Resolved Cannot eliminate remnants of deleted user

In XP Home you must boot to Safe Mode and log in with an account that has Administrative rights in order to have the Security tab.

 

I wonder how you managed this - I can't! I get no security tab at all.

 

The partition on which I have WinXP Home installed is currently formatted as FAT 32. Does this mean that to be able to delete these duplicated folders I'm first going to have to change the format to NTFS? If I didn't want to do that, is the only other way I'd get rid of them to format that partition and reinstall ?

And may I repeat one question:- if I do change the format to NTFS, would it then be a simple matter of deleting the duplicated partitions and all will go back to the way it was before, or are there precautions I need to take (bearing in mind tquinn's problems)?

 

tquinn:

Simple way to see what userfolder a user is useing is to just logon as the user, then go to start-run and type %userprofile%
And looks like you should use microsofts user manegment instead
You can open it from start-run, and type: lusrmgr.msc

When you got user manegment open, open the properties for Allen Admin, and look at the profile tab.
Does it point to the allen admin 2 folder?

 

Yes but...just supposing I didn't want (for some mad reason) to convert the partition to NTFS. Would my only other course then be to format and reinstall?

 

It would appear that you are running a parallel installation of Windows named Windows.0. If that be true, you should be able to delete any files the old plain named "Windows" put there when it was in charge. Taking ownership will not be an issue with a FAT32 system. The only issue will be if the system is using the file you are trying to delete.

Find out where your current profile is located by typing %USERPROFILE% in the Run window and pressing enter. Let's see where that goes first before assuming any further.

It is important that you verify that you are indeed booting to the Windows.0 folder before dumping any files. You may be picking the wrong ones and trying to dump the active set!

There is the possibility that you want to transfer the Windows set to the Windows.0 location before deleting the remaining folders. You need to check that possibility before dumping anything.

I strongly suggest initially renaming rather than deleting so that you can recover if needed. If all goes well, you can delete them later.

Since you are running a FAT32 file storage system, you can always reverse any major mis-steps using a dos boot disk with the standard tools installed. If you need one of those, check with bootdisk.com.

You can also do the renaming and deletion from the dos boot, if need be. Again I caution, rename and test before deleting!

 

Hi surferdude2

I had in fact already done this, and established that it was the 'Windows.0' folder that I was booting into.

So I first labelled all the original versions of these folders as "Orig_ ", then began deleting them starting with Orig_Windows. I first compared the various versions of the Docs and Settings folders to make sure that the ones I was keeping would contain everything up to and including the present. Now my prof.txt log looks like this:-

DefaultUserProfile REG_SZ Default User.WINDOWS.0
AllUsersProfile REG_SZ All Users.WINDOWS.0
ProfileImagePath REG_EXPAND_SZ %systemroot%\system32\config\systemprofile
ProfileImagePath REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY
ProfileImagePath REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY
ProfileImagePath REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\Robert.ENLIGHT
ProfileImagePath REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\Administrator.ENLIGHT
SystemRoot REG_SZ C:\WINDOWS.0

As you'll notice, Windows has used 3 suffixes to differentiate between the earlier and the latest versions of the various folders - "0 ", "NT Authority" and "Enlight" (my computer's name). I'd really like to get rid of all of these but I'm nervous. My boot.ini file also refers to "Windows.0 ", so I'd have to edit that too.

Any advice?

 

It's pretty tough to see from here so there will be an element of risk involved. As far as I can tell from what you have posted, you should be able to delete any of the profile information that is related to the old Windows installation. You are obviously booting and using the new installation located in the Windows.0 folder.

After you get this profile mixup straightened out, you can also delete the old Windows folder.

To clarify things, do this; close any open windows and get to a normal Desktop. Click Start > Run > type cmd press enter.

The command line should say C:\Documents and settings\<yourProfileName>.

Type cd.. and press enter(the periods included,no spaces).

The command line should now say C:\Documents and Settings.

Type CLS and press enter. The screen should clear of the old commands.

Type dir and press enter.

The screen should show all valid profiles that are available.

Right-click that dos window and select "Mark." Then go to beginning of the first text displayed and press and hold the left mouse button and drag down to highlight all of the displayed text. Then release the left button and press enter and it will copy the selection to your clipboard.

Paste the results back here in your next post. That will decrease the amount of risk involved so we won't be shooting in the dark.

As an example, when I follow those directions I get this:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>cd..

C:\Documents and Settings>dir
Volume in drive C is 80 gig
Volume Serial Number is 302F-4852

Directory of C:\Documents and Settings

06/20/2007 08:51 AM <DIR> .
06/20/2007 08:51 AM <DIR> ..
01/10/2007 03:04 PM <DIR> All Users
06/17/2007 10:15 AM <DIR> Owner
0 File(s) 0 bytes
4 Dir(s) 73,295,941,632 bytes free

C:\Documents and Settings>

When you do decide to delete something, as I cautioned before, rename it and test for effect first. Then if it doesn't appear to be needed, send it to the Recycle Bin and leave it there until you are fully satisfied that it's useless.

 

An alternative to surferdude2's instructions for a directory listing from the command window, you could use the method from post #10 of this topic
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showpost.php?p=348938&postcount=10

 

Thanks Dave, That works for me although I get more than I want:

All Users
Default User
LocalService
NetworkService
Owner

I hate telling someone to delete something that I can't be certain about. That's why I wanted to see what he was seeing in Explorer under the Documents and Settings folder. I presume that's where he will be deleting these "orphaned" profiles. If they be true orphans, they'll not be listed in Control Panel > User Accounts so he couldn't be deleting them from there. On the other hand, if they are listed there, they aren't orphans so one must be careful to not delete an active folder and then affirm to also delete the associated files, when asked, lest he dump some valuable "My Documents" files for that account.

Very delicate work and care must be taken. judicious use of renaming and using the Recycle Bin is highly recommended.

 

kosketus, I'm too weary to read back through this from the beginning but it does seem that you may be trying to delete the wrong Administrator account. When Windows got parallel installed into the Windows.0 folder, it would be logical to assume that the new Administrator account would be named Administrator2. Since that's now the active Admin account, you can't delete it. Have you tried deleting the one named simply Administrator? Logically, that's the abandoned one.

I'd think that anything with the 2 tagged on the end will be active for the current system in the Windows.0 folder.

Could it be that simple? If you try to delete it and it allows you, I think that will speak volumes.

 

The following should be kosketus' current in-use set of directories.

Default User.WINDOWS.0
All Users.WINDOWS.0
LocalService.NT AUTHORITY
NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY
Robert.ENLIGHT
Administrator.ENLIGHT

 

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread "

Hi angels,

This fool had already rushed in (Actually, I reported this but you probably couldn't credit that anyone could be so rash and assumed I meant something else).

I went straight ahead and deleted first of all the original Windows folder, then restarted the computer to see what would happen. It re-booted without a glitch. Since then I've deleted all the other "Orig_" folders.

Where I'm at now is that I only have left the folders I need/use. My only (small) annoyance is that they all have these suffixes that Windows attached to them which are now totally redundant. It's only the suffixes I'd now like to get rid of - I don't plan to delete any more folders. But I'm hesitating in case re-titling them upsets the whole applecart and also because, as I said, I'm guessing that if I did re-title them I'd also need to edit the boot.ini file to remove the '.0' suffix there too?

I have these - and only these - except that:-

1. I don't have a "Default User. Windows.0" folder
2. I have one more folder called "ROBERT~1~ENL" with 2 nested sub-folders (called "LOCALS~1" and "Temp" which are empty)

I could go ahead and post the directory listing but I don't want to burden you with yet more data if it's no longer needed

 

OK, I understand better now. I'm happy to hear that the deletions turned out alright for you. XP is rather protective of the important files and normally won't let you mess up but then I always find other methods.

As for getting rid of those suffixes, I think you will have to learn to like them since they reflect the name of the directory where Windows was installed. It would require changing the name of the Windows.0 directory back to plain Windows. XP won't stand by and let you do that. If you use extreme measures and 3rd party software to rename the directory, your system will not boot. Been there - done that.

Also, you cannot edit the boot.ini to change the name of the Windows directory in the command line therein since it will render you unbootable if the name doesn't match the actual directory where Windows is installed. I've been there - done that also.

All's well that ends well.

Thanks for the exercise and the feedback.