Recovering a Deleted User Account

[Nordo]

In trying to streamline my wifes Laptop (Win 7 64bit), I deleted her user account as she didn't like having to login and give herself permission for various actions all the time.
Obviously this was the wrong way to go about it.
However when I went to re-create the account using the same User name, Windows 7 treats it as a different account so she now can't access any of her items including documents, favourites and hundreds of photos.

What can I do to fix this?
If I can't fix it, my arse is toast!!!!!
Cheers

 

[pare80]

The thing I would do if you can do it - is log in with another admin account and see if you can get all the files and move them to an external device or another location on the root directory. If you can do that -- move all the files over and recreate the account.

Hope that helps!

 

[MacGyvr]

Are the files still there? You should be able to log in as any administrative account and see the folder under c:\users if so.

 

[Nordo]

Are the files still there? You should be able to log in as any administrative account and see the folder under c:\users if so.

Hi Guys
No, I definitely cannot access or see the files when logged in as the Administrator.

This brings up two things I haven't mentioned.
1. When logged in as Administrator, there are several files I am still banned from accessing e.g. C:\User\"any user"\Application Data.

2. The new account I created (with the same User name as the deleted account) does have some folders in the My Pictures folder but either the individual folder is empty (apart from an *inf file) or there are a lot of files with names using a series of random letters and all with .js extensions.

 

[pare80]

What about trying to do a system restore from a previous point. Have you tried that?

 

[MacGyvr]

Are the files still there? You should be able to log in as any administrative account and see the folder under c:\users if so.

Hi Guys
No, I definitely cannot access or see the files when logged in as the Administrator.

This brings up two things I haven't mentioned.
1. When logged in as Administrator, there are several files I am still banned from accessing e.g. C:\User\"any user"\Application Data.

2. The new account I created (with the same User name as the deleted account) does have some folders in the My Pictures folder but either the individual folder is empty (apart from an *inf file) or there are a lot of files with names using a series of random letters and all with .js extensions.

Not only does it sound like you deleted the files as well as the account (it is a choice when you delete an account), but it also sounds as though there is corruption on the hard drive. System Restore will not bring back deleted user files. Based on what you've said, it looks as though the files are gone for good.

 

[Nordo]

Not only does it sound like you deleted the files as well as the account (it is a choice when you delete an account), but it also sounds as though there is corruption on the hard drive. System Restore will not bring back deleted user files. Based on what you've said, it looks as though the files are gone for good.

I am currently running Recuva Portable on a USB stick to see if it can find (and re-install) the files. I am doing a Deep Scan, which takes an hour or so. I'll let you know what I find.
Not sure what I do with them if I find them.

 

[MacGyvr]

If you find them, copy them to a folder in your profile for now.

 

[Nordo]

If you find them, copy them to a folder in your profile for now.

I've found 100s of "photos" (including all sorts of gifs, images, etc etc).

So that I don't overwrite any more files, I'm currently saving them onto a 4GB USB drive. Problem is I'm certain I will run out of room on the USB drive. When that happens I will burn those onto a DVD, then delete them off the USB drive and repeat.
Well, that's the idea!!!