Lost Win 2000 users on upgrade to XP

[Kilmarten]

I just recently upgraded my Windows 2000 computer to Windows XP Pro SP2. While I would have preferred a clean install, reasons on time forced me to only upgrade. However, I have lost all but one of my users. The profiles are there in 'Documents and Settings' but I can't log in as them.

Can any one help me to recover them (and all my settings)? Thanks.

Paul

[seanmsiegel]

I figured out a trick that works to recover XP User accounts when doing a clean install of XP but i have never attempted to recover a 2000 Account to XP.

1. Locate the old user profiles in c:\documents and settings\" and rename them all by adding something like "_old" to their names.

2. Create the new user from the XP control panel

3. Log off current user and log onto the newly created user. During the first login windows will recreate the users folder in c:\documents and settings\". Make note of the newly created folder

4. Log off the new user and log back onto any other administrator account

5. Delete the new folder windows created for the user at logon in step 3

6. Rename the folder from step 1 again to the name of the new folder you just deleted in step 3.

This works every time for me when restoring xp accounts. It wouldnt hurt to try in your case though. I would be very interested if it works or not.

[Kilmarten]

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, I won't be able to try it out for you, as I just got told another solution that works, and I don't want to rock the boat!

Apparently, the upgrade has a habit of hiding some of the old 2000 accounts (especially if they're called "Administrator"). So Ctrl-Alt-Del twice on the login screen will give you the old 2000 style login where you can enter the old login name. And that worked well. Then, a little bit of registry editing convinces XP to show the hidden account on the welcome screen.

If anyone wants to know how, then this link is what I used: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/05/07/unhide-the-administrator-account-in-windows-xp/

Thanks for your help.

[seanmsiegel]

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, I won't be able to try it out for you, as I just got told another solution that works, and I don't want to rock the boat!

Apparently, the upgrade has a habit of hiding some of the old 2000 accounts (especially if they're called "Administrator"). So Ctrl-Alt-Del twice on the login screen will give you the old 2000 style login where you can enter the old login name. And that worked well. Then, a little bit of registry editing convinces XP to show the hidden account on the welcome screen.

If anyone wants to know how, then this link is what I used: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/05/07/unhide-the-administrator-account-in-windows-xp/

Thanks for your help.

Ah i see. I was asuming the accounts were gone, which did seem weird to me. I guess they were just locked or hidden.