[Stormkeeper]

I have two user accounts on my laptop, but I can only access one.

Okay, see, a while back (1 week) I had problems getting my laptop to start. After 30 ~ 45 minutes, it finally booted, and when I logged in, I found that all my documents were gone, as well as my desktop. I was pissed, but realised my installed programs were still there, so I was jake. A couple days later I sent it in for repair, and the HP people found nothing wrong.

Yesterday, I was digging around for a file, when I realised that my original documents were still present, as well as my desktop items, but in a different profile. Which is weird, because there is only one account (Stormkeeper) at the log in screen. And when I checked a bit more, this account I've been logging in to for the pass week is marked as TEMP. Which is worrying for me, cause TEMP files get blammed after a while.

Has anyone ever had an issue like this, and if so, any ideas on how to solve it ?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I had this happen once but rebooting actually fixed the problem.  If it stayed that way and you sent it in for repair they may have just created a login named temp.  You can probably just create a new user with admin rights and copy over all your old stuff to the new user.  Just don't delete the stuff until you are sure the new login is working correctly.

[Mongoose]

And use this as a good lesson to always, always keep a back-up of your important files.  You don't want to tempt fate twice.

(Case in point: I somehow managed to ride out several months of my hard drive slowly dying before I got around to backing up everything.  I lucked out, but I'm keeping everything current from now on.)

[FUBAR-BDHR]

You mean like this: 



That's an old picture I've added a few hundred more tapes since then.   

[Fury]

Seems like something is corrupting your user profiles.

Right click on your C: drive icon, select properties and tools. Select check now, check automatically fix file system errors and click start. Click Yes and reboot your system. Repeat the procedure on your remaining hard drive partitions if any. If it was file system corruption that caused profile corruption, it should hopefully be fixed now.

This likely does not fix already corrupted profiles however. So go to Control panel > User Accounts and create new user(s). Then log in with that user and move files from old user(s) to this user's profile. You can manually view other user's files by opening Documents and Settings folder in your C: drive. If you cannot view the files you want, then you need to log in back to the old user and copy these files outside of the user's profile. Create a new folder to the root of your C: drive where to copy the files for example,

When you've moved the files to new profile and you're certain you got all you needed, you're free to delete the old users.

Should this problem occur again and you haven't got a clue what is causing it, it is advisable to reformat your hard drive after backing the important stuff to another drive. If the problem occurs even after this, then it is a buggy (system maintenance?) software you're using or a failing hard drive that is causing it.

[jr2]

I have two user accounts on my laptop, but I can only access one.

Okay, see, a while back (1 week) I had problems getting my laptop to start. After 30 ~ 45 minutes, it finally booted, and when I logged in, I found that all my documents were gone, as well as my desktop. I was pissed, but realised my installed programs were still there, so I was jake. A couple days later I sent it in for repair, and the HP people found nothing wrong.

Yesterday, I was digging around for a file, when I realised that my original documents were still present, as well as my desktop items, but in a different profile. Which is weird, because there is only one account (Stormkeeper) at the log in screen. And when I checked a bit more, this account I've been logging in to for the pass week is marked as TEMP. Which is worrying for me, cause TEMP files get blammed after a while.

Has anyone ever had an issue like this, and if so, any ideas on how to solve it ?

Browse your Documents and Settings folder.  You'll have a folder called <yourname> and a folder called <yourname>.<domainname>, possibly even more.  Your account was re-created under the same name, in a different user path, for some reason.  This has happened three times on our computer at work; it's very irritating.  Go under <yourname>\My Documents and copy to <yourname>.<domainname>

EDIT: Sorry, was busy when I typed that, basically, what Fury said.  Oh, and if you can't access your files, because XP is being retarded about denying access, try using The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows, that works wonders.  =]  (You'll also need your XP disc or access to it's \i386 folder (check your hard disk for an i386 folder, if it's there, it's your XP CD's contents, most likely.  Oh, and a blank CD and CD burner drive, too, unless you install UBCD to your hard disk.))

[Stormkeeper]

Hmm. Kay. Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll try them out once this week is over. This week is assignment submission week for my modules, so I was somewhat panicky at first. Once the week i over, I'll try them out.

Okay. THanks for all the solutions. I created a new account and transferred all the files over, then deleted the other account. Thanks for the assist guys.