[hadleycat]

I'm going to try very hard to describe my problem without sounding like the computer dummy I am.

I have an emachines, I'm using Windows XP. Yesterday when I turned on my computer it was as if everything had been wiped out. My desktop screen saver was back to the generic emachines picture. "MY PICTURES" folder and all other videos, documents, etc were empty. I had no more saved favorites, my internet provided email was not available and had to be set up as if I had just gotten the computer. I don't know what I'm looking for or what to "fix" so I ran an antivirus and came back with nothing.

But here's the strange part. When I go to "MY computer" and click on the "C drive" all of my stuff is in there under Owner Documents. But there's also Four different Temporary File Folders from each time I reboot my computer. The computer is creating a new temporary folder whenver I shut down and then turn back on the computer.

I'm really confused at what the next step is, I mean, I'm happy that all of my stuff isn't "gone" but if I can't have it stable, what's the point, and I don't want to have to "start over" each time I turn my computer on.

I hope this makes a little sense and someone can help point me in the right direction.

[Advertisements]

Ok, after I rebooted the computer I received an error stating that "windows cannot find the local profile and is creating a temporary profile...etc" I typed that error into google and found a suggestion to "use last known good configuration" I did that and got everything back to normal. My question now is, is that it? Is this a problem that will reoccur and is there something I should do? As far as I could tell that error comes up if there's a corrupted profile. Do I need to create a new one and somehow copy at least my pictures and videos (that's all I really care about keeping) to a new profile and delete the "corrupted" one. How do I see if it is, in fact, corrupted? I know that's a lot of run on questions, hopefully you know what I mean.

Thanks a bunch!

[hadleycat]

Ok, after I rebooted the computer I received an error stating that "windows cannot find the local profile and is creating a temporary profile...etc" I typed that error into google and found a suggestion to "use last known good configuration" I did that and got everything back to normal. My question now is, is that it? Is this a problem that will reoccur and is there something I should do? As far as I could tell that error comes up if there's a corrupted profile. Do I need to create a new one and somehow copy at least my pictures and videos (that's all I really care about keeping) to a new profile and delete the "corrupted" one. How do I see if it is, in fact, corrupted? I know that's a lot of run on questions, hopefully you know what I mean.

Thanks a bunch!