User Account is Missing!!! Help!!!

Hi guys, I'm running Windows 7 on a laptop and I think I have a serious issue.

I was using the computer just fine about 20 minutes ago and I installed iTunes which required me to restart my computer. Once I restarted it, the user account which I was was missing...

I have four accounts normally, I have my regular account, which is a standard user, I have the built in Administrator account, which I don't know the password for because this is a school laptop. And I have MY admin account that I have the password for, obviously, and use this password to make changes and bypass UAC within my standard user account.

When I go to My Computer and look at the Users, I can see my standard account listed, with the MOST of my documents still there, however, when I go to the logon screen, my account isn't there.

On my admin account, I looked at the Manage User Accounts in the Control Panel and my standard account isn't listed. This account that is missing is really important because it has all my school work on it, which I wasn't able to access by going to my Documents on the admin account.

If anyone can help me, I'd really appreciate it, I'm seriously worried that I have lost all my work, thanks guys! :S

Use system restore to go gack to where you were.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

Go back to the point before the installation. You will not lose personal doucments, but everything installed after the system restore date has to be reinsitalled.

Okay it's restoring right now, I'll let you know when it's done. Question though, how would this happen? And is there a way of logging into a user account without the logon screen?

Sorry for the double post, but I just finished the system restore and it didn't work, the account is still missing...
I'm not sure if the system restore itself worked however, because there were other programs that I installed at the same time as iTunes that weren't removed...

If the SOME of the documents, just the ones on the Desktop of the missing user account are accessible, then the account can't be gone right...?

I just don't understand how restarting my computer could have deleted the account, or at least hidden it.
I don't even have the option of clicking "Other User" on the logon screen, it just shows "admin", "Administrator" and "TempAccount", not sure what that last one is.

Any more suggestions guys?

Ok

First try this, it may be hidden

User Account - Hide - Vista Forums
same for 7

If that does not work, use a system restore point from a few days before the installs. Be sure of the date used.

I do not know how to login without the user screen.

Can you boot into safe mode & see the usually hidden Admin acct ?

Also, on the account I am able to log into the "admin" account, when the UAC pops up, I can no longer select "Other User", I only have two options, my "admin" account and the other "Administrator" account.

Honestly, not really sure how to log into Safemode on this laptop, do you need any information about my laptop/OS to tell me how to do this?

And when I go to Local Groups and Users to try and enable the account, its not there at all, so obviously I can't right click on it and change the settings, its just simply not there anymore.

Boot computer, during boot quickly and rapidly many times, hit f8

Alright, I'll try it, what should I do once I access safemode? Go to the hidden administrator and then hope that it lets me log into my regular user account?

There is usually away to change a users password there

But its not the password I'm worried about, its that the entire account is gone.
And it doesn't show up in the Local Users and Groups program!
Any other suggestions? I'm going to quickly boot into Safemode and check...

Whoa. We don't want to go changing any passwords until we get one thing straight. You said this was a school computer. Do you mean that the computer belongs to the school? If so, such changes would get you in serious trouble.

EDIT: I think doc means the password for the built in admin account.

Somebody may have to verify this, But if your user acct was deleted, Maybe if a new one was created spelled exactly the same way (especially if Upper & lower case letters were used) it may see the previous user files from your acct. ????

It a long shot but I was actually thinking the same thing, Doc.

I am also curious as to where the files were saved that you can no longer access. If they were just in My Documents, then they me be gone for good

Well, long story short, its a school computer that the school makes it mandatory for us to purchase, and since I'm in grade 12, they let us have the admin password. So I had my standard account, but I had an admin password so I was able to make changes by using the admin password.

So honestly, changes are fine, if you think it will help, please, let me know, because all my work is on there, and in my grade 12 year, if I lose all that, I'm screwed.

Another thing that I just found, was I went to C:\Users and then clicked on the folder for my missing User Account, I can access the desktop and all the files on it, but unfortunately, it says the My Documents folder is empty, I hope that its really just hidden or something.

Anyways, I right clicked on C:\Users\arnouldp (that's the missing account User Name) and opened Properties and then Security. The groups and usernames that were listed were: SYSTEM, admin, Administrator and...Account Unknown (S-1.....random numbers and letters)!!!
I don't know what that means, but I have a feeling that its my account that has gone missing.
Anyone know anything about that...?
Here is what it looks like....


EDIT: If they are gone for good...then I honestly don't know what I am going to do, but anyways, that's my issue... :S

Any suggestions...?
They were saved in the My Documents folder because usually when I am at school, everything in the My Documents folder gets backed up on the school server...but its summer and obviously I haven't been back at the school to have backed things up....

Although, I can still see EVERYTHING that was on my desktop and I can access it as well, I don't know how another account could see that...

AND I don't know why my User Account could have just been removed in an instant like that...
Anyways, any ideas are welcome......!

Before doing too much more, try this
DiskDigger | The trusted data recovery solution

and/or this to get back the important doucments.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva

richc46 said:

Before doing too much more, try this
DiskDigger | The trusted data recovery solution

Click to expand...

Good point Rich, before any erased or hidden files are over-written !

So right Doc. I have had many posters report success with that software, if not too much time passed.

I will try both of those, thank you, but that picture in my previous post about the Account Unknown (random letters/numbers) got me thinking that it might still be hanging around...?

Just tried both those programs, Disk Digger found thousands of "deleted files" but none of them were usable, just random unknown files...
Some of the file paths were things like SystemRestore.....so I'm really hoping those aren't all my files in some unreadable format... :S

I'm not giving up on this one, but things don't look good...

Still, open to help

The account is not important. We can get a new one. Get your important documents, pics etc.