Lost myWin10 User Partition Name

Out of the blue, Windows removed my USER Folder Name from my users table. This has got so complicated. This is typical instalation of WIN10.

I had two folders, one called USER (Really my name. I use USER to keep this conversation generic) and my ADMIN Folder. But now I can only boot to my ADMIN folder. I checked the name structure on the hard disk. It's definitely gone.

I don't have access to anything on this USER folder with Win10 interface, but can see everything on the disk. I still have access to my ADMIN folder. But even this is flaky. Sometimes it boots directly in to ADMIN normally. other times I get a flashing screen, which I can use ctrl-alt-del to get to the ADMIN home page.

But this has some pretty awful shortcomings. My USER folder had access to my password manager and my emails. But I don't have this access to my password manager or my emails in my ADMIN folder. This is a Catch-22 situation:

1) OK. Lets take the mails first. I can't get access to my emails because the account which controls my email provider, Mailbird, I can't login to, because it's controlled by an email which I don't know the password for. After much requesting with no reply, and being desparate, I bought a second account, so I now have 2 accounts with my email privider. And I started to import the message databases into my 2nd account. To my surprise, all gMail accounts imported without any problem. I tried to import the other email accounts but it quite naturally, fails because it wants the password from my first account. Which I don't have because I can't login to the first account (yet).

2) My password manager is also managed by an account which is on my USER Partition. And the password manager, NORD, absolutely refuses to allow me access to my account by diverting the password change request form to a gmail address so that I can login. Which some websites have allowed.

This 1) & 2) really only highlights the difficulties this lost USER folder get's you into. So I started searching the web. On Microsoft's own website they had a possible solution for this, but can't garantee it will work for everybody of course. But search as I can, I cannot find this article again which had about 368 followers it was helping. They actually had a whole string of slightly different solutions until this article which I cannot find in my searched. Maybe given another couple of days of searching, I might find it again. But I didn't fully understand the solution. So I thought I would post in my favorite Win 10 forum for any advice I might get.

Everything seems to be in place on the disk itself. The USER folder is there, and all the subfolders are there also. So I'm actually quite confident If I could add the USER name back to the partition table? I have a good chance of everything being clean again. I suppose it would also be possible to copy everthing in that folder tree under admin, so I could have my work files not showing as protected. It's quite difficult without some access to those workfiles.

OK. I've gone on for too long (I know). Time to stop and give you a chance to reply. like how common is this?

- - - Updated - - -

After looking again at my file structure. I think it's more correct to call USER & ADMIN as folders, not as partitions. I've correct partitions to folders.

You need to clarify some points, such as what you mean by partitions compared to what most people term a partition, your folder structure (normally the USER 'folder' is on the same 'partition' as Windows), although it is possible to re locate the USER folder, is this what you have done?
For reference most people use partition to refer to an area of a hard drive designated to hold a certain folder structure.
Folder is used to refer to the 'subdivisions' within a partition used to hold files according to application (whether user files, program files, operating system files etc).
Can you post a disk management screenshot showing the disks and partitions of your system and screenshots of the folder structures (explorer view) of each relevant partition. Make sure to use a graphics app to mask any user identifiable info.
Once people know how you have setup your system, disks and folders they can relate more to what your issue is and suggest remedies.

Could you possibly post a screenshot something like this please?


I assume you have folders admin and user there.. as you've already mentioned those, no need to hide them of course.

Also like this, to show which user accounts you presently have:


Email accounts are not specifically related to a particular user account.

You should be able to access any email account by any browser on any device so long as you have the appropriate credentials, so I don't understand what you say about needing access to your 'User' account for that, unless you mean you can't remember the password for your email account, and that's something you normally look up when logged in as 'User'. All sounds a bit strange.

You don't need third-party screenshot tools.
Take screenshot - TenForumsTutorials
How to Upload and Post Screenshots and Files - TenForumsTutorials

Please run these commands [separately, they get different data]

Code:

net user

Code:

net user user

[well, the real name instead of user]

Code:

net user administrator

and post the results.
You'll want to post as text so you can change the real name back to user.

Why did you already have the Administrator enabled? Had you been fault-finding?
Have you set a password on the Administrator account?
Have you carried out any other customizations on the Administrator account?

Denis

Quickie screenshot directions.

1. Use the PrtSc key to take a screenshot.
2. Open an image editor like "Paint", and click Paste > Paste.
3. Click on Select > Rectangular Select and drag a box around what you want to show.
4. Click on Crop.
5. Click on File > Save as > PNG picture and save it to somewhere like your desktop.
6. Now, in your Ten Forums post, click on the Insert Image icon.



7. Then click on.. From Computer > Browse (to where you saved the screenshot) > Upload File(s).



8. You will then see something like this. That's your "posted" image.

Thanks, Await response to accounts (my second screenshot).

I'm puzzled as to what you mean by a User partition, though.

As to your password manager, is this purely local, or is it cloud based (capable of being synched across devices?).
I can understand your difficulty in getting access to your email password if it's ony local.

stub said:

I actually never logged into Administrator until now.

The account that has the username Administrator is special. It's a built-in Admin account that has one specific purpose, to self-enable when Windows detects that there are no other working Admin accounts on the computer.
If you have never logged in to the account that has the username Administrator then I think Windows has indeed detected that there are no other working Admin accounts on the computer.
But I really wanted to see those net user results to confirm that.

You could not have deleted your own user account while you were still logged into it. I suspect malware.

You should not expect to get any files back from your old user account. I'm sorry but that's what I think. What backups do you have?

Stop doing anything else and do a 'full' security scan and an 'offline' scan.
Scan Files, Folders, and Drives with Windows Defender - TenForumsTutorials
Windows Defender Offline Scan - TenForumsTutorials

Then use Administrator to create one or two new Admin accounts and start logging into one of them instead.
my ditty - Create two spare local, password-protected Admin accounts [post #2] - TenForums
The more you use the account that has the username Administrator the greater the chances of corruption. The chances might be low but they exist. If one of your replacement Admin accounts got corrupted, you could fall back on the other one to sort things out.
When everything is done, you should disable the account that has the username Administrator once again.
Enable or Disable Built-In Administrator account - TenForumsTutorials


Denis