If the computer is only two weeks old and you haven't done a lot of hard-to-recreate modification, then a full reinstall to factory is going to be the best option.
If you made modifications to "Documents and Settings" there is no doubt that you have problems.
Thank you. I'll start tonight.
Ok, I think I dodged a bullet. There was a restore partition on d:\ and with some phone support from HP, I've now restored Windows 7 to its original condition. Thank you for your help!
Now, getting back to my original post, if I have my (admin) account, my wife's (standard) account, and a guest account, what is the best, secure way to set this new pc up so only my wife and I share only the picture folder and our password files? I don't want to screw it up this time.
Thanks!
The easiest way too do this (IMO), is probably to create a separate "shared" folder or area for both of your files
I personally keep these files on a data partition on multiple user access systems, but a folder of the root of c: is just as viable.
If you wish you could create a folder tree containing folders for music, photos, documents etc
In you administrator account right click the created folder and use the security tab on properties to give your user name explicit access (full control), this will prevent the prompts for admin permissions.
At the same time give your wife's user name explicit permissions too (full or limited as you deem fit).
this will then allow the two of you to access the files as required
once this is set-up you can use another function to make access to this area easier.
I will show procedure for the pictures but this applies equally to all user folders, documents, music, downloads etc.
logged in as your wife go to the user pictures folder, right click and choose the location tab. Use the options here to move the location to the folder you have created, accept the option to move files.
repeat this for your own username
what will happen now is any access request for your personal files will actually open the new location, this will apply to ant user.
as the access is given explicitly to the two users the guest or network user will not have access as is the case with pubic folders
Sounds pretty good to me. I'll give it a try tonite. Thank you.
And after you get your system up, running and set up as you want, there's no better step you can take than to create a system image right away. The image can grow pretty large (my system partition images run around 25GB...). You'll need to keep it on a separate partition or an external drive, but when things go south, you can be up and running in minutes. There are a few links in my first post to this thread, but here's a link to a post with several free options:
How to perfectly clone my HD...HELP...
I keep rotating backups, ready to go if there's a problem.
James
Quote