Vista doesn't recognize my user files or settings!!

M

mattwilliams85

New Member
Ok so I turned on my computer this morning, put in my password in the log-in screen as usual...
Then when windows started I noticed that my wallpaper was the original vista wallpaper, all my sidebar gadgets were just the starting ones, and that about half my desktop shortcuts were missing.
On top of that, all my documents, pictures, music, and even my bookmarks on mozilla firefox were gone!!
But oddly enough when I go into C:/users/Matt everything is where it should be. But if i use the links from the start bar, it takes me to Users/Temp folder.

What is going on??


P.S. I don't have system restore on sorry!
 

My Computer

System One

does it say that you are being logged on using a temporary profile? I have had this on a Vista Ultimate computer and I believe I had to change a registry setting. Let me know if it is giving you the "temporary profile" message and I will try to refresh my memory. If I recall, in my situation, there was quite a bit of info in the error log about not being able to load my profile, and loading a default one instead. On the start menu, right click "Computer", left click manage. After the UAC prompt, computer manager will come up. if you click "Event Viewer" on the left, it will display recent errors, including logon errors.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Core 2 Duo E8400
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus
    Memory
    2GB Kingston HyperX DDR800
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS Silent EN8800GT (Nvidia)
    Hard Drives
    2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750GB SATA2 1x Maxtor 160GB SATA
I didn't see anything in the error log that looked like a log-in error. But it totally seems like windows has me in some temporary account. especially since my other users come to this same temp account too when i log-in as them (even though it uses the account name). any idea of what i should do?
 

My Computer

System One

How many times have you rebooted since this happened?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System) Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree) 2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
is this a personal computer, or on a business network with a domain? In my experience, when the profile wasn't loaded correctly, I ALWAYS got the message that it was loading a temporary profile, but apparently that prompt does not always happen. I know that now the problem has been long resolved, but I found a couple links that looked familiar.
A temporary profile is loaded after you log on to a Windows Vista-based system
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/135858-user-profile-error-logged-temporary-profile.html
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Core 2 Duo E8400
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus
    Memory
    2GB Kingston HyperX DDR800
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS Silent EN8800GT (Nvidia)
    Hard Drives
    2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750GB SATA2 1x Maxtor 160GB SATA
I'd still like to know how many boot iterations this machine has gone through since the problem first occurred....

my thoughts are this - it could be a temporary thing, especially if you have not rebooted the machine at all - and thus, since you said your files are there (well, your user folder anyway) then perhaps a reboot may allow the computer to sort out what it could not figure out before and you'll be golden....

or it could be a minor registry / profile issue, a major profile issue, or even Malware....but we gotta start somewhere.

if you have tried to reboot the machine several times and this keeps happening, then look at those links that bad posted....
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System) Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree) 2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
Well, oddly enough turning on and off my computer didn't fix the problem, but just restarting it did...

Thanks for all the help guys, if it stays fixed for the next couple of days I'll mark the topic as solved.
 

My Computer

System One

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