Hey, first let me thank the members of pchf.com, the site has helped me with many problems over a few years; normally I just search the forums for my problem and am able to come to some sort of resolution from there but this time I cannot seem to find anything similar here.

My problem started with a BSOD boot problem on my laptop because of a broken registry hive. I managed to fix the problem by replacing the security and software hive with the copies found in \windows\repair. That allowed me to boot but now I'm experiencing some different problems which I'm sure are a direct result;

Firstly, when windows loads on the laptop I am, as expected, shown the welcome screen with the user selection. Everything appears normal and the users are displayed correctly. The first time I logged on to each account after I "fixed" my BSOD problem the small dialogue box appears that is normally shown on an accounts first run, the one that says things like "Configuring settings for Internet Explorer". and then once the profile is loaded it appears like a new account on the machne with default settings; the My Documents folder is empty, default desktop background etc. Shortcuts in the start menu, which is populated exactly as pre-problem state, do not work and the programs must be run directly from their executables. When I looked at the HDD everything seems to be intact and the only problem I can see is that instead of loading the 'username' profile from Documents & Settings it appears to have instead loaded 'username.computer name' which did not exist previously. the 'username' folder is what i expected with documents, desktop etc. correct for the username and 'username.computer name' appears to be a new account. Any ideas?

On another note when I boot I'm always given the OS choice selection menu which consists of three Windows XP options, each exactly the same, so I'm assuming I need to somehow fix the boot.ini file but dont know exactly what to do

Any help or input would be massively helpful to me as I use my laptop for college work and studying so is quite essential and although I can easily access it I would rather have my machine in its pre-problem state.

Hi Exs and Welcome to the Forum!

I'm sure our talented Tech staff and helpful members can find an answer for you.

I'll mark this as open to encourage those in the know to take a peek

Thanks for your patience!

Please post your system specs.
Click on User CP
Slide down to Edit Options

You can click on the Belarc link in my signature.
Download/run the scan (it's FREE).
It will give you the specs on your computer.

Welcome back Exs! As you well know, PCHF has incredible staff and very helpful members to assist you.

As Gandalf has requested, your system specs would be helpful.

Just a thought, but does your original Profile still exist under Documents and Settings? If so, perhaps you could "copy" it to the new Profile created since your repairs. I've placed a link to the MSKB for that task below.

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile in Windows XP

Thank you for the helpful replies.

Since writing my original post the problems I have with the laptop have perpetuated; at one point I could not boot windows correctly. I have most files backed up on a different partition, as the HDD is still accessible from another OS, so I'm putting this down to a bad windows installation or something of that nature. I'm just going to do a clean install then, If the problems continue, I will have to look at the installation itself or the hardware of the laptop.

Once again, thankyou for the helpful replies

Thanks for letting us know, Exs. I'll mark your thread RESOLVED.

Please be sure to stop back by whenever you wish to chat computers. We are always looking for helpful, experienced members to lend an opinion or two. ;-)