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How do I back up my profile?

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by inet32 1 view

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Earlier today after a hanged install of .NET 3.5.1 on XP Pro, I rebooted and it said it couldn't find my profile so it was logging me in under a temporary profile.

ALL my installations and configurations were lost!! I was in a panic and didn't know what to do! It thought I was a new out-of-the-box user!

I power-cycled, re-logged-on and everything was back to normal. (whew!). But for the future - how do I back-up my profile so I can restore it if this happens again? Thanks!

5 replies

by ---tk---

If you profile becomes corrupt its not that big of a deal... Usually no .doc's or programs are really effected... follow this MS link that will give you detail on how to recover a profile http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555473

Its easer than you think.

by inet32

Thanks! I can see how that would recover application settings that are stored in "Documents and Settings" (browser favorites, MRU lists, and all the files and documents in My Documents).

But does it also copy over things like encrypted security certificates, permissions, etc? I have lots of programs that are licensed to my user profile (e.g., Photoshop CS4, subscription media services, etc), and various permissions on files and directories and databases for Microsoft SQL Server, and IIS that took me a long time to tweak and get right. Wouldn't those file permissions all still reflect the old user?

by tmalo627

Files And Settings Transfer wizard is a good way to back that up. The menu prompts are designed with the thought of moving your profile from one computer to another, but this will work for you too.

Start menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

You can back up to an external hard drive or a network drive, even a flash drive depending on the size of your profile and the size of your "My Documents" folder.

by inet32

Thanks! Can I use FAST without backing up all my documents?

I already run a complete nightly backup of everything in My Documents, which includes my actual documents - about 150GB-worth of files. So it's really just the profile I care about - all the app settings, permissions, configurations, and ownership rights associated with my user login.

My two main concerns are security and licensing certificates, and file and folder permissions. After my last install of IIS and MS SQL Server, it took days of tweaking permissions to get everything just right.

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