Windows 98 SE profile crash

I seek help with restoring from recent crash of my laptop. Crashing is not unusual for this computer which uses Windows 98 SE but in this case during the reboot what first showed on the screen was "creating new profile." What I'd like to know is if this version of Windows automatically backs up any of the files I need to restore what was lost. Some of the things lost are desktop layout & background, start menu items, Internet Explorer preferences & URL history, Outlook Express e-mail POP accounts data, Quick launch menu items, Windows Explorer formating and form fill-in data. My Documents folders and my IE favorites are some of what remained intact. I know all or most of this (depending on my memory ) can be restored manually, but as you may know it'd be MOST time-consuming. So, please let me know what files I should look for that may still be on the computer which will allow me to restore my original profile. Also, please tell me what files I should back up daily myself to make restoration of my profile data easily restorable, should this happen again. If any additional info is required for you to help me with this, please let me know. Many thanks , in advance, for any assistance you can offer.

 

do you have the profile from the windows/profiles/ directory backed up somewhere? if so and both profiles are the same OS and the same username, then you should just be able to copy over it.

In this case it looks like maybe it has made a new profile to work with. try looking here c:/windows/profiles if you see more than one in there, or if it exists, then you know that you have things backed up there.

Sorry if this doesnt help, its half past midnight and im screaming for sleep!