Temp Profile - Desktop location?

[DeaconFrost]

I have a user in a remote office who logged into her XP Pro SP3 laptop last Friday, and got a message about how her profile failed to load, that it was using a temporary one. I set up her Outlook again, etc, and she was working for the time being.

Today, however, when she logged in, she saw her old, original profile again. This is great, except she had some important documents on her desktop of the temp profile. Does anyone know where they are stored, or if they are gone? I expected to see a user.000 directory under Documents and Settings, but there was only her normal user account. I made sure hidden files and system files were visible, and we even searched for the documents, including hidden files, with no luck. Any suggestions as to what we can try?

 

[gimp]

they're gone.
the warning message when that happens, even states the profile will NOT be saved.

When this happens, there becomes a TEMP folder in Documents and Settings, which is then deleted when the user logs off.

she's SOL

never ever ever let a user use a temp profile, especially if they contact you!
99.9% of the time, that issue can be resolved with a reboot.

 

[amp88]

Best bet would probably be trying to use some recovery software (Recuva and Restoration are free and easy to use). The more she uses the laptop the lower the chance of recovery gets. Ideally she shouldn't touch it again until you try to recover the files.

 

[DeaconFrost]

never ever ever let a user use a temp profile, especially if they contact you!

Well, if I had been told before she continued with the login, I wouldn't have let her. She is a remote employee who had been using the temp profile for the better part of a day before even calling me to tell me so, as she had some important work to get to.

I guess this was one of the .01 %, because rebooting a few times didn't bring her back to the old profile. That finally happened days later. Upon subsequent reboots, the temp profile was still being loaded, without the warning messages.

Anyway, we tried recovery software yesterday, and none of those files appear. So, she has considered the files gone, and has moved on.