lost user account

[jcnj6]

Long & painful story - short? ?
T40 motherboard crashed,
friend backed up documents & settings to external drive,
but he moved, not copied, doc&settings, soooo . . deleted all users from hard drive (dummy)
moved T40's hard drive to an old T23
On boot XP found no users so created a new one, but is deformed, runs slow, poor function, no access to control panel.
I copied back all documents & setings to hard drive but still only can access disfunctional, mutant user.

I have temporarily misplaced XP installation disc
I dont want to make things worse,
sooooo

Would using System Restore from a Safe Mode command prompt fix it?
I have exported/saved versions of registry from regedit
should I double clic on registry file?
or
open regedt and import older version?
Should I try restoring from windows backup (old full backup)

Which action or order is the wisest?
Any precautions i should take?

Thanks to all
Rich

[jcnj6]

I did not know the users were deleted and so Windows XP created the new disfunctional user

[GomJabbar]

Boot up in SAFE MODE, right-click on the folder(s) and choose the Security tab. Add an owner, then close the dialog box. Again right-click on the folder and choose the Security tab. Change permissions as necessary for the owner and others (everyone).

Hopefully you don't have a problem booting into SAFE MODE, because you need to enter SAFE MODE as Administrator. If you can't enter SAFE MODE, then do an upgrade install.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/win ... =189400897

[robert213]

I am not familiar with unique traits of T23/T40, but I doubt that Win XP installed on T40 would run on T23 anyway.

Whenever I help friends correct problems on their machines, rather than attempt to fix the problem -- I've learned that it is usually easier and faster to simply perform a fresh reinstall of Win XP on a brand-new HD.

A new SATA Hitachi 7K320 HD can be purchased under $80.
Use System Recovery CD to install Win XP.
Re-install desired software (MS Office 2003, FireFox, FileZilla, GIMP, etc)

Purchase USB external HD adapter, e.g. Silverstone RAVEN or Apricorn Drivewire.
Use USB external HD adapter to copy data files to new HD with fresh Windows install.

My guess is that you don't have plans to ever use your old T40 again. T23 may be too old and slow for your needs.

Consider purchasing a used R51 or T60, and start from there.

[RealBlackStuff]

FYI: he should get an IDE/PATA hard disk, not SATA!
Only from R60/T60/X60 onwards can you use SATA drives as your main HD.