Member Avatar for jwdscotland

Hi there

Was running windows XP Pro, then downloaded a copy of IE7 where it would not need validated. When restart the message ' Normaliz.dll' not found, then nothing, it stops and does not proceed to load. Tried using last good configuration, and %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe. Have installed XP again and now have 2 versions on PC, when go into document and settings all my original stuff is there (30GB). Try to get into it but cannot. Does anyne know of anyway to get at my original XP settings????

Cheers
:!:

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by intensify

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Given the situation reported by and the suggestions from and , priority should be safe data recovery first and repair or reinstall second. The 30GB under "Documents and Settings" strongly suggests user data survives; the barrier is profile mapping and NTFS permissions rather than missing files.

Practical recovery steps: boot to Safe Mode and try the built-in Administrator account (F8 at boot). If that opens, copy the old profile folders (Desktop, My Documents, Favorites, Application Data, Local Settings) to an external drive. If Explorer blocks access, enable the Security tab (XP Home: Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> uncheck "Use simple file sharing"), then change ownership on the old profile folder: Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Owner -> set to an Administrator account and check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects", then grant Full Control. If Windows cannot change permissions or the system will not boot, mount the drive on another PC or boot a rescue environment (Live Linux, WinPE/BartPE) and copy the files off before any more writes.

After data is safe, perform a clean restore with genuine media. For selectively restoring settings, copy user folders (Documents, Favorites, AppData) rather than trying to merge whole profiles. Advanced option: load the old user hive (ntuser.dat) into regedit to pull specific registry settings, but only after backing up current registries. Avoid untrusted installers in future — they can corrupt system DLLs and force reinstalls.

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Member Avatar for DaveB

Hi

Try creating a new account on the new install, with the exact same username/password as you used for the old install. Logged in with this account, you should be able to access the files.

Regards, Dave

Member Avatar for intensify

if that doesn't work I would suggest getting your data saved off that hard drive by any means necessary.. you may need to pull the drive and use another system to get it out.. then wipe the whole partition on the drive and start fresh.

sounds like you have a cluster &^$% there.

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