[hockeydad04]

Greetings- I was referred here by another forum I post on.

I was setting up a new user account and my main admin account seemed to have been assumed by another. I can't get to it other than safe mode. Is there a way to bring it back? System restore doesn't work for some reason even is safemode.

Feel free to ask me any specifics.

THANKS!!!!

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i do not understand what you mean assumed by another?

What version of XP, home or retail

[gerryf]

i do not understand what you mean assumed by another?

What version of XP, home or retail

[hockeydad04]

i do not understand what you mean assumed by another?

What version of XP, home or retail

thanks.

I have XP Pro 2002 SP2

It seems that my original user account was deleted from anything other than safe mode. The new account I set up took all of the properties of the original ie. all files have the new account name as owner, even the owner of Outlook changed. I had to really tramp through the hard drive to get the files since they were no longer associated with anything familiar. Is there a way to get the original user info out of safe mode and remove the unwanted accounts? Sorry if I am confusing this. I think it was just a case of me not choosing a correct action and making a totally new administrator account that passworded everything.

[gerryf]

I am still not getting you

open MY COMPUTER and navigate to

c:\windows\documents and settings


what do you see in there?

[hockeydad04]

I am still not getting you

open MY COMPUTER and navigate to

c:\windows\documents and settings


what do you see in there?

5 folders- Administrator, Guest, All Users, the folder for the account I was trying to add, and default user. My original user account is not listed there.

[gerryf]

ok, but you say you can get to the old account in safe mode????

[hockeydad04]

ok, but you say you can get to the old account in safe mode????

yup. I was able to export my important Outlook info by saving to the hard drive then importing. I figured that there has to be a way to "revive" the old account from safe mode- I'm usually wrong though It was quite a hassle.

[gerryf]

but how can you get to the old account if the folder that holds it is not there?

[hockeydad04]

The old account is only available in safe mode. That one and the main administrator account that I use now.
I copied/saved to the Hard Disk under the administrator files from safe mode then restarted and opened those files to transfer the info. There is no sign of that account anywhere other than safe mode. That's what has me baffled.

[gerryf]

I must just be dumb...I am having a horrible time visualizing your issue


The folders within c:\documents and settings

should correspond to a profile



ADMINISTRATOR, is of course the built in administrator account



All USERS is used by all users on a PC as the name implies (want a shortcut for everyone, drop it in the



ALL USERS desktop folder)



DEFAULT USER is the template for new users when they are created

{user profile name} are the individual profles of each user added



GUEST is the guest account, of course. Many people disable the guest account and do not have that folder

You say you can access the old account, but what exactly are you accessing? What folder group did you drag files out of?



When you say MAIN ADMIN account, what are you referring to?



Let's back up for a second.



Unless you elect to show the administrator account on the User Account selection window, it will not show except in safe mode. Is that what you mean? It should never have shown, unless you edited the registry to allow it. And it would only disappear if you re-edited the registry, or experienced a registry corruption



To show the admin account on the welcome screen, download the following, extract, double click, and say yes to merging with the registry

Attached Files

•  showadmin.zip   437bytes   94 downloads

[hockeydad04]

that worked, now the users displayed are the now one and the old one that I thought was lost.

As for maintenance- can I remove the one I don't want with out problems? Or should I keep it and disable it to avoid further confusion and pestering by me.

gerryf ROCKS

[gerryf]

Ahh good, sometimes I am just thick when it comes to getting what people are asking. Sorry

Yes, you can remove it

Use USERS in control panel

[hockeydad04]

all is right with the laptop now. I'm a bit timid about removing the now unwanted account. I'll think on it.

[hockeydad04]

I attempted to delete the unwanted account but the option to delete is not there. I went through the control panel to users. I can change the attributes etc but no option to delete.

[gerryf]

When you click the account, there is no DELETE function? (you have to be in a different account, go to users, double click the icon for the account you wish to delete and the last entry should be delete)