help to find favourites

[bobbobb]

wife somehow updated my pc on my setting only my profile could not be found and desktop totally disipeared and so did my email, might have been a explorer update,

got most of it back and back on the net obivously but cant find all my old favourites web sites etc

can you help

[Mr.James]

it sounds like your user account has been disconnected from your profile. in vista the profiles are stored in the c:\users folder. in xp they are stored in c:\documents and settings.

the old user account should be be the same as your account name. the new user account will more than likely be called <username>.<computer name>.

move the folders in the <username> folder to the corresponding <username>.<computer name> folder to transfer the files from the old to the new profile.

favourites should be in a subfolder in your profile eg c:\users\john smith\favourites

[bobbobb]

ok will do any idea how i get all my email contacts back as well?

[Mr.James]

Are you using outlook express, windows live mail or the version of office that comes with microsoft office?

also what OS? XP or Vista?

[bobbobb]

thank you for the reply i have done it now all i did was set up a new user profile as it was corrupt like you said then i went into my hardrive found the old user account and and just transfered all files thats got my favs back now just the email contacts

i am on xp pro sp3 and outlook express 6 if thats any help

[Mr.James]

All your old email wil be stored in :

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

You'll need to have hidden files visible to see the Local Settings and Application Data folders. Either that or browse to the C:\Documents and Settings\<username> folder and then click into your address bar and add \Local Settings\Application Data to the path and press enter. You should then be able to browse down the rest of the folder structure.

Copy all the files to the new profile's equivalent folder. I'd move all the files that are already in there somewhere else first as you can't merge the sets of files. You will lose any email that you've downloaded to this new profile but it should bring all the old stuff back. If you don't mind losing all your past email and just want the contacts copy only the .wab file as this should contain your address book. If the .wab files isn't there let me know as I'm not 100% that it actually lives in this folder with the email but don't have an xp machine with outlook express installed to check...

Hope this helps.