We have a Windows XP user who apparently had a corrupt profile. When she rebooted her computer, it logged her into a temp profile. She found a folder she was looking for and copied it to that desktop. Later, when she rebooted again, it logged her back into her original profile. We have searched this entire computer, even using a file scavenger program and can not find this folder. Does something special happen with folders that are saved in a temp profile?
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I was hoping that maybe the folder was just locked down (thus not showing up in searches) but if you already got into the temp one and checked for it (which always seems to be my docs, C, or desktop) then that's not a good sign at all. Normally it should be just like any other user that logs in, makes them a profile and keeps it on the computer. I've had this happen a few times and had users copy data down off the server, it still existed in their temp profile even after they got back into their old one. I'm surprised she found it and copied it over, like you said when this happens they call even if their desktop is one icon short.
If with something special happens you mean: will they disappear? Yes, Temp profiles will not save data after you log off.
IIRC it clearly says so in the message you get when you log on, that no settings or changes will be saved. In my tests the temp profile was gone after logoff.
You might want to quiz MS support on how they actually implemented that.
Ah Konstantin is right. I know I didn't have that issue so I double checked a couple computers that I've had this issue with and when the profile was corrupted it created folders with username.domainname instead of temp files (before it just made username for the folders) and they aren't considered temp folders (thus no messages) sorry about that. I was assuming they made temp files when it said the original profile was corrupted.
Well rbarnhardt, that would be hard to find. The recycler is user based, so there is no trash bin to put it, and with NTFS - depending on the fragmentation state of the HDD - deleted files can vanish easily, Especially as with recovery software you can usually only regain the files, not the folder strucutre they were in.
Personally I have to say that in a multi user environment this is more of a reassuring thing than something that would bother me.
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by: Seth_zinPosted on 2008-08-13 at 06:54:05ID: 22221664
Does that temp file still exsist? It shouldn't be any different than a normal profile (I've seen this happen a few times), it sees one as corrupt and makes a new one, I've never had the folder delete or files go missing when copied over. But check to see if the temp profile folder still exsist (C: -> documents and settings -> temp profile name) then check under that users desktop and my documents to see if those files are hidden there.