Windows profile lost!

[ChimpMaster]

Hey all

Out of the blue, the laptop at client site appears to have lost the link to my profile today. I've never seen this before. So I log on as normal, my user is accepted onto the client network but when Windows 7 pops up it is like a first-time set-up. None of my mapped drives are available, none of my shortcuts, not even Outlook is configured to connect to the Exchange server.

This is all very odd. I can see my profile on the network (on the shared drive) but no matter what I do, I can't seem to connect my laptop login to the profile. I have tried deleting my local profile but the old one isn't pulled from the network. A system restore didn't help.

Otherwise the laptop is not affected in terms of applications and files; they are still present as before.

Has anyone seen this before and found a cure?

[sal]

Did you contact the Service Desk? It can be a number of things, like misbehaving GPO responsible for the user home folders / profile redirection or someone messed up your AD account. In any case there is not much that you can do from your side unless you have access to the AD and even then it's best to leave it into the hands of the people that are paid to resolve such issues.

[SimonMac]

Odds are the profile is still there as c:\users\ChimpMaster.domain as well as the new one c:\users\ChimpMaster, as said before don't go playing round with things you don't understand as its either deliberate (move from local to roaming profiles etc) or the old one is corrupted so can't be used.

Take it as a clean rebuild of the profile which is always a good idea, and if you need any docs etc you should have access to the old folder etc unless you were smart enough to have nothing on your c:\

[Boney M]

You will need to find the profile in your profilelist in the registry and rename it, since windows 7 profiles work slightly different than in xp - google it

[RSoles]

I hate to ask this, but have you tried switching it off and then on?

This used to happen quite a lot on last client's site - reboot sorted it.

[ChimpMaster]

Did you contact the Service Desk? It can be a number of things, like misbehaving GPO responsible for the user home folders / profile redirection or someone messed up your AD account. In any case there is not much that you can do from your side unless you have access to the AD and even then it's best to leave it into the hands of the people that are paid to resolve such issues.

Have raised it but SD are based abroad and don't really care about my problems

Odds are the profile is still there as c:\users\ChimpMaster.domain as well as the new one c:\users\ChimpMaster, as said before don't go playing round with things you don't understand as its either deliberate (move from local to roaming profiles etc) or the old one is corrupted so can't be used.

Take it as a clean rebuild of the profile which is always a good idea, and if you need any docs etc you should have access to the old folder etc unless you were smart enough to have nothing on your c:\

Only one profile is present in my users folder and it's the same name as before. I am now rebuilding my profile but it is a pain given that I had the laptop set up perfectly for my needs! I haven't lost any documents - just the damned profile.

You will need to find the profile in your profilelist in the registry and rename it, since windows 7 profiles work slightly different than in xp - google it

Will try this now, thanks

I hate to ask this, but have you tried switching it off and then on?

This used to happen quite a lot on last client's site - reboot sorted it.

Yep, tried reboot on the network and off the network. Tried system restore. Tried kicking the tulip out of the laptop. Nothing worked.

[sal]

Have raised it but SD are based abroad and don't really care about my problems

Offshore or not SD have pretty strict SLAs to keep when it comes to handling tickets. They should have an update in a matter of hours with preliminary investigation and eventually assign the ticket to a higher level of support.

Make sure to chase them daily and if they ignore you escalate the ticket to their TLs/Managers. Simply mentioning escalation does wonders.

Don't put too much effort in rebuilding your profile locally as it can be all wasted once the issue is resolved.