when I first set this up I git another external HD that did a full B/U BUT that was so long ago I'm afraid it will be mostly useless. What I did manage to do was import all bookmarks to Chrome, now what I need to do is find the file that has Chrome's cookies - do you know what that is?? also the file containing extensions - is it in User data/default? That is a very big folder and am not sure that just copying it to where it goes will work??? The other bizarre things

    Word reverted to the 2007 version from 2010 and ALL apps lost my pref settings - where is all that data? Is it all kept in a windows folder? I do recall there is a folder that has Word pref settings but can't remember name. Do you know?? Thanks
     
    muruga,
    #7
  9. 2014/10/22
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Its in C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage

    How the heck did this happen? Microsoft Office doesn't just downgrade itself. :confused:

    Try running Recuva and see if your data can be restored.
     
    Evan Omo,
    #8
  10. 2014/10/22
    muruga

    muruga Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Does Recuva restore factory settings or what, do I just put it in Run??? I'm not familiar with this app.
     
    muruga,
    #9
  11. 2014/10/22
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Unzip the contents in the zipped folder and then run the program. In the wizard the pops up decide what kind of files you want the program to search for and then wait and see if it finds anything.
     
    Evan Omo,
    #10
  12. 2014/10/28
    muruga

    muruga Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    solved - thanks
     
    muruga,
    #11
  13. 2014/10/28
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    How did you solve the issue?
     
    Evan Omo,
    #12
  14. 2014/10/28
    muruga

    muruga Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    xp loses settings

    Sort of embarrassing actually - I was booting into the wrong drive - it should have been the admin - but i forgot that when we switched to the network we also switched from the drive with my name to admin as the default. Dumb me. That's what happens when ya get old, ya forget stuff.
    thanks
    all good
     
    muruga,
    #13
  15. 2014/10/28
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Thanks for letting me know. :)
     
    Evan Omo,
    #14

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