Windows 2000, my account dissapeared!

[Joelacrane]

My dad recently brought home his Windows 2000 Pro equipped work computer. I changed it from the work domain to my own workgroup, and then it wouldnt let me log back into my dads account after a reboot. I logged in as the Administrator, and Dads account has dissapeared. Under documents and settings, the only files left were the ones on the desktop. All his setting in outlook, Internet explorer, and the rest of his programs are gone.

Great.

So, uh, now what? I havent told him yet, i will if i dont find a solution though.

[Janak Parekh]

Your problem is that your dad's account was established in his corporate domain; removing the machine from that domain eliminates the login. (Even if his machine was disconnected from the domain, it would "cache" the login, so he could connect to it from home.)

However, the user profile and its associated data should not be automatically removed by this step. Are you sure there are no user directories under "C:\Documents and Settings"?

--janak

[Joelacrane]

Only the files on the desktop are there. Everything in my documents is gone. I did find that his cookies and favorites were there, but pasting them into the Administrator folder didnt make them show up in IE. Also, his email, outlook settings, and everything else are just gone.

I told him last night, and he wasnt particularly worried about the files, he said he would like to have them back, but it was no big deal. Maybe i should just put Windows XP on it for him.

Thanks a lot for the explanation, ive always wondered what the difference between domains and workgroups are, now i know. Im learning! Slowly!

[Janak Parekh]

Only the files on the desktop are there. Everything in my documents is gone.
You mean C:\Documents and Settings\MYUSER\Desktop is fine, but C:\Documents and Settings\MYUSER\My Documents is empty?

That doesn't make sense. :? Is it possible the documents were stored elsewhere on the hard drive? Also, make sure you've set Explorer to show hidden files and folders, and try searching for one of the missing files.

Also, his email, outlook settings, and everything else are just gone.
Those settings tend to be buried in the user profile, and aren't necessarily easy to retrieve. The email, however, should be locatable. If you've enabled the viewing of hidden files, you can search for *.PST (Outlook) or *.DBX (Outlook Express).

Thanks a lot for the explanation, ive always wondered what the difference between domains and workgroups are, now i know. Im learning! Slowly!
Gotta start somewhere, but there's a lot more. ;) I've been deploying Windows domains for more than 10 years and I'm still learning stuff.

--janak