I'm not aware of a virus that is responsible for corruption of user profiles
but it does happen, usually because of some change a user has made. For
awhile I was experimenting with permissions and I noticed if I went too far
with it, it would corrupt my user profile. That's not because you can't set
permissions but I was doing it at a rather low level which is in Explorer
and file properties when, in fact, it should have been done at a higher
level using the Group Policy Editor.
There are apparently some default settings and you can accidentally set up a
conflict that in essence corrupts the user profile. That's just an example
of something I found and isn't indicative all the others we see. However,
my suspicion is, if we set up a conflict, albeit unwittingly, the system
reads it as a corrupted user profile. It's more difficult to do with XP
Home Edition because Home Edition is hard wired to keep "Simple File
Sharing" turned on. Even though you can get around it, it's more cumbersome
to do.
I'm dubious that this will work but at this point, you have nothing to lose.
You might try a repair install as follows, if that fails you are probably
looking at reformatting and starting over:
NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to start
over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed up,
you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.
Boot from the CD. If your system is set to be able to boot from the CD, it
should detect the disk and give a brief message, during the boot up, if you
wish to boot from the CD press any key.
Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.
Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console.
The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.
