There was 2 user profiles in the box stating - 'Profiles stored on this computer' "Administrator" and "Owner". I seem to be both because I bought this computer new 5 years ago and I have always been the only user. No logging on or any of the other junk with additional users. However, the last few years I havent been able to do things as an administrator would be able to. 'User Accounts' states that I, "Owner", still is the administator account.Heres the problem, as in the title of this post, by accident I tried to 'Copy' the Administrator Profile to my Owner Profile. Bad mistake!!! I copied it to My Documents in Owner and "Owner" is now the only 'Profiles stored on this computer'. All my desktop icons are gone and 'All Programs' from the 'Start Menu' are not showing any of my installed programs. I'm just hoping there is a way to reverse this transfer of profiles. Any suggestions? Or am I just S.O.L? I'm nervous about shutting her down, just in case there is a chance to reverse it. Please ask if you need more info of why I did this change. Thanks...1 person got this answerI do too

I'm not sure why you did what you did, but a System Restore is unlikely to help. You can try one but in all probability you're going to have to start over. I'm afraid you misunderstood what you saw and therefore made a mistake. That's OK; we all make mistakes and this one isn't life-threatening. It will just take some time and patience to fix. :-) If you were experiencing difficulties with permissions it is likely that the computer was/is infected. If you are going to try and use this computer without doing a clean install (and probably a clean install would be the best solution), do not do anything until you retrieve your data per below. Once your data is safe, either scan thoroughly for malware or just do a clean install of Windows.http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_MalwareAgain, don't do the scanning yet if you need to save data. Get the data first.If you had any data you wanted to save in your old profile that didn't make it into your regular backups, stop using the computer right now.You overwrote the files when you copied the "Administrator" profile's My Documents to Owner's My Documents. You will need to run data recovery software on the machine to get any of those files back. If this isn't a concern, don't worry about it. See the end of this post for data recovery information.What happened and what you misinterpreted: Every operating system has a user account which is "god" on the system. In Windows that account is "Administrator". All administrator accounts have equal privileges in Windows XP. The "Owner" account (which was your original working account) was created by the computer mftr. when it came from the factory. After all, the computer mftr. doesn't know who is going to buy this machine so they just make a generic account to start with. You never want to have only one user account on the system because if it becomes corrupted or otherwise damaged you won't be able to get into Windows to effect repairs.So what you *should* have done is leave well enough alone with the user profiles and fix the underlying issues instead. :-) At this point, if you don't need to retrieve data just create a new user account for yourself, and use that one for your daily work, do the scanning to ensure the machine is clean. The Start Menu should be OK but of course you'll need to configure things the way you like, restore your data/bookmarks/email etc. to the new account from your backups. Leave the "Owner" one alone as your emergency backup.IMPORTANT - If you think the drive is physically healthy, it may be possible to retrieve the data by software methods.DO NOTHING FURTHER ON THE DRIVE . The data is still on the hard drive but if you overwrite it by using the computer more, it will be extremely difficult or impossible to recover it. If you use data recovery software, install it on another machine and either use it from that operating system or create a bootable cd/floppy and work with that. If you don't have the skill and/or equipment to do these procedures and the data is crucial, take the machine to a professional computer repair shop that has experience in doing data recovery. This will not be a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place. In-shop data recovery is usually not exactly cheap (for example, my charges are generally $150-350USD), but it normally costs less than sending the drive to a company like Drive Savers . You need to make the determination of the value of your data and decide what to do.R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/Recuva - http://www.piriform.com/recuva Restoration - http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html PCInspector File Recovery - http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm Executive Software “Undelete” - http://www.undelete.com/undelete/undelete.asp GetDataBack - http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htmIf the data is crucial and you don't have the skill to do data recovery yourself and there are no reputable computer professionals who can do it for you where you live, you can send the drive to a professional data recovery company. I useDriveSavers for my clients, but there are others. General prices run from $700-$2,400. I understand that some insurance companies are now covering data recovery costs so check with your insurer. Homeowner's/renter's insurance policies will have the coverage under "Loss of Intellectual Property"; business insurance policies will have the coverage under "Business Interruption".Drive Savers - http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

Of all the posts I've read in these forums, yours has got to be the must 'explainitive' and most useful response i have ever seen. Thank you for the assistance and thanks for not telling me how to get back to 'control panel' like in most posts I read. You know, junk like "Heres how you get to control panel, go to start and left click, then go to..." BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!"So your saying its better to not be the Owner account and create a new User, with Administrator rights? Even on the Start Menu I've always been 'Owner' with a chessboard beside it. I may try a new User Account if you think thats best. I've always guessed that wasn't necessary since I'm a loner on this thing.Restore didn't help, so I did go with saving the data and starting over with a fresh install. I wasn't bugged or had malware, according to any scans I did, but sometimes I think that still doesn't matter to those that have the nature to compromise our machines. Mine has been 'behaving' weird for some time and protection programs always state 'Your system is working properly'. But then again, my machine is a dinosaur in only 5 years. Maybe 'Gremlins in the engine' isn't just a myth?Thanks again... -Frosty

Thank you for the kind words. No, I'm not saying it's better not to be the Owner account. If you started out using the Owner account then just continue with it. As I said, "Owner" comes created for you already because the computer mftr. doesn't know that "FrostyElm" is going to buy this particular machine. So they just make a generic user account to start you off. There is no reason to make a new user account. With XP, you always have the built-in Administrator account to fall back on if Owner becomes corrupted. Please note that this is *not* the case in Vista and the current Microsoft Windows operating system, Windows 7. If you are going to buy a new machine (and I'm sorry to tell you that 5 years old isn't "only" 5 years; that's elderly for a computer) then you will get Windows 7 Home Premium. And then you should set up your users a bit differently. In case I don't "see" you here again, I'll give you that information at the end of this post so you'll have it.I think doing the clean install was the best solution and I'm glad that worked out for you. On a 5-year-old machine I'd recommend keeping your backups current and if major hardware like the motherboard fails, just replace the computer. Otherwise if it still meets your needs (or you're not just jonesing for a new toy!) keep that faithful old computer until it dies.http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Backing_UpUser accounts - Recommended Setup (Vista andWindows 7 ) You absolutely do not want to have only one user account. Like XP and all other modern operating systems, Vista and Windows 7 are multi-user operating systems with built-in system accounts such as Administrator, Default, and Guest. These accounts should be left alone as they are part of the operating system structure.You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative privileges on Vista and Windows 7 because the built-in Administrator account (normally only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in Administrator to rescue things, but it may require more work than you want to do. Best not to get into a bad situation to begin with.The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user*, with the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech" or the like) only there for elevation purposes. Running as a Standard user is best practice for security purposes and will help protect your computer from infection. After you create "CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard. Then log back into your regular account.If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with the icons of user accounts, you can do this:Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by UACUncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if there is no password (null).*It is always safer to run as a Standard user (called "Limited User" in XP Home) but in the Real World it's quite difficult to do in XP because so many older programs don't understand about permissions and won't run well in a Standard user account. So leave your "Owner" account as administrator in XP. When you move up to Windows 7, you won't have to do this and you definitely should have a Standard user account for your daily work.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

I understand what you are telling. I think I will leave well enough alone. My computer is working fine now and dont need to change a thing. Sounds like Windows 7 might be a good deal, when I can afford it. Until then, this dinosaur will roam the earth. Thanks for the insight Malkeleah.

YW. When you're ready to buy a new computer, then yes Windows 7 will be a great choice for you. And the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a really good one. Cheers.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!