Ok i think i just made a big "Uh Oh" and if anyone helps me i will be forever in your gratitudeit all started when i was trying to replace some .dll file for something i was doing and vista was telling me i didnt have permission to access this file, so i was searching through solutions with no avail, and i found some thing where it gave me a command prompt line to type in...i know it would be a big help if i could remember what this command line was, but i cant for hte life of me...it was something short, two words..i believe each of them were three letters...not words, but two groups of three letters, the first of which started with an S...whether this is helpful or not idk, but i was in command prompt and typed something like c:/windows/system32/ sxx xxx where the x's are letters i cant rememberso, heres where bad things start to happen, it took a while to run, whateer it was i was doing, and i remember it said "Veryfying" with a percent...it probably would have been smart to take notice of what this command was doing or what it was verifying...i just rmember when it finished it said some corrupt data couldnt be fixed or repaired or something and i had to restart, so i did. When i turned on my computer i got to my login screen as i normall do, with my username "Andrew" and typed my password. The first hting i noticed was that the custom login background i normally had had reverted to the default login background [that blue and yellow wavy image that is standard with vista home]. So the second odd thing i notice is that after i type in my password and hit enter it says "Preparing your desktop" which it had never siad before. So i log in, and my comptuer looks like it is right out of hte factory, everythign that was on my desktop was gone, all my quick launch icons, my sidebar, my backgorund, my start up programs, everything is gone. Well i shouldnt say gone, because i soon discovered that all my programs were still installed and ran normally. Heres the catch, i no longer have admin powers. All my media files that used ot be under mymusic and mypictures and myvideos...all my files are gone, i need alot of htose files, especially all my documents for school. But they're not gone, i just cant get to them. Its like, i somehow got booted out of my old administrator user acount named "Andrew" and put in a newly made guest account with the same name "andrew", the same password, but none of the admin powers or access to media. When i tired to access my media files through windows explorer i went into C:/Users/ and was presented with this screen:the first folder you see on top is my old user account in which all my old files are, the one below it im assuming is hte newly created "Andrew" guest account that i am now stuck in. the problem is when i try to open the "Andrew" folder to get to my files this happens:when you click continue it prompts you for an admin password...as happy as i would be to just type my admin password in, it doesnt allow you...which makes total sense right?..it asks for a password and then gives you no place to type itso please, i need someone to help me get my admin powers back and get access to my filesnote: in case you were wondering, i know that my files still exist somewhere deep within my harddrive because the available space on my harddrive hasnt changed at all so nothing has been deletednote2: my computer has only ever had 1 user account, which was my admin account "Andrew" this new account im stuck in was somehow gererated by windows, i dont understand how, but now im stuck

Hi, Does the user you login has administrative permission? Please try using another account (such as administrator)to login to check if the problem still occurs. Also, if possible, please try to restore the system to a previous status. Hope it helps.

Help me! I am locked out too, same symptoms as andrew. My admin user account is hidden????? Supposed to be setting up parental controls and locked myself right out of my computer. I can use it but I can't change, download, anyting.... If you know what I can do regain control of my computer please help. I am not sure of my admin password either and I can't make a password reset disc.....I am so lost and deperate....Been try on my own for days probably making it worse. I give, somebody help! Wendy

I have exactly the same symptoms as Andrew! The only thing is, that i don't know why this happened to me, but I suspect that it was a piece of software called "NewSID" When I tried to log on to the administrator account I was surprised. The account called "Administrator" had become a guest account, too. This is really annoying and I can't seem to fix it, but I'll try System Recovery now...

It actually worked ^^ Just use your Recovery Disk to restore the system and everything should be back to normal

Andrew, you probably created a new SID for your "Andrew" account thereby creating a new profile when you next logged in. You need to set the Andrew account back to the old c:\users\Andrew folder. To do that open regedit and find the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList In there you will see a bunch of keys with SIDs (S-1-5###...). What you are looking for is the value called ProfileImagePath. This is the value that tells Vista which folder your profile is stored in. The current value of that key will probably be C:\Users\Andrew.Andrews_Laptop. Change the value to C:\Users\Andrew Log off and back on. Hopefully that will fix your problem. If not, you will have to go into the security of the Andrew folder and take ownership of it and then give the Andrew account Full Control to it.

hi this is what happen i just bought my computer last monday a desktop with windows vista.i created my user account as administrator and with a password of course.then when my son came home i open my user account and on the add user account he create his own account.but when he was done he logoff my account and he wants to go on his own account but when he tries to log in his password it says login failed.he doesnt know what happen.now when i go online and want to download something or change something his account is always popping out asking me as the owner to enter his password.i lost my account as administrator.we dont know what happen.we dont even know where his file is.and my account is lock too cant do anything.please help me im experiencing what happen to andrew and windey

Could anyone offer further help on this. I have the EXACT problem as Andrew and I tried what darttaggs said, but it didn't work because I can't restore the admin rights. Please help!!

Hello guys,I have the same problem and at the moment I've given up trying to restore the computer back to the original state after screwing with the SID. All I want is just have my personal files back. The BIG PROBLEM is that system restore files are wiped clean and simply says error and the command prompt is just totally useless since I don't have any administrative rights at all. These two methods above have also been tried by using the original windows Vista CD reinstallation approach by means of rebooting the laptop and in safemode. No progress has been made at all. I have also tried the regedit method mentioned in the forum, again, i don't have any administrative rights to change anything.can anyone just tell me how to get my files back?thanks

What I have discovered on my google search for a soloution is that you can use knoppix linux, boot from CD at startup and then you can access your files on the hard drive. I ahve yet to try this out but its my best hope at the mo.Another path that I have yet to try is elevating the account to admin account. On the following forum at the bottom is a link that lead to instructions on editing the registry.http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/120807-newsid-disaster-500-000-involved.htmlThe instructions link is http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Administration/locked_out_of_admin.aspxOption 3 is the one that is suggested for users in our situation. please read carefully. Again I have not yet tried this method.Good Luck

I can confirm that you can access your old account files by using the linux OS. Its simple as there is no installation, as it run straight off CD and RAM. If you have large volumes of data and have a hard drive, you'll need to format it to FAT 32 and then copy your files. It will take a long time but eventually get the file off. Im in the process of getting my files backed up as I type.

I have the exact same problem as all you do :)The problem is i have not got the windows installation CD . So what the ____ am i supposed to do?>WHat is that linux OS thing?