Vista: Damage at session creation

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Arnaudv6

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[Closed] Vista: Damage at session creation

Ok, first of all, I must confess I didn't try too much to find similar problems on this forum, because I can't remember the exact words Windows gave me...

Then, hello to you, cute reader :
I just wanted to help my sister turning to french language her fresh Vista.
(I'm french, yop !)
The loggin screen didn't called my syster by her name, but with something like "utilisateur" (that means "user"...) It didn't stop me : I logged.
While booting, windows showed a tip asking if I wanted it to test the hardware and tune my parametters... My sister always had answered cancel, or closed the window : I choosed "OK"...
It kept busy a while, and then forced me to reboot : then I anderstood that it was a kind of install finalisation step.

It turned on back, asked my name, a password, and took a long while configuring whatever it wanted...

Then it showed me a new desktop, with the widgets on the right I hadn't before, a new wall paper... waouuu !
But I can't find any of the files my sister had before : has it been removed ?
Does someone have an idea please ?

Arnaudv6
 
I'm sorry for my english, and will precise all that can be in my problem...

and... I'm even a linux adict :approve: I just need an answer to avoid disapoint my lovely sister :slurp:
 
boot into Save Mode and log into the Admin account.

look in \Users

every subdirectory is an account (known as a user profile)

Likely you now have two accounts for her.

You can (as admin) use the Control Panel->User Accounts to change the
passwords, but do not change the Account name; it just complicates things.

If you find two accounts, you can copy all the data from one into the other
and give the new account control -- more on this after your follow-up.
 
Thanks a lot for answering, jobeard, really !
I'm a little careful, and I would like a precision :
I think I remember that Vista likes to defragment automatically weekly :
If I boot the way you indicate me, and if files were deleted, is there a risk of overwriting deleted files by automatic defragmentation ?

How do you start Vista in safe mode please ? (I should look for it, but tell me please : I won't have a second chance if I fail).

Thanks a lot !
Arnaudv6
 
Arnaudv6 said:
I think I remember that Vista likes to defragment automatically weekly :
If I boot the way you indicate me, and if files were deleted, is there a risk of overwriting deleted files by automatic defragmentation ?

How do you start Vista in safe mode please ? (I should look for it, but tell me please : I won't have a second chance if I fail).

Thanks a lot !
Arnaudv6
1-defrag should not be an issue and personally, I would never run auto-defrag --
too much work and far too frequently -- but that's another topic

2- you use Safe Mode to get to the hidden Admin account which can look at or
modify anything on the system. You need to first verify that Sis has more than
one account and that the old data is still present
(notice, I didn't say how to copy, change ownership or anything else just yet,
we both need more information :) )

3- Safe Mode: shutdown the system
restart and as soon as anything shows on the screen, start tapping F8
at one/second. You will get a VGA B/W screen for starting in Safe Mode
Choose it and you will get a prompt for the User/Passwd

investigate the contents of \User :)
 
I agree that defrag is not an issue : having a real filesystem is much better (ext3 :)
But I mean that it would overwrite deleted files :
I booted on a linux-live, searced for the files as you indicated me,
there are about 5 users folders while I ever had 1 session,
and the amount of space used on the drieve is enormous :
17Go, but it's for windows only : I had about 130Go doc...
Thanks for your help !
Vista is bad. Long life to XP, and to free solutions
Arnaudv6
 
The filesystem (NTFS) is not an issue here, but rather your Unix/Linux background
does not extend well into Windows

The issue is User Management. Just as in Linux there are special groups
{wheel, root, bin, ...), windows has special User/Groups too

  1. Administrator / Administrators
  2. LocalService
  3. NetworkSerivce
  4. All Users
  5. Default User
  6. + user/user managed via cp->User Accounts

If sister logs into the system, uses run->cmd, the location of user user profile
will be shown, eg: \Users\sisterslogin

So, how many and which ones OTHER than the list above are located at \Users?
 
Hi Jobeard
I spoke of ext3 because it does'nt need defragmentation to stay efficient.
And if windows defragment, it will move files, so I won't be able to get erased ones back.
Here is an image of what I see : (think of sda1 like c:\ if you're not used to)
Thanks a lot for answering!
Arnaudv6
 
sda1 looks much like a mount point for /dev/sda1

and as you're relating it to c:\, I infer that this is not a native PC setup but some
windows emulation on a Linux.

In any case, Menehould is the only apparent user profile as all the others are
known windows systems id's.

If Menehould is the last created User, then any other is now lost as you originally posted.
 
Ok, so you're used to linux :
I booted under a PartedMagic cd on the notebook....

In any case, Menehould is the only apparent user profile as all the others are known windows systems id's.

Any way, c:\ now counts aroud 17Go and I was looking for 130Go data...
Thank you very much for your help and kindness,
I flag the subject closed,
have a very nice day, jobeard!
Arnaudv6
 
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