Registry - personal profile not loaded

[Issachar]

Good morning experts. (I'm so hoping! :) )

I have a Toshiba laptop. In August it will be two years old. It came with Windows XP. I regularly update my anti-virus and do scans and spybot checks ...

I turn it on last night, up to which time, I've not had a hint of any problems. I got the regular Windows splash screen and when it got to the "Welcome" screen, it took a little longer than normal ....... and then, argghhhh ... I get a little window up that says something to the effect that it cannot load my personal profile, I click ok and it changed the message to something about the registry file (I know what that is) and that it will continue with some temporary profile. I clicked ok again and it did boot. I have a Seagate, 1TB external. I immediately plugged it in and copied all my photos over to it. Next, I wanted to copy the "My Documents" folder over. IT'S NOT THERE. Well, at least it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer. There are very few icons on the desktop, but some of them are programs I installed, not just what was there when I got it. Also, I copied over my Favorites folder which is very extensive and structured.

I was thinking I needed to reformat the drive and reinstall everything. Two things though .... I need the My Documents folder first AND I don't have the OS disk with this computer. I never got one.

My hope ...... really, really BIG hope, is that someone here will be able to say, "Oh, all you have to do is ....". Isn't there something called a "cabinet" or something like that, that has the equivalent of a OS disk? If so, I have no idea what to do with that.

Thank you, Issachar

[Pacman]

Can you roll the system back at all? Go to System Restore in the Control Panel.

However, even if that does work, i'd recommend a fresh reinstall. The Windows registry isn't terribly stable, and degrades over time as it's used. A fresh reinstall once a year or so is the most effective protective measure against this kind of thing.

You don't need your own disk to reinstall. You can use anybody's disk, just as long as it's the same version of Windows and you have your own valid code (which is often on a sticker on the machine)

[Issachar]

THANKS PACMAN! I'm back to "normal"! (Well, the 'puter is ..... Me? That's another story. :) ) I did a restore from this past Monday.

I just saw the word "registry" in the error message and thought it was the end of the world.

There is a sticker on the bottom of the computer with the product key. :)

So what does this mean? Between Last Monday and last evening (that's when it failed to boot normally), something got corrupted? I did a full, with latest update, av scan and it came up clean. Same with Spybot. :idunno

Issachar

[Pacman]

So what does this mean? Between Last Monday and last evening (that's when it failed to boot normally), something got corrupted?

Yep. Sounds like your registry is in a bad way. Even normal use like installing and uninstalling software tends to degrade your registry over time. Blame Microsoft for this, the whole concept of having a registry in your OS is their "thing". I'm not a fan.

It'll be well worthwhile doing that fresh install as soon as you can get it organized. It's a hassle having to back up all you data and the reinstall all your software once you've got Windows on, but you'll probably be amazed at how much better your machine runs afterwards. It's a good opportunity to have a clear-out of any software you've got installed but don't really need, too.

[Hootmon]

So what does this mean?It means that you should probably start gathering the things you need to do a re-install while the machine is still functioning more or less normally.

Spontaneous Registry corruption is NOT a good thing, and isnt 'normal' even when it is recoverable.

[Hal4511]

Yep a fresh install works wonders, although its hassle I do it every few months and have gotten quite good at it !!!

Just save your important stuff to a CD and get a operation system disk from the manufacturer ...