Duplicate profile folders exist
March 17th, 2010 by Curtis
duplicate-profile-folders-exist

If you lose Full Control permissions to your profile folder, in the %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings folder, Windows 2000 and Windows XP will create a new one the next time you log on. The new profile is named:

UserName – if the older profile was deleted.
UserName.ComputerName – if the old profile exists.
UserName.ComputerName.000 – if UserName.ComputerName exists.
UserName.ComputerName.001 – if UserName.ComputerName.000 exists.

Short Answer – Rename the User Profile folder using Windows Explorer

The quick fix is to edit the registry and find the new profile, usually it was username.machinename. Remove the .machinename from the new profile and reboot. When the user log’s in all his data will be back

  1. Logon to an admin account that is not the account being renamed.
  2. Open the Documents and Settings folder, by typing this in Start, Run dialog:

    %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings

  3. The list of folders will be displayed. Select the corresponding folder of the user account that you want to rename.

example:

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\OldUsername

becomes

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NewUsername

Next step is to notify the system that the user profile path has changed.

Changing the ProfileImagePath value in the registry

ProfileImagePath registry value – The ProfileList registry key contains some sub-keys, which are nothing but the list of User Account Security Identifiers (SID). Each of the SID represents an Account. The key is located here:

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

Identify the SID for your User account, and change the Profile path

  • To know the SID for your user account, you may use the script sidlist (23)
  • Download the script and run it.  (The User Account names and SIDs will be listed in a log file, and opened automatically.)
  • Note down the SID for your account.
  • Then, in the Registry Editor, select the correct SID that belongs to your user account.
  • In the right-pane, double-click the ProfileImagePath value and change the profile path. ( The ProfileImagePath stores the full path of the User account home folder. )

Example

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\OldUsername

becomes the following:

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NewUsername

Close Registry Editor, and restart Windows.

LONG ANSWER – Edit USERPROFILE in WinXP registry

Duplicate profile folders exist under the “Documents and Settings” folder (KB314045).  The folder names may be similar to the following:

curt.machinename
curt.machinename.000
curt.machinename.001
curt.machinename.002

Copy Documents from the Current Profile Folder to the Appropriate User Profile Folder

If you have logged on to Windows since you lost access permission to your original profile folder, there are at least two user profile folders that have your user name. To make these files accessible from the user profile that you are restoring:

  1. Log on to the computer as an administrator.
  2. Copy all of the documents from your current My Documents folder to the My Documents folder of the profile that you are restoring.

    NOTE: Step 2 is not required if you have moved your My Documents folder to a location outside the Documents and Settings folder; however, after you restore your user profile, you may need to re-specify the target folder location of the My Documents folder.
  3. To retain the Internet favorites links, copy all of the Internet shortcut files from from your current Favorites folder to the Favorites folder of the user profile that you are restoring. NOTE: Do not copy Desktop.ini file.

Grant Full Control Permission for the User Profile Folder

  1. Right-click your old user profile folder, and then click Properties. By default, this folder is %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\username.
  2. On the Security tab, click your user profile in the Name list, and then click to select Allow for the Full Control permission.

    NOTE: If your user profile is not displayed in the Name list, add your profile: Click Add, click your user name in the list, and then click OK.

  3. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Edit the User Profile Registry Key

Edit the registry so that the profile image path points to the user profile folder that you worked with in the “Grant Full Control Permission for the User Profile Folder” section in this article:

  1. Log on to the computer with the user profile that you want to restore.
  2. Click Start, and then click Run.
  3. Type regedit, and then click OK.
  4. In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
  5. Locate your user profile folder.

    NOTE: When you open the ProfileList folder, you see several folders, each of which belongs to a different user. These folders are named according to the user security IDs (SIDs) and not according to the user names.

    To locate your user profile folder, use one of the following options:

    • For each folder, click the folder, and then look for the ProfileImagePath value that contains the path to your user profile (such as %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\username).
      -or-
    • In Registry Editor, press CTRL+F to start the Find tool. Type your user name in the Find what box, click to select the Data check box under Look at, and then click Find.
  6. After you locate the subkey folder for your user profile, double-click the ProfileImagePath value.
  7. In the Value data box, change the path so that it points to the profile folder that you are restoring, and then and click OK.
  8. Quit Registry Editor.

The next time that you log on to the computer, Windows will use your restored user profile


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