Drive with win7 user profiles died, can't boot now?

Ugh.

I have win7 booting from a ssd drive.
i moved the user profile folders to another drive to try to reduce the data files filling up the ssd drive.

Well- the drive died.
i have all the dat backed up on another drive, but I can't start windows because it can't find any of the user profiles.


Help!

Can you move it back if you boot into the WinRE and use the command prompt, or some other bootable Live OS to move the files?

Originally Posted by Saltgrass

Can you move it back if you boot into the WinRE and use the command prompt, or some other bootable Live OS to move the files?

I made progress!

I can now boot win7 with an old profile. I can access the backup of my user profiles now as well.

But, one question:

How can I tell windows where to look for the profiles now? I cant put them back in the original location because that drive letter (d is now gone (dead drive). I can restore the folders to c: or e:, but how do I tell windows to look there?

Leave them in C. If you muck around with the system without knowing what you do, you must not be amazed if it kicks back.

What is your space problem on the SSD. There are many ways to reduce the size of the OS without making damage.

Originally Posted by whs

Leave them in C. If you muck around with the system without knowing what you do, you must not be amazed if it kicks back.

What is your space problem on the SSD. There are many ways to reduce the size of the OS without making damage.

thanks but it's too late for that advice.

I already had the user folders on a diff drive. now I'm trying to correct it.

The only info I can supply about the user profiles is they seem to be set in the Advanced System Properties. You might open that and see if anything there will give you more guidance.

Type systempropertiesadvanced and the start menu search box, or open System and Advanced Properties.

Did you decide to move them because of some advice?

Before you proceed, make sure you have a backup of your (now) working OS.

I think it may be too late, if you have been using the computer, as the profiles accumulate progressively. But you should have copied (don't move, at this stage), also, the "Default" , "Public "and "Default User"folders. From your first post, I think you may have done this? If you cannot see these default folders, you need to go Tools - Folder Options - View - "Show" Hidden files, folders, and drivers.
Now you need to make a small entry to the registry. BACKUP the registry before starting this! If you havn't done this before, type regedit in the command line, or Start, and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

Change the appropriate entry of the Three (Default, Public, Profile Directory) keys to your new path. Now log off or restart.

You should now have your new user profile in the revised location.

As I intimated, unfortunately, as there has been a delay and mods made, there may be a few more path problems. So highly recommend that doing so as early as you can. (First installation, of course, is ideal)

Go into your BIOS and check to see if the burner is being picked up by the BIOS. Sounds like you may need to rescan for drives manually.

Sorry. I may have missed something. Burner? Is that associated with this problem?

Originally Posted by Lowepg

I made progress!

I can now boot win7 with an old profile. I can access the backup of my user profiles now as well.

But, one question:

How can I tell windows where to look for the profiles now? I cant put them back in the original location because that drive letter (d is now gone (dead drive). I can restore the folders to c: or e:, but how do I tell windows to look there?

I have the exact same problem. How did you get your computer to boot to an old profile?