Missing User Profile

[Servatis]

Recently I've been having problems with my user profile. When I log on, it takes an extremely long time to load my settings, but XP can't find my settings and it sets me up with a temporary profile. The desktop is back to the default background, many shortcuts are missing (My Computer, My Documents, YIM, Adobe Photoshop, etc.), and it pops up with the "tour windows" thing. All of the programs on my computer act as though they've just been installed and all of my save games from The Sims 2 and Half-Life 2 just disappear.
I scanned for viruses, but I don't have any... of course it may not have found it.

Why is this happening and how can I fix it?

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/7851/sc...temerror8em.png

That link will send you to a screenshot of the system error that's found event viewer. Before I took this I fixed my desktop up a little. :] The default background reminds me too much of the Teletubbies.

[Miz]

Most likely the easiest thing to do is to make a new user profile and copy your stuff from the old, apparently corrupt, profile into the new one.

Instructions for doing that are in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article, How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile.

[dos_attack_ph]

Originally Posted by Miz

Most likely the easiest thing to do is to make a new user profile and copy your stuff from the old, apparently corrupt, profile into the new one.

the above post is the easiest workaround. but if the problems occurs AGAIN as i myself have experienced it, u might try considering checking and/or replacing your memory sticks as it worked for me and never had the same profile corruption again.