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#11
Well, I noticed that C:/users needs to be backed up. I have had trouble backing that up as it is read-only. I do recall that when I originally tried to back up that folder, that it did not back up everything. I cannot really use read-only files, and I do not want to mess up the program files or lose the hidden microsoft office 2007 files. Also I noticed that somebody had problems as some data was lost after messing with the registry. I don't want to mess up the registry too much, as I know that there is important data in the registry. There may be registered programs there. Obviously, the temp account is currently named the same as the original user profile, so I don't want to make any mistakes. Do you have any further information?
Fix your temporary profile problem first.
You can back up all your C:\Users\YourUserName folder contents by copying them to an external drive in File explorer but do make sure that you have turned off the display of hidden & system files first [File menu, Options, View tab - Don't show hidden files, Hide protected OS files].
Denis
Why would I want to hide hidden and system files in there? Also, all the files are read-only, and I cannot currently easily back them up. I have noted that at the Microsoft Community Forum and here. I also want to back up other files. I have tried "Take Ownership" and that does not work. Somebody said to go to command prompt at boot using a windows installation boot media. But those instructions say I can only use DVD or USB. I have asked them if I can use an external hard drive, but they will not respond.
How come on this site, when I quote the previous reply, it has several indentions before and after the part that is being quoted? When I do a quick reply, it makes me type within the quote, and I have to cut and paste my quote.... I don't recall that happening on the Windows Vista forums.
@JoshuaM
The reason I mentioned Macrium Reflect, is so you could make a backup, and THEN proceed to attempt to fix the User profile.
And WITH a current backup, even IF you did something wrong during your attempt to fix the User profile, you would HAVE a current backup that you could restore from and then be able to "try again".
In other words, no matter what happened when trying to fix the profile, you could always restore back to your starting point and try again.
Joshua,
If you look at C:\Users\YourUserName with those files hidden and then with those files visible then you'll see a great deal of system-related items in addition to your own files. My suggestion focussed on your own files because they would seem to be the priority.
Read-only makes no difference to your ability to copy your own files.
I am suggesting making a copy of your files not overwriting any other backups that you might already have.
I also agree with Ghot that making a system image would also be a useful precaution. I suggest that copying your own files is a useful step in addition to making a system image.
Then go ahead and use the fix your user profile procedure. Alternatively, just decide to abandon that corrupt profile and use one of your newly-created Admin user accounts instead of it.
Once you have a reliable Admin user account to log into then you can address the other problems such as read-only files. When you do so, I suggest posting some screenshots of File explorer that display that read-only attribute [to avoid any misunderstandings].
Denis
Joshua,
Using Quote always adds a line return at the end i.e. a blank line that you can start typing in.
And you can place the cursor before the square bracket that is at the start of the [quote... to insert text before it. That's how I wrote your name before the quote in this post.
Denis
I think that if they are read-only, it might make it difficult to write to them. I might not be able to edit documents such as resumes, copy song files, photos, etc. it might be why some programs do not work.
I know that when I tried to copy the files before, only certain files that I wanted to copy were able to be copied. I know that when copying to the external hard drives, windows would not copy a lot of files.
Read-only makes no difference to your ability to copy your own files.
If you attempted to copy hidden & system files then I would expect there to be problems with them - but not with your own files. These problems are avoided by not displaying them in File explorer when you do the copying.
Have you sorted out your user account problem yet or are you still stuck at the preparations [backing up]?
Denis
Well, i haven't backed them up today yet. I erased the previous back up, due to some files not backing up. I had wanted t back up other files besides the profile directory, and they wouldn't back up due to being read-only. Also, there is the problem with the office 2007 files being hidden after I had uninstalled and re-installed one of the updates. i have the software installation files in storage. I really find it ironic that the updates hide office 2007 but not office 2000 on other computers. Some people say that Windows was not programmed to sabotage Office, but Office is truly incompatible. However, I know for a fact that both versions still work, but only 2007 is hidden. It looks like the update was programmed to try to make it look like it was uninstalled so people would buy a newer version (and if they could find it, they couldn't use the templates anymore)....