Please help lost administrator user account folder

[mikenz88]

op'

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi,

I have been using my new Sony Vaio for months now - every time I restarted the System Out Of Box Experience was shown. This would not work properly and I kept cancelling it as I did not know what it did and stored all data in the administrator user folder - the user name was administrator.

Today I upgraded to Ultimate 64 from Home Premium 64 and the Out Of Box Experience was shown again after first booting up following the upgrade. This took me through a setup process and created a new user account.

Now I only have one new user account and cannot see any of the files from the original administrator account (i.e. all of my files). I cannot locate these but the Windows folder is about 45GB which seems big. I estimate my files were 15-25GB.

I desperately need to get these files back as I have formatted my old laptop and do not have up to date copies on my backup drive.

Any ideas where the files have ended up and how to recover them?

Two things when you upgraded you probably created a windows.old folder with all of your old data. Second you can enable the built in administrator account but that one is not the same as your other user. If your other user was administrator there may be a way to get it back.

So what was your user name?

Ken

 

[Ztruker]

If you wish to enable the hidden Administrator account you can by typing LUSRMGR.MSC in the Start Menu and press enter. From here click 'Users' and double-click 'Administrator' and de-select 'Account is disabled'. Reboot your machine and you can now log on as the hidden administrator, you will now not be prompted for admin rights and will not need to use the 'Run as admin' context menu item.

Posted by Orbital Shark here: Windows 7 User Interface Forum

You can also get there by entering control userpasswords2 in the Run box, same as you could in Windows XP.

 

[mikenz88]

Hi,

I have been using my new Sony Vaio for months now - every time I restarted the System Out Of Box Experience was shown. This would not work properly and I kept cancelling it as I did not know what it did and stored all data in the administrator user folder - the user name was administrator.

Today I upgraded to Ultimate 64 from Home Premium 64 and the Out Of Box Experience was shown again after first booting up following the upgrade. This took me through a setup process and created a new user account.

Now I only have one new user account and cannot see any of the files from the original administrator account (i.e. all of my files). I cannot locate these but the Windows folder is about 45GB which seems big. I estimate my files were 15-25GB.

I desperately need to get these files back as I have formatted my old laptop and do not have up to date copies on my backup drive.

Any ideas where the files have ended up and how to recover them?

Two things when you upgraded you probably created a windows.old folder with all of your old data. Second you can enable the built in administrator account but that one is not the same as your other user. If your other user was administrator there may be a way to get it back.

So what was your user name?

Ken

My new user name is mike (old was Administrator). There is no Windows.old folder. How do I enable the built in admin account?

I could see my data fine after the upgrade, it was the System out of box process which created the new account and lost the old one.

Thanks

 

[mikenz88]

Enabled hidden admin account

I enabled the hidden admin account but no sign of my data. Should the windows folder be 45 GB - it seems like the data may be in there.

 

[Ztruker]

Perhaps you need to show hidden files and folders?

See here: Show hidden files