I’ve been running Windows 7 RC1 natively on my main system since it came out. No problems at all until yesterday when I did a restart. Logging into my account, I first noticed the resolution was all pixely. Then my desktop had changed, showing the Beta fish, then a notice that my profile could not be loaded and I had been assigned a temporary profile. I rebooted and was greeted with the same thing. Looking through the event viewer I found the following at about the same time this all started.

“The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume \Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1.”

So I started IM-ing my IT God, best friend, Rich (www.goatsneakers.com). He can figure out anything and the first thing he said was not to do the chkdsk. Fortunately I had also setup Carmina with an account so he had me do the following steps.

• 1. Login as Carmina (I had set her up as Administrator)
• 2. Create a new account
• 3. Login to the new account and let it build the profile
• 4. Log back in as Carmina, then go to Computer –> Properties –> Advanced System Properties –> User Profiles

What Rich wanted me to do was copy my old profile to the new one I had just created, but “uh-oh” the “Copy To” button was disabled.

I tried every combination I could think of and the only way the Copy To button would enable was if I chose Default Profile. Both Rich and I started searching for answers and came up with the following link, “Cannot Copy Local Profiles in Win7” (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/0efeef2f-d059-484c-bea3-6ca21b6cd33e). Apparently it is either a feature or a bug, but being able to copy profiles in Win7 has been disabled. The thread shows a lot of disgruntled IT Pros.

I was starting to get frustrated. I have regular backups with Mozy, but I didn’t want to have to spend time re-paving my system. However now I was into this with a 6 hour investment so far. So I tried one last ditch effort.

• 1. Login as Carmina
• 2. Create a new “James” account with Administrator rights
• 3. Login as the new “James” and let the profile get built
• 4. Log off then login again as Carmina
• 5. Take ownership of all the files and folders in the C:\Users folder
• 6. Copy the entire James folder (the original) to the new James2 folder
• 7. Rebooted and logged in as James2
• 8. Bingo! It’s all back, including all my email accounts.

Nice!

Only a few things are a bit flakey. Live Mesh isn’t working so I need to reinstall. But if this happens again, I know I’ll be ready. Ah…the fun of being a renegade.

Time to reorganize.

James