Solved User account gone this morning when I booted the PC

[CommandoBob]

When I booted my PC this morning I saw a text input user logon, I inputted my username and it said "wrong username/password" - after several times I went into Safe Mode and tried to look on the user account control panel and my account was one, although the account's user folder is still on the hard drive. How do I recover it?

EDIT:
I created my account again via Safe Mode but now most applications and settings are gone, help?

New account is called Ray.TrollPC but my original account folder is Ray - maybe it has to do something with the VPN client I installed?

Renamed my old account folder to new account folder, now some applications don't work correctly but atleast I got my account back

 

[Darryl Licht]

Very odd indeed!~ Have you run a full AV/malware scan???

 

[Ztruker]

This worked for XP and it looks the same for Windows 7 (I just checked).

Before doing any of the following, make a backup of your registry. I suggest you install ERUNT to do this.

Your files are still there. Sounds like your user profile has lost it's connection with where it's data is stored.
If you are comfortable with using regedit, try this by booting to Safe Mode by pressing F8 during boot. Login as Administrator, no password.

The key is a registry entry that redirects Windows back to the ProfileImagePath of the original profile.

Click on Start then Run, type regedit and press Enter. Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Once there, you will see the SID's listed for all of the profiles on the machine. Something like this:

S-1-5-18
S-1-5-19
S-1-5-20
S-1-5-21-1343024091-1409082233-839522115-1003

Within the Key for each SID there is an entry called ProfileImagePath that will look like

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\UserName...

Scroll through the SID's until you find the one with the screwy name, like

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\youruserid.2

This is just an example, could be someithing else weird.

Just edit the Key to remove the ".2", and it will point the user back to their old profile...

Got this from: Discussion on Recover a damaged Windows XP user profile | TechRepublic

 

[CommandoBob]

I already solved it, thanks anyways.

 

[Darryl Licht]

For everyone's benefit, can you post your solution?

 

[CommandoBob]

Renamed my old account folder to new account folder, now some applications don't work correctly but atleast I got my account back

 

[Darryl Licht]

Renamed my old account folder to new account folder, now some applications don't work correctly but atleast I got my account back

Good Job! Just reinstall those apps to the same directory and you're good to go!

 

[Ztruker]

Did you look at the registry entries I posted. You may have been able to fully recover your account that way.