I think I just made a terrible mistake, but perhaps someone can help me recover? I had been running my computer just as the default 'Administrator' for awhile and finally decided that I would set up an account and rename my computer to something meaningful. I set up a new administrator account, but now all the files, etc that I had been using are gone. Are they really gone, or can I just not see them for some reason? There was no warning about files being deleted, etc, but after the reboot it's as if I just took the machine out of the box. Only the software is still visible, none of the files that I had saved to the hard drive. I am running Windows XP. I tried system restore, but after running it says that nothing has changed since the restore point from several days ago. Can anyone help with this? It seems surprising that all of this info would be automatically deleted, but I sure can't find it.
I have a problem with my windows. The other day, the computer started to demand I chose a specific user-account for the computer. When there was only 1 I could choose (my own), I thought i was stupid and wanted to change it. While screwing around with my user-account, I accidently changed my account from "administrator" to "limited user" and I cant figure out to change it back. I have to log on to an administrator account to do so, but cant log on anyone. I found out, there IS a user-account named "administrator" which funny enough is an administrator, but I cant log on on that account.
I changed my domain to a workgroup and now I cannot log in with the users name and the administrator password has been changed from the default. No one knows what the Admin password could be... Is there any other way to log in?
all of my .exe files have become unexecutable and are now all .lnk ran a virus scan off of the cd and it came up with nothing, read some forums and thought it might be a registry problem so i tried the registry fixes off of dougknox.com...
I installed XP Home clean from scratch; updated to the latest SP and patches, including WMP 11 and IE7. Ever since then the icons of all files on CD/DVD is changed to HTM ones:It does not happen in other folders or flash drives; only CDs/DVDs, any CDs/DVDs. I'm at my wits end as to how to resolve this. Clicking on the files however launches the appropriate application associated with the particular file type.
I want to do some sort of auditing of our network with regards to what files have been deleted / moved / added over a given period.Can I somehow keep a synchronised copy on another server and then once a week run a job to synchronise the two folders (one way synchronisation from Server1 to Server2- not vice versa). I would at the same time like to get a report showing what changed from one week to the other, clear as mud.
I've been working on a Dell computer for several days. Initially the computer had a spyware infection. While cleaning it up I got a message telling me some windows files had been changed and i needed to insert the Windows XP CD to restore them. Soon aftewards I got a message on reboot saying Windows had recovered from a corrupt registry. I was going to do a SFC /scannow, but at some point I was no longer able to reboot. I did a repair install at the 2nd prompt. Later when reinstalling SP2, the installation failed somewhere, and Windows automatically removed a portion of SP2.
This condition was totally unstable. Next, I did a quick reformat and fresh install. Everything seemed better until the old message came back, "Windows recovered from a corrupt registry..." on a reboot after installing SP2 or one of the other critical updates. Soon I was no longer able to log on to Windows at all...no user names appeared in the logon screen...hit CTRL + ALT + DEL twice and the old Windows 2000 sytle logon box appeared, but Windows refused to let me logon under Administrator or the user name set up with blank passwords. I ran the Maxtor iagnostics test from floppy, and it found no problems with the hard drive. I ran Windows Memory Diagnostics all night, but it found no errors. Right now I am doing a complete reformat and reinstall and hoping for the best.
Getting quite desperate for help now as i do not have my XP cd to reinstall and my System Restore doesnt get rid of the .lnk files! Basically i booted my pc this morning and an error message came up for ALL of my programs stating: 'Windows cannot open this file'.To open this file, Windows needs to know which program created it.Windows can go online to look it up automatically, or you can manually select from a list of programs on your computer.What do you want to do? Ive tried start, run, and various prompts suggested on other forums and it gives the same message WHATEVER i type in here! I can still access the net but thats about all.
When I open files and folders I no longer have the tasks and links to perform certain functions displayed to the far left of the file folder. Instead, now I have two panes--a panel which displays all folders, drives, etc. on the left-hand side and the individual files and folders listed on the right-hand side. What happened? I'm using Windows XP SP2.
I'm trying to set up a backup system where I copy changed files to a zip file or directory outside of the regular backup set.In other words,And that would replace anything in D that had been changed in C. Great.But what if I want to save those changed files in C to echanged/%date%? I can't see a way to do this with Robocopy.And in case it isn't obvious, the advantage of using this method is you get redundant backups using much less space. In my experience backups are used more often to recover corrupted files than corrupted harddrives. And the problem with simply mirroring a drive is if the backup runs after the corruption, your backup is now corrupted too. And I know I could keep multiple sets of the whole backup, but that takes mucho space.
I am having 2 problems. My boyfriend changed a few file types and named a program to open them. (One was Sims2 Pack files) now the files don't work. How does one change them back, when one doesn't know what opened them in the first place? Also I have some DOOZIES of virus/and or/spystuff. (One of the things is a red ball with an x in it, that sits in my systray. I found out that it is impossible to clean (ie format) my C: partition.
I was trying to find any Hidden Folders inside the "Desktop" folder, so I went to Properties and clicked on Hidden, thinking that would show hidden files, obviosly I was wrong. I then unchecked it. Both times a small window opened and you could see files being changed i assumed. Then I tried unchecking Read Only. But this time when the small window was up and the files were changing, I got a messege box asking if I wanted to change 3 files. I clicked Yes. I didnt find what I was looking for and rechecked the Read Only box since that was the way I found it. Now I have some problems (Im sure alot of you are shaking your head at me, i dont blame you). When I try to open Mozilla Thunderbird to check out Email, i get an error that says our disk my be full or close to full and that there is a security issue, to conact our IT professional. Now that wasnt word for word, but close. Its the same with a few other Applications. Is there any way to fix this? I am thinking I will need to reinstall XP Home again.
I was hoping someone could help me out with this.I recently changed my account privelieges to be an administrator and after a few hiccups logging in, i finally logged into a new screen and layout but lost all my files - everything from music to Word documents and pictures.
After putting Dell E520 in sleep mode for a day. upon restart logged in and a desktop came up that looked like a default dell set-up some program icons were there but my desktop image was not. No folders. Nothing I had customized for me was there.It was as if all files and folders I created or saved were deleted with no trace left behind.went into BIOS cked around everything looked o.k then shut down and started up same thing again. After doing this twice Started up again and logging in normally Everything came back up all folders and files , my desktop image everything as I had left it 2 days ago , totally strange.
I am trialing drive encryption (TrueCrypt) and have created an encrypted D drive. I set my paging file to exist on the D drive so it is also encrypted and therefore safe and done the same with the temp directories.The problem is the screen goes all funny at boot time (splits into 4 sqiggly screens) and then comes up. It was unable to create the pagefile as there is not yet a d drive.
You have to use truecrypt to make the d drive by putting in the password, which makes sense since that's what keeps the data safe.The temp directories are used after the d drive becomes available but the pagefile.sys is not created or used that I can tell. This is a problem because either it means I have to keep the pagefile on the unencrypted C drive which is a security risk or I have to do without a pagefile entirely.
I need help recovering my user files. My computer was acting very slow. I tried different restore times but was unable to solve the problem. it all started when I installed Nero. When I tried to access my music folder. I then got an error message stating that the folder was not responding. I then had the bright idea to do a PC recovery. bad idea. it deleted all of my user files except for shared files.
on openinig any one of this folders a window appears with this content cant have acces to C:Documents and Settings Mike Local Configuration{one of these folders} acces denied this affects my IE i cant download nothing through IE all my files on that locations i cant set dispaly pictures on WINDOWS LIVE messenger and all thinks that has anything to do with those folders
As the Administrator of an XP Home computer I am not able to view any of the files of one of the User Accounts.I set up 3 Limited Accounts at the same time, when the computer (HPzd7000) was new. When I use Windows Explorer to view files, I can see all of the user files except for folders and files for the account named "Brett", even though the account type is Limited; I get an "Access is denied" message. If I open My Computer, Brett’s files do not even appear in the listing of folders and files; all other user accounts do.
I am trying to locate and transfer pst files from a computer that crashed - - reallly crashed. What I am looking for are the contacts (addresses) and the calander that iI used in Outlook. I can still access a limited amount of data from the old laptop, but can't seem to find the pst files.
Does anyone know how to recover files in widows XP The problem is i installed a new OS but i did'nt format the hard-drive In "Documents and Settings" Folder my files still exist but i cant seem to get access.
I don't wish to waste anyone's time, but I haven't seen the answer I'm looking for. My gilrfriends son messed up her Media Center computer and his father used F10 instead of system restore, but the files are still there. To prevent this from occurring again, my girlfriend asked me to password protect the computer. I set myself up as the adminstrator, since I build computers and have the most knowledge, but have only been using XP for the past 6 months. I've read that the account is now hidden and know how to access it from safe mode. When I set it up, it asked me if I wanted to protect the files and folders, such as My Documents. Stupid me did this. Now even though I have set my girlfriend up with an adminstator account, I can't find a way to share or allow her to access those files, and all her pics are there. I also can't delete the admistrator account I made, even though it says that can be done through her adminstrator account, but there is no option there. I want to do two things. I want to unprotect the files and folders I made private, and I want to delete the adminstrator account I made. F10 restore or system restore won't even do this.
I have two laptop computers. The primary machine is 8 months old and is of fairly advanced spec. It has a DVD/CD R/W but no floppy drive. The secondary machine, which was replaced by the primary some 8 months ago, is of much lesser spec but may have either a CD R/W or a Floppy Disk drive inserted into the media bay, but not both at the same time. Both machines are running Windows XP Professional SP2 with all updates and patches installed.
I changed from a dial-up connection to cable (Road Runner). Since then, my search engines have changed (when I search from the IE address bar, it uses MSN search now), and many pages that load, although faster, have the message "error on page" at the bottom. Outlook Express became my default email with the Road Runner email address, but most of the time it does not respond. Also, several games are slow to respond or do not respond at all (specifically CSI games and Hunting Unlimited). I run adaware and spybot at least once a week if not more, and defrag regularly. Are there extra precautions I should take with a cable connection?
I have a problem with getting some pretty important files off a hard drive. They are pictures, but as soon as I try to open or copy, i get CRC errors, or other data problems. I have ran CHKDSK & f without any luck. Does anybody know of any other software
I having trouble opening data files such as Word or Lotus 123. They eventually do open but it take forever (probably 20 seconds). Sometimes they open fast but most of the times I have this long delay. Also printing files is a another task that takes a long time. It seems that the printer isn't recoginzed for at least 15 seconds. I am running on a local network using a Linksys router and also am sharing the printer through a computer on the network with a computer that is running Windows 98SE.
I would like to transfer the data files off a CD onto my hard drive, then set the program that needs the data files on the CD to read from the files on the hard drive rather than the CD. My CD drive is getting a bit old, but I am unable at the present time to upgrade it.
I just reinstalled windows xp on a computer which was having problems with win xp installation. I do not remember how I reinstalled it but I somehow forgot to save a few data files. I would like to have kept. Does anyone know of any utilities including freeware and non freeware to try to scan the hard disk and recover the files in case they still exist and the problem is that they are just not indexed by the file system?
I am losing only picture and video files my computer. I save a file off the internet it usually lasts a few days on my hard drive and then disappears. I have used windows 98 and currently use 2000 and have the same problem. I have tried an external hard drive and saved the file and then disconnected the USB cable and the same thing happens next time i connect it. I have formatted hard drive a couple of times and problem reoccurred both times.
Some of my files on my D: drive have been compressed by the clean-up wizard. Now, certain programs won't run because their data files are "corrupted". Is there a way to "un"compress the files?
Saw this asked earlier, but apparently unresolved, so I'll ask it again.Dell laptop, Win XP Home, 1.7 GHz CPU,384MB RAM.Running slowly, clogged with junk-ware.Used F.A.S.T. wizard to create a backup on an external drive.Reformatted Hard Disk and re-loaded WINXP Home from the Dell installation CD.Reloaded driver disk, too.FAST will not recognize the data files created previously: says the directory contains no data.Files are there;I transferred them to C: and tried FAST again, with same result.