XP - Lost User Profile/"C4Q3S8" File

  • Thread starter Thread starter BrianCon
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BrianCon

Hi,

I seem to be suffering from a lost user profile for my
daughter.

The files are all still on the C drive but now I find
that a folder with "C4Q3S8" after her name has simply
appeared from somewhere. If I try to go to her main file,
i.e. the one with all her own files, etc., it is not
recognised and XP seems to want to have this
rogue "C4Q3S8" as her main one.

What is odd is that exactly the same thing happened to me
a few months ago and I now have to use this "C4Q3S8" file
as my main file.

Has anyone else had this happen and can anyone offer an
explanation or solution as I'm not sure what to do and do
not want to lose all her data.

Thanks
 
Why it happens can be a lot of things. A system crash could cause a user
corrupt a user profile. In the early days of my work with XP, I found that
being too aggressive with file ownership, as in taking ownership of some
files could cause it. ***I had discovered that my backup application was
set to restore NTFS permissions and this meant, after a full format and
reinstall of XP, I no longer had access to my files. Hence, I'd have to
take ownership as outlined in the following Knowledge base article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q308421
Being lazy, I'd sometimes take ownership of the entire drive. After a
period of time, I'd discover my user profile would be corrupt. When I'd
boot and select my user login, I'd get a warning that my user profile was
corrupt and I was being assigned a temporary user. There are basic
permissions on our systems and if we do something that would override those
permissions, the system reaches a point where it can't deal with the
conflict. I should only have taken ownership of my specific data files.:-)
This is just one example and this comes from my own experience as I've not
seen anything documented thus far. Obviously, other things could be the
cause, maybe some malware on the system or something we set up using the
Group Policy Editor in XP Pro (Home Edition doesn't have the GPE) might
cause the problem. The GPE is extremely powerful just as the Registry is
extremely powerful and while they both can do a lot, because of their
enormous power, they can also do a lot of damage if you don't know what you
are doing...they can do a lot of damage if you do know what you are doing
but most power users are so well backed up, realizing the dangers that they
can get up and running again pretty quickly if the botch the setup.

Below is a Knowledge Base Article with instructions for dealing with a
corrupt user profile:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q318011
 
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