Boots to undesirable user/system

[StreetCop]

This may be a comedy of errors, but here goes.

1) SD/HC card in standard SD slot during re-boot. Nothing happens, get the blue HP splash screen before it even tries to boot from hard drive.

2) hit F12 for System Restore as I couldn't get anything else to come up. I was initially thinking it was going to take me to the Windows System Restore Points and I would choose the latest one--not the HP installed copy of XP and re-install everything. As Restore is running, I find the SD/HC card issue....ARGH.

So now the computer runs just fine, but of course it installed all new XP files. The problem is that I wish to use the previous users/admins that are still in the system. All the files are there, but upon boot there's no option as to who to log in under.

The new: HP_Administrator.YOUR-4DACD0EA75

The old: HP_Administrator

Is it possible to change the boot path/parameters back to the old one and move on?

 

[Miggs]

Ouch, how do you know "all the files are there" is there a user "HP_Administrator" under documents and settings ?
Have you tried clicking on start/shutdown/logoff then trying the old HP_Administrator account ?

 

[StreetCop]

Yep they are there. The old HP_Administrator and the two limited users (Mike and Kids) files and info are under the doccuments and settings folder. All the files are accessible with Windows Explorer. I can't simply log off and log in under the old user/administrator because they don't show up.

I've tried looking for those old users in the user management stuff to turn them "on" but they don't show up.


Another thought, I haven't tried because I don't want to make things worse at this point. I do have an external WD 1.5TB hard drive installed that has been "backing" things up as I go along for several months now. Do you think that software (if re-installed under this new admin) would fix things? I'm guessing it would only restore/replace files such as .jpg's and not system settings, registries, etc...

I have coppied all the old user info onto that external drive so it's safe. Not too concerned about all the safety of the quicken files, pictures, etc. But re-installing all the programs, user accounts, etc. seems like a huge hassle.