XP Not saving anything on shutdown.

Hi there, PC is driving me crazy now. Basically the PC a couple of weeks ago got reformatted and had windows XP reinstalled... But about a week ago it's now decided that after shutdown and restart, it will not save a thing.
E.G Photoshop was installed
an album was downloaded.
Browser settings such as favourites and home page were saved.

Then restart and it's all gone, not a trace of it. Then when going into windows it's like you've logged on for the first time. Windows XP tour comes up etc....

Anyone know of the reason for this? i've tried various google searches on the topic but nothing of any help springs up.

Cheers,

Alex

 

Would Button Battery cause this?

I have seen a profile issue that would cause this.
To test, if you right click on My Documents (from Desktop, if it is showing, or the Start Menu) and left click on properties - see if the "User" name is different than the user that you created for your computer - see if it is named Temporary, such as:
"C:\Documents and Settings\Temporary\My Documents"
I have seen this on a fairly new computer.
If it is showing a different username - would it still be a button battery issue?
I am not sure the cause of the Temporary profile issue, if this is that issue.
Thanks,

Chronk

 

Hi chronk, Checked the My Doc thing but all that seems as it should and plodr, the date and time are consistent and fine... After a recent install of various programs then a restart as a test i found a few things different from the last time it went on a deleting rampage.
Progs installed - CD-ex, Utorrent and Convert X.
On restart CDEX and Covert X are still there and as they should be, which is nice.
Utorrent on the other hand is as follows. The first time this prob occured Utorrent and all it's folders completely vanished. This time however, the folders creted in my documents are still there but when you click on the shortcut for it it'll just try and reinstall it, as if it had never been installed. (also, thought i'd mention that it is definately the file to launch Utorrent and not an Install application i'm clicking on, just incase someone thinks i'm a spaz).

 

...and now added to this, every single time windows is shutdown it gives me the install updates malarky. Is there a way to find out what it's trying to update? incase it's trying to update the same thing every time...which i'm assuming that's what it's doing anyway.

 

alex in chains,
I don't know what is happening to your computer - I would wonder about malware at this point.
I do not use p2p - so not sure about the utorrent install - have you tried un-installing it to see if your problems go away? If not you may want to update your anti-malware software superantispyware, malwarebytes etc. I won't be able to provid help with those if that is the issue - as I am not pro at that - but have done a few malware removals.
If it turns out to be malwar / junkware - you may want to follow the MalWare Read & Run Me First - here:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Good Luck!
Chronk