0 Recover damaged User Profile (XP)

When you log on to your account, you may receive the following error message :--
"The system has recovered from a serious error. User profile is damaged"

So, to solve this problem we've the following three methods...Apply any of them for fixing this problem !!!

Ist Method ::-

The first thing to try when attempting to recover a damaged user profile is a System Restore operation. As you know, the System Restore utility is designed to allow you to return your computer to the state it was in at an earlier time period. In this case, the goal is to return your system to the state it was in before the user profile was damaged.

Before you attempt this operation, there are two things you need to be aware of. First, if there are multiple user accounts on the system, performing a System Restore operation will return all user profiles to the state they were in at that earlier time. Second, depending on the severity of the damage to the user profile, performing a System Restore operation may not be able to rectify the problem.

FOR THIS ...Boot into windows safe mode.

• To do this shut your computer down and then right when you turn it back on start pressing the F8 key on the top of your keyboard.
• Press it every other second until you get a dos like screen... SAFE MODE.
• Login to the account.
• You’ll find the System Restore utility on the All Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu.
• Once you launch System Restore, you’ll see the Welcome To System Restore page and will simply click Next... (pick a bold highlighted date on the calendar and select next, select next one more time)
• On the Select A Restore Point page, select the last restore point created before the damage to the user profile became apparent, then click Next.
• When you’re prompted to confirm the operation, click Next and the restore operation will begin.

Your computer is now restoring itself to an earlier time. This will hopefully fix your corrupted User profile. I would say it works 90 percent of the time. Once the process is done your computer will automatically reboot.

If the did not work you can follow the below two methods........

IInd Method ::-

• Create a new user account.
• Go to Control Panel.
• Click User Accounts tool.
• Select the Create A New Account link.
• Give the account a name and click Next.

NOTE: Ensure that the account type is Computer Administrator (You can see the option button displayed in the process.)

• Click Create Account button.
• Logoff from the current account, and login with the new account. This will create a user profile for the new account. When the user profile creation procedure is complete log Off from the account without doing any other modifications.

Login to the old account again and perform the following :--

1. Right-click My Computer, and select Properties.
2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Settings button in the User Profiles section.
4. Select the user account that was corrupted.
5. Click the Copy To button.
6. Click Browse button and then browse For Folder dialog box to locate the Documents and Settings folder and select the new account.

A confirmation dialog box should appear that informs you that the original files will be deleted and prompts you to confirm the copy operation. Click Yes.
Once the profile is copied, log off from the system and login again with the new username. All the settings of the old account will be copied.

IIIrd Method ::-

Create a new user profile on computer...with login in safe mode (i suggest)

1. Log on as the Administrator or as a user with administrator credentials.
2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
3. Click User Accounts.
4. Under Pick a task, click Create a new account.
5. Type a name for the user information, and then click Next.
6. Click an account type, and then click Create Account.

Copy files to the new user profile...

1. Log on as a user other than the user whose profile you are copying files to or from.
2. In Windows Explorer, click Tools, click Folder Options, click the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders, click to clear the Hide protected operating system filescheck box, and then click OK.
3. Locate the C:\Documents and Settings\Old_Username folder, where C is the drive on which Windows XP is installed, and Old_Username is the name of the profile you want to copy user data from.
4. Press and hold down the CTRL key while you click each file and subfolder in this folder, except the following files:
   • Ntuser.dat
   • Ntuser.dat.log
   • Ntuser.ini
5. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
6. Locate the C:\Documents and Settings\New_Username folder, where C is the drive on which Windows XP is installed, and New_Username is the name of the user profile that you created in the "Create a New User Profile" section.
7. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
8. Log off the computer, and then log on as the new user.

NOTE : You must import your e-mail messages and addresses to the new user profile before you delete the old profile.

SUGGESTED TECHNIQUE :: -- automatic user profile backup technique

So you won’t ever have to go through all these troubleshooting steps should the user profile ever get corrupted again, you can trick Windows XP into administering the local user profile as if it were a roaming user profile. When you do so, Windows XP will back up your user profile each time you log off.

• To use this trick, you have to log off your new account and log on to the working account.
• Then, access the User Profiles tool from the Advanced tab of the System Properties dialog box.
• Select your user profile, click the Copy To button, and type the name of a folder on another drive in the Copy Profile To text box.

Once you complete that part of the operation, launch the Computer Management console, which you can do by pressing [Windows]-R and typing compmgmt.msc in the Open text box. Then, drill down to System Tools\Local Users and Groups\Users folder. Next, double-click on your account name and select the Profile tab. Then, type the path to the backup in the Profile Path text box, as shown in Figure ...

You can configure Windows XP to automatically back up the local user profile each time you log off.