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Recovering Words Document

Last response: in Windows XP
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Hello,
Recently when booting up my computer, it tells me that I've lost my Windows profile settings. Once logged in, I noticed the files on my desktop is gone. Luckily, I located it in another profile folder and moved it to the current profile desktop folder. Right then, everything works.

However when I reboot, Windows displayed the original profile I had. I logged in and of course the desktop files are gone again because I moved it previously. I try to look for the other profile again and it vanished! Searched the documents under *.docx, ~*.*, *wbk but no luck. Any ideas where it went???


Hello and welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums.

I suggest going to Control Panel>User Accounts and setting up a completely new User Account. Restart and log in to that account them migrate any files you want from the other account from c:\documents and settings\{thatusername}\all relevant folders into the equivalent folders in the new account.

It's a messy copy and paste exercise but only a one-off and you can then delete the old account and click to Delete Files back in User Accounts.


Thanks for your reply Saga Lout. Can you enlighten me how creating a new user account can restore the files I lost previously? Wouldn't copying everything over to the new user account be just the same as what I have right now?

I guess I am trying to find a way to bring back the mystery user account Windows booted me into, so I can access the files I moved from the account I am using now (c:\documents and settings\{thatusername}\desktop). I don't understand how the files can just be deleted without even being moved into the recycling bin....

Things I've tried:
- system search for the files I lost
- ran regedit and verify the user accounts
- system restore
- Recover unsaved files from Words

Best solution

Windows most likely created a temporary profile when it couldn't load the user's primary profile. This temporary profile is deleted on logoff/shutdown/reboot. Any files you moved to that profile are gone.

You've just learned the hard way about the importance of making backups of your important files.
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It's probably worth a shot at recovering those files - if they survived one temporary profile they may stlil be in there somewhere so long as you haven't defragged or written a lot of data to the disk. Try Recuva from http://www.piriform.com or Restoration2514 from whichever site you consider safest.

I still think a completely new account with its own profile is the best way forward but it's more of an experience thing than a sound technical basis. :D 


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