Where did all my files go?

I tried to log on to my computer and I got this error message "windows cannot load the locally stored profile..." so it logged me on to a temporary account and I created a new admin account to try and get my files from my other account. But when I looked in my computer the files for my other account weren't there - only shared documents and my new account documents! All my files seem to be gone, but my account is still there when I get to log on screen!

I know my files exist because there is still 15gb unaccounted for on my computer! But how can I get them?

I'm using win xp home, sp2, and my laptop is a toshiba portege 4010. Please all my work and photos are in there, and I don't know what else to try.

 

try this and see if you can get to it, Open System in Control Panel. On the Advanced tab, under User Profiles, click Settings. Under Profiles stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to change, and then click Change Type.
Click Roaming profile or Local profile.

 

I'm not sure if you log on using the welcome screen but try this one too it will let you log on without the welcome screen it will force you to type in an account name and password if you have one.
Open User Accounts in Control Panel.
Click Change the way users log on or off.
Do one of the following:
To specify that users log on to the computer using the Welcome screen, select the Use the Welcome screen check box.
A user logs on to the computer by clicking his or her user account name on the Welcome screen. If a password is assigned to the account, the user is prompted to type it.

To specify that users log on to the computer without using the Welcome screen, clear the Use the Welcome screen check box.
The Welcome screen will no longer appear when you start the computer. To log on to the computer, type your user name (and password, if you have one) in the standard Log On to Windows dialog box.

 

It wont let me change the type to roaming but next to my orginal account it says "backup" instead of local like the other, also it only says 2.9GB as its size despite all my files being in there.

And changing the welcoe screen didn't help, still couldn't log on!

 

I recently had a similar problem: a guy had an external drive with over 75gb of music, pictures, videos, etc, and one day, everything just vanished. Due to the fact that the properties of the external drive showed that it still had over 75gb used, we knew the data was still there. So, I enabled the viewing of hidden files/folder, and enabled viewing system files/folders (open any folder, click Tools > Folder Options > View and scroll down a little bit; screen shot attached for clarity). Once this was done, we could see all the data. Somehow, the attributes had been changed for all the files and folder on the drive, and they had been hidden.
Hopefully this helps!

[dlb]

 

Yes I have the same issue, right now and it sucks ,cause i have all my little baby girls pictures on there too and now they are gone.

 

ok, i fixed mine, well at least I can now get my stuff. Start a new account, Go to my computer, c drive, documents and settings, you should see your other account in there, but it wont let you do anything with it. You need to restart the computer in safe mode and then go back into your files in my computer and right click on the them, then you need to click security tab then advanced, owner and then change current owner to your new account name and click replace owner on subcontainers and objects then click apply and yes, this could take a while, then click ok and ok again.Then go back in right click, security, then click add, type in your new account name and click check names and ok and ok. This should mean you have access to copy all your files to your new account. Good luck