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Windows Vista Issues
I am having an issue with my computer, a Dell C521 Desktop. My computer froze and I turned it off at the power strip, which along with the power button has never been an issue before but on Thursday my user profile became non accessible and I was not sure what to do. I re-installed the Windows Vista software, but now I can no longer find my profile and I am stuck with two profiles that I do not want on my computer but cannot seem to get rid of, also I know very little about computer software. Could someone please help me with this problem!? There are documents and other personal files (such as music) that I really don't want to lose.
Philip_Yip
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August 25th, 2012 10:00
Did you reinstall Windows Vista from the DVD?
If so please go to computer and click on the C: drive.
Is there a folder called windows.old?
If you have everything on the external hard drive then ignore this step. If not go to computer, then to C then to C:\Windows.old look through the users folder, move all the items (you want to keep) from "documents" to "documents", "desktop" to "desktop", "music" to "music", "pictures" to "pictures", "downloads" to "downloads". Look about in this folder for anything else, has old windows files you won't need, old program files probably won't need. It is very large. Delete it when you have moved whatever you need as it is a very large folder and unnecessary once you have your new windows installed. Note there is more information and an automated tool here.
IA0509
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August 25th, 2012 11:00
I found the windows.old folder, there are actually 4 folders for this which are windows.old-windows.old.002. I haven't time to go through everything yet, but most of my music seems to be still available. Thanks for your help. :-)
Philip_Yip
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August 25th, 2012 12:00
Once you go through the 4 windows.old folders and have got everything you need.
Delete the windows.old folders as they will take up alot of space.
I recommend you to purchase an external hard drive and to copy everything to that as a backup. Its good to have an external backup incase of hard disc failure or other problems.
Also I would advise you to look at my wiki A Clean Install of Windows Vista, to ensure that you have done every stage correctly to get the full performance from your system.