User Profile Recovery - XP

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Hoping somebody has some magic advice...
sorry about the length of this problem but I think it is relevant to
understanding it..

I had the task of copying a users profile from one laptop to another...
I decided to use XP User Profile copy mechanism on Laptop A, (in system
properties-advanced). I've used it to copy profiles before.. I mapped
the C:\documents and settings folder of Laptop B and started the
process from Laptop A... but I think I may have specified C:\documents
and settings\jbloggs folder of Laptop A instead of Laptop B!!!!
I have no idea how a profile could copy over itself but that is what
happened(?) unfortunately there were no warnings
I now had a fresh new profile called jbloggs on Laptop A (panic)
I closed the laptop lid, it hibernated.. not a problem really since the
hiberfil.sys always exists, on or off

So with advice of others I tried a number of tools to recover the
vanished 4 gig profile..
1st EasyRecovery...EmergencyDiskette
It found the old profile name and the new one, both called:
C:\documents and settings\jbloggs YESSSS!

But I couldn't retrieve the profile as it was a dos boot disk without
usb/network support. And being a laptop no other hard drive to copy
the data to :~( NOOOO!

So restarting the laptop (twice, might have been a bad idea), I tried
EasyRecovery Windows installed to a USB key.. Trying every recovery
type I was unable to find the original profile! ohoh...

I then tried GetDataBack NTFS of USB key.. the same results, the
profile could not be found...

this all took an entire weekend

How can this 4 gig profile dissapear completely when EasyRecovery dos
orginally could see it?

Is there anything else i can(should) try before paying or telling the
user that they have to fork out for a professional recovery?

Appreciate all advice (and I'll deal with the criticisms :D )
 

tazyx

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Jan 3, 2011
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18,510
Hello,

You should try as follows:

Method 1.
Boot the system from a linux free distribution CD (not install, only boot and have some file management tool) and the linux will automatically mount windows partitions with administrative privilages which allow you to save your data on a stick or on an external HDD or D partition.
After that you must navigate on C:\Documents&Settings\UserProfile\ and you will see ALL data from C: drive from corrupted profile.

Method 2.
Find a Hiren Boot CD (with google) and burn that image on a CD. Restart from CD and navigate from tools - File Managers - and you will have unlimited access to disc C and D and can move data from C to D drive. You cannot save data on stick - isn't recognizable like a drive.

Method 3.
Try to find with google again ERD Commander boot CD. After burning the image on a CD, boot from that CD and you will have again access to C and D drives on all files, from which you can save data from C on drive D. You cannot use stick to save data - I don't try that.

Hope you will succeed on this.

Regards.

Tony - tazyx
 
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