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Win 2K Pro, corrupt profiles, how to prevent

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zak_pc

Registered
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
I'm having problem with my profiles getting corrupt on a relatively new build that's running Win 2K Pro. Here's my story. I'm an experienced computer person. I've been a programmer and a web designer over the years. I've updated pcs, removed/installed software, added/removed hardware, etc. I build my 1st computer a few months ago. It's components are in my signature. I'm new to building PCs but I'm an experienced computer person.

The other day I was doing some updating on my PC. I wasn't paying attention and I accidently tripped on my power cord and unplugged the machine. When it booted up I got an error message saying my profile was corrupt. I was logged on to the Admin profile. Eventually I couldn't boot up with the profile. I wanted to change some configs on my PC so I ended up blowing it out and reinstalling everything because it was now a convenient time to do it. I was just about finished installing the last bit of software when the power cord fell out, just by complete coincidence. Both times the machine was running fine before the power stopage.

I'm getting a little ticked off at the profile corruptions. I've never had a PC corrupt the user profiles just because of an accidental power down. At work my building loses power on occasion so my machine goes down but my profiles don't get corrupted. Sometimes I lose power in my house when my circuit breaker trips because I have too many things running. I'm a high end user runnning a lot of graphics software. Occasionally my machine crashes from heavy use. Unexpected power downs are going to happen once in a while. I don't have to time to keep restoring/rebuilding profiles everytime my machine has a rude power down.

How can I prevent these profile corruptions?? Any suggestions or tips?? Thanks for the help. I'm currently running the 1 SATA HD in a non-raid config.

p.s. I already know about trying to stop tripping over the power cord. :)
 
First off, try repairing the installation thru the 2k startup disks you have. And not to be a smartalec or anything, but the way to prevent te corruptions is to not unplug/tripover/somehow dislodge the power cord.

Somewhere in my room I have my 2k administrator series guide; if there's a better way I'll try to find it for you.

Off-topic-chastising: The Administrator account is a wonderful pistol, and like superuser accounts on other OSes, even if you're the only one on the system, you shouldn't use it regularly.
 
Thanks for the reply Captain Newbie. The frustrating thing for me is that I've never had this happen with any computer I've previously owned or used. I try to avoid rude power downs but they happen. I must crash a computer at least once a week when I'm running photoshop, illustrator, flash, winamp, an html editor, and a browser or 2, and the computer says "that's it, i've had enough, i'm crashing". I'm hoping to find a way to prevent the corruptions. I have a Dell that I've had for 5 years that I have used & abused and it never had a profile corruption.
 
zak_pc said:
Thanks for the reply Captain Newbie. The frustrating thing for me is that I've never had this happen with any computer I've previously owned or used. I try to avoid rude power downs but they happen. I must crash a computer at least once a week when I'm running photoshop, illustrator, flash, winamp, an html editor, and a browser or 2, and the computer says "that's it, i've had enough, i'm crashing". I'm hoping to find a way to prevent the corruptions. I have a Dell that I've had for 5 years that I have used & abused and it never had a profile corruption.
I apologize for the horrid spelling mistake I made in my reply...stupid keyboard.

Do you have all the proper 2k drivers installed for your machine? (Do they _make_ proper 2K drivers for your machine?)
 
When I installed my OS, programs, video card, sound etc. I was able to install all needed drivers. The machine ran fine. I never had random unexplained crashes, overheating, and any flaky behaviors. I told my story to my network manager and he said he's never heard of profiles being corrupt like that so easily.
 
Have you done something to offend the Microsoft Gods lately? :p j/k.

More specifically, it sounds like you could (possibly) have some sort of virus, some sort of corrupted .dll (or other important OS file) somewhere, or a hardware problem that has not come to full fruition.

re the hardware problem, since you mentioned power outages, maybe there's a transient fault in your power supply unit caused by ungraceful shutdowns (or possibly surges), or that it's simply...dodgy.

I had a system that would lock up under load, similar configuration, and it turned out to be a PSU fault that wasn't fully manifested until the thing _really_ died (STOP error then hang on reset).

Just some thoughts.
 
zak_pc said:
Thanks for the reply Captain Newbie. The frustrating thing for me is that I've never had this happen with any computer I've previously owned or used. I try to avoid rude power downs but they happen. I must crash a computer at least once a week when I'm running photoshop, illustrator, flash, winamp, an html editor, and a browser or 2, and the computer says "that's it, i've had enough, i'm crashing". I'm hoping to find a way to prevent the corruptions. I have a Dell that I've had for 5 years that I have used & abused and it never had a profile corruption.

You have my sympathy! How about install an Emergency Main Power Adapter or similar for your said pc? That is fitting your PC main power-lead to this new Emergency Adapter (remember to hide your PC's main cable so that it will not be accidentially tripped) and then this battery-powered Adapter to your Main Socket! You will have a couple of minutes to easily power-down your PC normally IF Main power shortage (either caused by your accidential tripping or actual power outages) is detected by this Adapter. As for your PC crashing, one of the possible causes could also be your PSU is power limited on HEAVY loads too. :rolleyes:
 
i'll add the ups to help with the potential power outages. i'm still worried if the machine crashes because i've just been using it a lot as windows still is prone to do and my profile gets wiped out. i'll have to update my recovery disks more frequently..
 
Why not use a disk imaging program like Acronis True Image to automatically make images of your OS drive at regular intervals? I have my computer set up such that every other day at 3:00 am, Acronis makes an incremental image of my OS drive and stores it on my data drive (another physical drive, although a separate partition would also work). If my OS files get corrupted (which has happened several times while messing around with overclocked settings), I simply boot from the Acronis bootable CD and restore the most recent image of my OS drive over the corrupted partition. It takes 5 minutes, and voila!--everything is back to normal.
 
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