Help with User data folder left from previous laptop owner

Caledon Ken said:

Still I'm not sure why this PC cannot be reloaded from a clean install. If Windows 10 is on it, and is activated, I know of no legal reason that it cannot be reloaded. At a minimum reset with keep nothing.

Hi Caledon Ken .... So if this were reset with Keep nothing ..sorry to seem stupid .. could you explain a bit more how that would work ' keep nothing' What do I need .... I have a Msoft Acct .. Where do I get the Win 10 Sware from what about a key ?
ermm my prev laptop was Win 8.1 hmm maybe a PM is the way forward

To build further you said there were no other users folders so I'm not sure how PC was set up without a folder structure for you, the user unless they combined yours with the other person. Me too.. and every other individual that has been involved has said the same thing HOW did they do this ? and I have NO idea

I'm sure Bree or myself wouldn't mind a private message to say what legal reason stops you from resetting or clean installing .[/QUOTE]

- - - Updated - - -

Bree said:

You have a choice, the hard (and risky) way is to follow the tutorial and change the name of the user profile folder for the existing account. The simpler and safer way is to set up a new local account. I don't know how much you'd want to carry over from your old account, but the minimum would be your user files, documents, photos, etc.

Most browsers have ways to export or transfer your bookmarks etc. In Firefox for example you can copy the Firefox profile over to a new account.

Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles | Firefox Help

Hi Bree You guys are AMAZING, Ive never had such a speedy response in a forum ... THANK YOU

' The simpler and safer way is to set up a new local account. ' is looking to be the answer .. but again Im baffled why it wasnt brought up by anyone else ..

So would I need t go folder by folder in order to avoid the other 'username' being copied across

FIrefox hmmm yup I have worked with FF profiles, although Id not thought to check..

So I've just checked my FF profile folder.. and of course it is C:\Users\****\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Asterisk replacing the user name I am trying to get off my system...

I apologise for sounding thick, but if I 'move files across' wont that carry that user name too ?

If nothing is highlighted as a further issue then I will go ahead and do what you said AFTER backing everything up up


Bree I hope you don't mind me asking YOU another question.. you clearly have a lot of expertise ..

Again I cant go into detail but in a nutshell, technicians did a full complete total backup.. I requested to be TOTALLY covered ( due to this long debilatating illness... I did not want to take any chances) So asked for Image Backup, and Files Backup etc and also once everything was sorted to be set up with a regular backup system incl an incremental backup

Unfortunately it went severely wrong, and in reality woefully less than 10% was correctly backed up. the rest was 'missing' GONE!

That is a terrible horror story, you have my deepest sympathy.

I would recommend that for the future you look into using Macrium Reflect Free to back up your system to an external HDD. In fact, I'd make a Macrium image before making any of the changes we've discussed.

The Free version does not have incremental backups (that's a Premium 'paid for' feature) but it does have Differentials. You can set up Free to back up manually whenever you wish, as a Full or Differential image. Or you could schedule automatic backups. My personal choice is to make the image manually at a time of my choosing.

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

Bree, thank you so much for ALL your help .. I am blown away at the Kindness of you guys

I was a member on Win 8/8.1 forum for years ...but replies NEVER came as swiftly as these ones have, especially being a time difference too they usually were days apart ...

Caledon Ken sugg it might be ok to PM him and YOU ..

I had tried to do that by contacting Brink by PM ( I had previously contacted him about my situation, before posting anything here ..

Please can you tell me how I am to send a PM, when I don't appear to be authorised to do so.. and I cannot contact Brink to ask for his help for the same reason.

tamtee said:

Please can you tell me how I am to send a PM, when I don't appear to be authorised to do so.. and I cannot contact Brink to ask for his help for the same reason.

Newly registered members cannot at first send PMs. I'm not sure what the requirements are before you can use PMs, probably number of posts and/or time as a member. @Brink may be able to help now that I've mentioned him to draw you comment to his attention...

Bree said:

That is a terrible horror story, you have my deepest sympathy.

I would recommend that for the future you look into using Macrium Reflect Free to back up your system to an external HDD. In fact, I'd make a Macrium image before making any of the changes we've discussed.

The Free version does not have incremental backups (that's a Premium 'paid for' feature) but it does have Differentials. You can set up Free to back up manually whenever you wish, as a Full or Differential image. Or you could schedule automatic backups. My personal choice is to make the image manually at a time of my choosing.

Sounds like a great idea Bree .. thank you ..I have just taken a look and it looks pretty good.. I'm guessing from your comments that you use the paid version .. and YES I agree re doing the backup image when the user chooser is the way to go .. One of the reasons for getting the company involved was to sort out backup supply ... because in the past we've used diff backup tools, and everything LOOKED to be OK with the image .. but when it came to testing it was NOT OK and did not work .. I got so frustrated with this I gave up on image backup and stayed with complete copy of the personal data copied onto an external drive .. However when illness got worse I wanted a complete backup solution so in the event a Ext HDD failing I had another backup solution .. I HOPE that you can understand me

Bree, I seem to be doing something wrong in my replies as I keep getting an error msg telling me ' The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 3 characters.'

It happened with THIS one too .. so I could not post a quick reply Im trying the advanced option

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

bree said:

newly registered members cannot at first send pms. I'm not sure what the requirements are before you can use pms, probably number of posts and/or time as a member. @brink may be able to help now that i've mentioned him to draw you comment to his attention...

thank you

tamtee;1940111Bree, I seem to be doing something wrong in my replies as I keep getting an error msg telling me[I said:

' The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 3 characters.'[/I]

It happened with THIS one too .. so I could not post a quick reply Im trying the advanced option

You were quoting me, but you wrote your reply inside the quote. The quick reply will not let you post just a quote, so it thought you hadn't written anything.

A quote is everything between the two quote tags: [QUOTE] ...quote goes here....[/QUOTE]

You need to type your reply after the [/QUOTE] tag.

Bree said:

You were quoting me, but you wrote your reply inside the quote. The quick reply will not let you post just a quote, so it thought you hadn't written anything.

A quote is everything between the two quote tags:

You need to type your reply after the

tag.[/QUOTE]

Oops sorry Bree

- - - Updated - - -

tamtee said:

thank you

Bree I'm so sorry I think I might have missed something here... I thought yu were saying you had let Brink know I was trying to get permission to PM You and Ken .. Have I got that wrong?

I'm not sure what is happening next .. amd I supposed to do something.. or just wait ?

Please advise

Many Thanks AGAIN

tamtee said:

Bree I'm so sorry I think I might have missed something here... I thought yu were saying you had let Brink know I was trying to get permission to PM You and Ken .. Have I got that wrong?

By using the @ before a user name that user gets notified that they have been mentioned. So @Brink should be aware of your concerns by now.....