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Corrupt local profile in XP

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by georgeperez7

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Greetings-
I'm trying to find out causes that would corrupt an XP local workstation profile in an AD environment?

9 replies

by ni70

PEBCAK=Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard, in otherwords he means it is a problem with the user and not a corrupted profile. I highly doubt that is the problem, as I have a corrupted AD profile. With this corrupted AD profile I can not do several things such as cut/paste, copy/paste, drag and drop just to name a few. I am an IT Specialist and have run into this problem myself. Logic dicates to me that you eliminate what has changed, and of course the only thing that has changed for me was that I use a laptop with a docking station with two hardware profiles. Last week when docked I had no problems, this week I'm in travel status. I applied no new "critical" updates - where I've seen similar symptoms or behavior and by learning the hardway - backed up data/reformatted/reinstalled OS/updates etc. I relized there may have been a recent update that caused the problem and I was able to fix this problem when it arose without having to go through the trouble of reformatting & reinstalling.

I wish I knew what I could do to fix the current problem I am having but, I think reformatting is going to be the only answer. I've tried using system restore without success, tried safe mode, even the local administrator credentials has the problem of cut/paste, copy/paste, drop & drag, etc. So I think my machine is hosed. Haven't had any luck finding solutions googling either. Thats how I came to this thread. Aren't there any tools out there to migrate one profile to an AD profile?

by georgeperez38

Thanks for the definition of PEBCAK. That person must be an MCSA holder or a Linux guru. :-/
Before reformatting try renaming the profile you?re having issues with. Log onto the laptop with the administrator account (hope you created a separate account with admin rights for your use). Open windows explorer, locate "Documents and Settings", and expand it. Now you'll see the profiles created by every person that has logged onto that laptop. Rename the profile your having problems with (I usually add .old at the end of the profile) . Then log onto the laptop, XP will be forced to create a new profile. The corruption we're talking about usually involves the local account only, in about 90% of the cases. If you?re lucky, you'll be in that group. If not, move files and re-image.
Think about using Norton System works 2005 for new rebuilds/images. One major feature changes I've seen is the ability to capture image snap shots of the PC without having to log out of XP. I'm hoping this technology will be incorporated into Ghost 9.
Hope this helps.

by tvermost

This problem shows its self in our "large environment" quite frequently. I can manifest its self in many different forms. Usually the user will lose functionality in one or more of Microsoft Office applications. The quick and easiest fix is to rename the profile with a .old extension and have the user log in and let XP create a new profile. We then copy from the old profile the user's desktop settings, start menu and documents from the old profile. We have not yet found a cause for this, just a work around.

by punkita

Why don't you just reinstall Office and the Office updates? Also, have you used a Spyware program and an antivirus program to clean the pc before having to reformat? I've found that 99% of my users' problems stem from Spyware...

by startouched

I have this problem with one user only (so far). What happens to her is; she becomes unable to print to the one printer we have that prints duplex. Whatever application she is in generates an error msg when she attempts to select "Properties" on the printer. I have restored her 3 times so far, reformatted and re-imaged once. I am thinking that it may be a hardware issue of some kind.

by ni70

It didn't work! My system was totaly hosed. I'm not too sure, but it may have been because I had were several profiles: local profile, old domain profile & new AD domain profile. As I mentioned in my previous post, safe mode and system restore did not work as well as renaming my AD profile. Several of my colleagues have run in to similar situations of users having multiple profiles on the system. I reformated and reinstalled all the apps. I don't have Ghost or any other imaging software. Oh well all in a day's work.

by nu4ever

I have been having a similar problem myself. I have one user who is constantly having problems with one application and it's only her. I have uninstalled the program and reinstalled it and still the same issue. The program we use is Word Perfect 12 along with Worldox. I have called Worldox and they think it might be the profile. I have tried everything that I can think of except recreating the profile. Would any one have any other ideas on what this might be?

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