I "deleted" my mom's computer

E

eepp

New Member
During the first week in October I was house sitting for my mom. I set up a user account on her Vista laptop so that I could log in and use her printer without having to install the drivers on my machine (XP laptop). Everything was working fine.

Now, a month later, she tells me that she can't log in to her account (the 'Owner' account) and I hear from my brother-in-law that I 'deleted' my mom's computer. See, she can't get to her pix, etc. from my log in, and without the shortcuts she had on her Desktop she's helpless. (Mom, god bless her, is anything but a power user--she thinks MSN.com is her browser & that she is logging on to her home computer when she checks her online email from work.) She does say that everything was OK for awhile, but now her account doesn't work.

Naturally she's panicking, so I brought her computer home to see what I could do. Using my account I logged in verified that her pix & documents are still there. Following tips from the Web I:
1. ...downloaded a program to crack the passwords. It confirmed that she had set no password on her account, but it couldn't get the password on mine.
2. ...disabled & re-enabled the User Account Control. This allows me to log on to her account & delete my account.

-BUT-

Her account doesn't look like it used to:
* Her pix & docs are in c:\Users\Owners\Pictures and c:\Users\Owners\Documents, but they don't show up in the 'Pictures' or 'Documents' folders for her account
* Her wallpaper doesn't come up (picture of her cat)
* Her desktop doesn't come up with those shortcuts she relies on.

Please tell me there's an easy way to bring back her account & save me from being blamed for 'deleting her computer'. The alternative would be to sit down with her and try to rebuild the whole thing, but remember she doesn't know the difference between her computer and the Internet. We got into a shouting match just trying to get her to tell me the name of her bank so I could show her that the Internet is still there & she can still bank online. I know that she's scared of the computer and scared of losing all of her data, and I'm trying to be patient, but when she's this clueless about her computer she won't be much help in setting things back up.

Help me Obi-Wan. I don't want to keep being the bad son that (she thinks) ruined her computer.
 

My Computer

System One

Hello!

Is your mother's account actually called "Owners"? You say that the files are in "C:\Users\Owners\Pictures", however, you have not made it very clear if they are in a folder called Owners, whether Owners is a stand-in for your mother's account name, or if your mother's account is actually called Owners. Are the files in your mother's account folder? I am not asking for the exact name, but it might help to give it a sudo name, any name, such as Kathryn, so we can talk about C:\Users\Kathryn, or C:\Users\Owners.

Thanks!

Richard
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 420
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Stock Dell 0TP406
    Memory
    4 gb (DDR2 800) 400MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 3870 (512 MBytes)
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 x Dell 2007FP and 1 x (old) Sonic flat screen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 and 1280 x 1204
    Hard Drives
    1 x 640Gb (SATA 300) Western Digital: WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0 1 x 1Tb (SATA 600) Western Digital: Caviar Black, SATA 6GB/S, 64Mb cache, 8ms Western Digital: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
    PSU
    Stock PSU - 375W
    Case
    Dell XPS 420
    Cooling
    Stock Fan
    Mouse
    Advent Optical ADE-WG01 (colour change light up)
    Keyboard
    Dell Bluetooth
    Internet Speed
    120 kb/s
    Other Info
    ASUS USB 3.0 5Gbps/SATA 6Gbps - PCI-Express Combo Controller Card (U3S6)
Those are all the literal paths etc., except that I should have said "Owner" singular. Her account is called "Owner", the path to the pix & docs are literally "C:\Users\Owner\Pictures" and "C:\Users\Owner\Documents"

But when I log on to the "Owner" account the relevant files don't show up in the relevant places (e.g. the "Documents" link on the Start menu).

Thanks for checking, I hope this gets us a little closer to a solution.

(I enjoyed a couple trips to the UK--London, Salisbury, N. Ireland, & Mom was in Scotland when I was house sitting.)

eepp
 

My Computer

System One

Right! That is excellent! Thanks for that!

One simple check: Start Menu > RIGHT click on Documents > Properties > Location tab > Make sure it is not set to anything odd. If it is, click Restore Default.

Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 420
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Stock Dell 0TP406
    Memory
    4 gb (DDR2 800) 400MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 3870 (512 MBytes)
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 x Dell 2007FP and 1 x (old) Sonic flat screen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 and 1280 x 1204
    Hard Drives
    1 x 640Gb (SATA 300) Western Digital: WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0 1 x 1Tb (SATA 600) Western Digital: Caviar Black, SATA 6GB/S, 64Mb cache, 8ms Western Digital: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
    PSU
    Stock PSU - 375W
    Case
    Dell XPS 420
    Cooling
    Stock Fan
    Mouse
    Advent Optical ADE-WG01 (colour change light up)
    Keyboard
    Dell Bluetooth
    Internet Speed
    120 kb/s
    Other Info
    ASUS USB 3.0 5Gbps/SATA 6Gbps - PCI-Express Combo Controller Card (U3S6)
Forgot to add, hope you enjoyed the UK! I certainly like it here!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 420
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Stock Dell 0TP406
    Memory
    4 gb (DDR2 800) 400MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 3870 (512 MBytes)
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 x Dell 2007FP and 1 x (old) Sonic flat screen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 and 1280 x 1204
    Hard Drives
    1 x 640Gb (SATA 300) Western Digital: WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0 1 x 1Tb (SATA 600) Western Digital: Caviar Black, SATA 6GB/S, 64Mb cache, 8ms Western Digital: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
    PSU
    Stock PSU - 375W
    Case
    Dell XPS 420
    Cooling
    Stock Fan
    Mouse
    Advent Optical ADE-WG01 (colour change light up)
    Keyboard
    Dell Bluetooth
    Internet Speed
    120 kb/s
    Other Info
    ASUS USB 3.0 5Gbps/SATA 6Gbps - PCI-Express Combo Controller Card (U3S6)
I tried the procedure you recommended in post #4 & sure enough her Documents link was pointing somewhere strange. I was able to redirect it to the correct folder. What I need now is a way to get the Desktop to do the same thing.

I imagine there's a file somewhere that keeps track of what's supposed to appear on her desktop when she logs in, what shows up when I log in, etc.

I'm thinking it might be easier to set up a new account (non-administrator) for her and try to recreate all of her old shortcuts etc. Not that this will be strictly easy--she'll want everything to be as it was before, but since she doesn't understand any of it she won't be able to tell me how to set it up.

Loved the pubs & museums of London, the green Salisbury countryside and Stonehenge. Didn't even mind the weather (there was more rain in Ireland).
 

My Computer

System One

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 420
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Stock Dell 0TP406
    Memory
    4 gb (DDR2 800) 400MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 3870 (512 MBytes)
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 x Dell 2007FP and 1 x (old) Sonic flat screen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 and 1280 x 1204
    Hard Drives
    1 x 640Gb (SATA 300) Western Digital: WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0 1 x 1Tb (SATA 600) Western Digital: Caviar Black, SATA 6GB/S, 64Mb cache, 8ms Western Digital: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
    PSU
    Stock PSU - 375W
    Case
    Dell XPS 420
    Cooling
    Stock Fan
    Mouse
    Advent Optical ADE-WG01 (colour change light up)
    Keyboard
    Dell Bluetooth
    Internet Speed
    120 kb/s
    Other Info
    ASUS USB 3.0 5Gbps/SATA 6Gbps - PCI-Express Combo Controller Card (U3S6)
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