[CaptainKishimoto]

Hi, I had this problem yesterday, and since it's very unusual (and confusing to myself) I'll include everything that had happened (of what I can remember) until this point.

So, yesterday I turned on my computer, and everything was running fine until my computer decided to restart itself. It was then that my computer wouldn't load Windows for some reason, so I assumed it was an overheating issue. After doing some cleaning and what not, I turned it back on and got an error (something about not being able to execute an executable or something like that). I think I tried to do a recovery (or something else that I thought would help at the time), but it froze so I had to hard-reset my computer.

It was at this point where I got this error:

system32\drivers\pci.sys is missing or corrupt

I really panicked and did a whole bunch of things (which I don't even remember), and all of a sudden I'm at a Windows setup screen (which is odd since I didn't try to reformat, nor did I even put the Windows CD in). After going through the setup screen, I'm on a new user and my old user account is gone. Luckily, I still have most of my programs installed, along with the files that weren't located in my documents.

So my question is, if you can decipher what has happened, is it possible to recover my old files from my documents?

[Tabvla]

1. Login as Administrator
2. Go to Control Panel
3. In Control Panel go to Users
4. See if your old User Account is still listed

Let me know the result.

T.

[CaptainKishimoto]

It's not.

[Tabvla]

What we are attempting to do is try every "trick" in Windows in an attempt to recover the Profile. We may have to try a few "tricks" before we find one that works.

Try the following while logged in as the Administrator : -

1. Click Start
2. Go to RUN and type in compmgmt.msc
3. Enter the Computer Management Console
4. Double-click the Local Users and Groups folder
5. Double-click on Users

If the missing User name is displayed with a red cross in the check box before it, this means that the account is disabled or not active. In order to activate the disabled User account do the following: -

1. Double-click the User name.
2. Unclear the ticked check box.
3. Log out
4. Click Restart

The missing User name should now appear on the Login Screen.

Let me know the result.

T.