System Restore ended with a message saying that it could not complete. Now,
in addition to the usual entries, Documents and Settings has a new one -
Richard.RCR-T4215. My regular account is Richard and the tree of folders
under it is apparently still intact. The new entry contains only the files
and folders that one would see in a newly created account.

At the Welcome screen only one name is displayed - Richard. However when I
enter my password I am taken to the Richard.RCR-T4215 desktop in Documents
and Settings.

The Tablet manufacturer's tech support had me run their Recovery and Utility
CD to recreate Windows XP on the C: drive. Instead their program formatted my
external hard drive instead of the C: drive and wiped out my only Complete
Backup plus numerous other backup files. Somehow all of the System Restore
points have been deleted except for the one that could not complete normally.

I can see all of my data folders and program folders. When I try to execute
a program it thinks I am a new user. None of the settings in my Registry are
available since I am actually logged on to the new (erroneous) account.

If I could trick Windows into letting me get into my own account I think
everything would be back to normal.

I am sending my external hard drive to a lab to see if anything can be
recovered from it.

Anybody have any ideas?
--
Richard R

Richard Rohrdanz wrote:

> The Tablet manufacturer's tech support had me run their Recovery
> and Utility CD to recreate Windows XP on the C: drive. Instead
> their program formatted my external hard drive instead of the C:
> drive and wiped out my only Complete Backup plus numerous other
> backup files. Somehow all of the System Restore points have been
> deleted except for the one that could not complete normally.

A true Disaster, for sure.
Some of the Recovery tools work by wiping the hard-drive and just wipe
*all* drives.
Therefore one always should detach external drives when running
recovery.

> I can see all of my data folders and program folders. When I try to
> execute a program it thinks I am a new user. None of the settings
> in my Registry are available since I am actually logged on to the
> new (erroneous) account.
>
> If I could trick Windows into letting me get into my own account I
> think everything would be back to normal.

I'm not an expert in this field and I have hardly been doing things with
XP for a year or so. And I fear that this might hardly be possible or
rather difficult.
Logging in with the "Administrator" account would at least enable you to
save the data (which in case would be the most important thing to do).

> I am sending my external hard drive to a lab to see if anything can
> be recovered from it.

Good luck. Depending on the way the wiping tool did work there might be
a chance. But it might cost a lot.

As the traffic in here has been rather low during the last months and
your problem is a normal Windows problem which AFAICS has nothing to do
with special issues of a TabletPC and/or is OS specific issues, I would
recommend to ask again in one of the NGs in the
"microsoft.public.windowsxp" hierarchy where you would meet the
specialists.

All the best
Rainald

Richard Rohrdanz wrote:

> I can see all of my data folders and program folders. When I try to
> execute a program it thinks I am a new user. None of the settings
> in my Registry are available since I am actually logged on to the
> new (erroneous) account.
>
> If I could trick Windows into letting me get into my own account I
> think everything would be back to normal.

I thought that it might be possible to find a way.
So I spent a couple of hours with my notebook running under XP (at
present I have Vista on all of my other machines) and I could suggest
the following:

0.) If not yet done, make a *full* backup of your system (just to make
all of the later changes undone).

1.) Get a file-manager application which is a bit more versatile than
the built-in "Windows Explorer" - f.e Total Commander
http://www.ghisler.com/index.htm
and/or collect some Unix-based Utility collection like Knoppix or
"BartPE" (MY favorite):
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

2.) Log in to Windows with the built-in "Administrator" account.

3.) Rename your *old* %users\Richard\ file-hierarchy (f.e to
"Richard001").
This is necessary for protecting your old file-system.
Re-boot.

4.) Logged in as an administrator
a) Delete all of the current "Richardxxxx" accounts.
b) Log out and in as "Administrator"
c) create a *new* account with your old name ("Richard", I assume).
d) Log out and log in with new account "Richard.
Let the system create the basic system of personal files for "Richard".

5.) Re-boot.
Log on with the "Administrator" account.

6.) Copy the whole of the hierarchy of your *old* (renamed in step 2)
file-hierarchy (Richard0001) to the newly created "Richard"-hierarchy.
Overwrite everything.

7.) Thereafter you should be back to your previous situation.

As you did report that the current situation did arise from a
system-restore, it cold be, however, that restoring the old account
might not work.
In this case nothing else would help but a fresh install from scratch
:-( :-(

I'd seriously hope that following the above might a way of fortune.
Pls don't blame Me if not.

Rainald