Re-creating a Corrupt User Profile

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Re-creating a 10/12/2010
Corrupt User
Profile

Version Control:
Version: Reason for Author/Editor: Date:
Change
1.0 Initial Draft 10/12/2010
1.1 Final Draft

Purpose
The purpose of this document is to aid the System Administrator at ….…… re-create a profile
which may have become corrupted.

Background
A User Profile describes the Windows configuration for a specific user, including the user's
environment and preference settings. For example, those settings and configuration options
specific to the user - such as desktop icons, shortcuts, colour options, background, email
settings, files cached by Internet Explorer, some application settings etc.

What is a roaming profile?

A roaming profile is a profile stored on a network share which can be accessed from any
network computer. A user who has a roaming profile can logon to any computer and access that
profile. Roaming user profiles provide the user with a consistent working environment from
machine to machine (appearance, settings, preferences, data files, and the like). Once the user
logs off, any changes made to their profile will be uploaded back to the server.

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Where is my roaming profile stored?

On the server ……………….which then gets downloaded onto the local machine to
C:\Documents and Settings\username when the user logs on

The two main profile types:

Local Profile: This profile is created the first time a user logs on to a computer and is stored on
the computer's local hard disk in C:\Documents and Settings\username. Any changes made to
the local user profile are specific to the computer on which the changes are made.

Roaming Profile: This profile is a copy of the local user profile and is stored the server share it
is downloaded to C:\Documents and Settings\username each time a user logs onto a computer
on the network. Any changes made to a roaming user profile are synchronized with the server
copy when the user logs off. When the user logs on from another computer the most recent of
the local or server stored profile is used.

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Here is what a typical profile looks like:
If you can't see all of these folders, select Folder Options from any Explorer window's Tools
menu, click on the View tab, and select the option to Show Hidden Files and Folders.

Hidden Files and Folders switched off:

C:\Documents and Settings\username contains the following folders

o Application Data - Refers to data used by application programs that the user may
modify when they change a setting in the application.
o Cookies
o Desktop – Contains files, folders, shortcuts, and data rearding the appearance of
the desktop on the user’s screen
o Favorites - website favorites
o Local Settings - Settings used by common applications such as IE.
o My Documents – contains the users files this is redirected to the H drive on the
network
o NetHood - Network servers or shared network folder shortcuts.
o PrintHood - Network printers.
o Recent - Shortcuts to documents recently used.
o SendTo – Shortcuts files that create the “SendTo” menu for the user
o Start Menu - The user's start menu and shortcuts.
o Templates - Application templates for applications like Word and Excel.

Registry settings are stored in each user's profile in a file called ntuser.dat. Then, whenever a
user logs on to Windows, his preferences are read from the ntuser.dat file in his user profile and

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merged into the system registry for the session. (HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry hive
maintains the user's settings during the session.)

Corrupt Roaming Profiles

There is a real chance of profile corruption during the logoff process, which can lead to a loss of
custom settings and lengthened logon times.

With a corrupt profile applications may throw up an erroneous error or behave

unexpectedly

You can usually prove it by logging in to the same machine as another user and discovering
that the applications or settings are correct.

Reasons for corruption

A roaming profile may become corrupt if the computer you are logged into cannot successfully
upload the cached profile to the profile server when you logout.

User profile corruption also occurs when the Ntuser.dat file (the file that contains the user’s
Current User registry hive) contains only part of the profile information. The file becomes
inconsistent. This can be caused when a user prematurely turns off the computer before the
profile is fully copied back to the network share location, or the network connection from the file
share to the workstation (or server) is severed. Applications constantly write to the registry.
Another cause of profile corruption is when an application encounters an error during a write
operation causing the write operation to be incomplete.

If you are having an issue that you believe is caused by a corrupt roaming profile, rather than
completely troubleshoot the profile, the simplest and quickest solution is to give the user a
clean, default user profile that you know works and copy over any user settings from the corrupt
profile.

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Recreating a User Profile

Here is how to re-create a new profile when a current profile is corrupted.

1. Login as Administrator locate the corrupt profile on the local computer which you will move or
rename it to allow a new profile to be created don’t delete it as you will need to copy over
settings such as Desktop Icons, Favourites, Printers etc to the new profile later.

2. Either rename the user profile %username% located in C:\Documents and Settings\i.e. to
%username.old% or move it to another location away from C:\Documents and Settings i.e. on
the C drive create a folder called old profiles and move the profile %username% into there.

3. Delete the users profile located on the server as this will also be corrupt.

4. Now let the user login since no profile exists either on the server or the local computer a
clean, default user profile will be created.

5. Copy over any common or important files from the corrupt profile to the same location in the
new clean profile. However move files such as any mail archives (.pst), large desktop files
and the word templates to the users home directory (H:) drive on the server.

Commonly used files to consider copying

Folder Name Description default Windows XP Folder Location

location for
Desktop Desktop items, including Documents and Settings\%username%\Desktop
files and shortcuts
My Documents User created documents Documents and Settings\%username%\My
Documents
Favorites Internet Explorer Favorites Documents and Settings\%username%\Favorites
Signature Outlook Signature Documents and Settings\%username%\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
Outlook Mail archive Personal Documents and Settings\%username%\Local
Folder *.pst Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
Outlook AutoComplete *.nk2 Documents and Settings\%username%\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
Templates Normal.dot Documents and Settings\%username%\Application
Data\Microsoft\Templates
Proof Custom Dictionary *.dic Documents and Settings\%username%\Application
Data\Microsoft\Proof\

6. Reinstall any printers required.

7. Ensure the user’s email account is setup correctly and they can view their archive.

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8. Finally verify that the user’s problem has been resolved.

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