[bobkw]

Hi,
I did a clean install of win 7 ultimate over an xp pro system. Loaded all my programs (25 plus) and my docs folder. Everything was working fine for 2 weeks then when I booted the computer I got the preparing your desktop message. my desk top was totally different and my library files were all missing. The login screen was the same. I looked everywhere for my files but no luck. Disk space has increased by 25gigs. All desktop shortcuts are gone except for office 2000. All my programs are still intact. since this happened I have reloaded my settings and files only for the same thing to happen. It seems to happen at about 4 day intervals.
Any help would be appreciated.
bob

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After you install Windows, are you setting up your security? Windows comes with an able firewall, but you still need to download and install a good anti-malware solution, like Avast, Avira or MSE. Are you doing that?

[Digerati]

After you install Windows, are you setting up your security? Windows comes with an able firewall, but you still need to download and install a good anti-malware solution, like Avast, Avira or MSE. Are you doing that?

[bobkw]

Yes I did that right after install. Avast, Super antispyware, spyblaster. Spybot. I ran all of the above including House call online. Just found some tracking cookies.

[Digerati]

Just found some tracking cookies.

Yeah that's normal and most of those are good.

This is an odd one. If me, I would check the integrity of my HDs by running chkdsk /r on them, or by running the diagnostics from the drive's maker. (Hard Drive Diagnostics - listed by maker)

And just to eliminate the possibility, I would swap in a spare, but known good power supply too.

[bobkw]

Did a chkdsk and that did not help. This is a compaq notebook.

[Digerati]

This is a compaq notebook

So swapping in a known good PSU is out.

Fishing, you can test RAM using one of the following programs. Both require you to create and boot to a bootable floppy disk or CD to run the diagnostics. Allow the diagnostics to run for several passes or even overnight. You should have no reported errors.

Windows Memory Diagnostic - see the easy to follow instructions under Quick Start Information,
or
MemTest86+ (for more advanced users) - an excellent how-to guide is available here,
or
Windows 7 users can use the built in Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool.

Alternatively, you could install a single RAM module and try running with that to see if it fails. Repeat process with remaining modules, hopefully identifying the bad stick through a process of elimination.

[bobkw]

thanks, will do

[bobkw]

Memory test passed ok.
please take a look at my c:/users
b
b.dell
b.dell.000


I started out with b user account then after the first crash b.dell was created. Then after the second crash b.dell.000 was created. b account has no folders in it. b.dell has a document folder in it that is empty and b.dell.ooo has all the normal folders in it.

[Digerati]

Well now that's not hardware so I don't know what is happening there. Certainly sudden crashes can corrupt critical files and that may have happened. Did your RAM pass?

Did you ensure your hardware was ready before installing Win7? Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor