Windows XP Home, 2002, SP2
Bottom line is that after booting my laptop into a screen that told me that command.com was corrupt or missing and to put in my Windows disk for repair, I was able to boot normally without putting in a Windows disk to repair command.com. My computer booted up, but when I log in under my name as it used to be, I actually became a new user and access is denied to all of my settings and documents.
It was hard to make sense of this in a short title for this message. After getting the blue screen a few times within a month (not sure why) my laptop blue screened but on reboot it stopped after initial POST/bootup reporting that COMMAND.COM was either corrupt or missing. The screen asked me to put in my original Windows disk and press "R" for repair (but, of course, laptops only come with recovery disks so I would have to buy a new copy of Windows XP Home, but I digress... back to the problem.)
I took my laptop to MicroCenter where they removed the hard drive to make a full backup, then they replaced it. No repair work done. The backup read and write came out fine, no problem. Aftere the hard drive was replaced into the laptop, it booted what appeared to be normally. However, when I logged in under my name, I got a different background wallpaper, some of my programs were not listed in the Start menu, and none of my documents were in My Documents. In Windows Explorer I found that I was logged in as a new user, John.Toshiba User (that I did not create - intentionally,) but "John" my original login was still a folder and access was denied to my original John's documents.
In the Windows login screen there is a John, but no "John.Toshiba User," yet my same password for John is accepted for John.Toshiba User. I ran a Norton scan, Adaware and Spybot scans and they turned up nothing.
What the hell happened? Virus, dying hard drive? I want access to my settings and documents. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
John Friedman
Bottom line is that after booting my laptop into a screen that told me that command.com was corrupt or missing and to put in my Windows disk for repair, I was able to boot normally without putting in a Windows disk to repair command.com. My computer booted up, but when I log in under my name as it used to be, I actually became a new user and access is denied to all of my settings and documents.
It was hard to make sense of this in a short title for this message. After getting the blue screen a few times within a month (not sure why) my laptop blue screened but on reboot it stopped after initial POST/bootup reporting that COMMAND.COM was either corrupt or missing. The screen asked me to put in my original Windows disk and press "R" for repair (but, of course, laptops only come with recovery disks so I would have to buy a new copy of Windows XP Home, but I digress... back to the problem.)
I took my laptop to MicroCenter where they removed the hard drive to make a full backup, then they replaced it. No repair work done. The backup read and write came out fine, no problem. Aftere the hard drive was replaced into the laptop, it booted what appeared to be normally. However, when I logged in under my name, I got a different background wallpaper, some of my programs were not listed in the Start menu, and none of my documents were in My Documents. In Windows Explorer I found that I was logged in as a new user, John.Toshiba User (that I did not create - intentionally,) but "John" my original login was still a folder and access was denied to my original John's documents.
In the Windows login screen there is a John, but no "John.Toshiba User," yet my same password for John is accepted for John.Toshiba User. I ran a Norton scan, Adaware and Spybot scans and they turned up nothing.
What the hell happened? Virus, dying hard drive? I want access to my settings and documents. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
John Friedman
