WinXP Pro profile lost....but why?

This is the second or third time this has happened in 3 years. On
previous occasions I put it down to the amount of use the PC got as a
main machine, but not this time.

This PC (AMD 2800+, XP Pro patched to the eye balls) has been
relegated to a networked file & print server. It gets regular registry
checks, defrags etc but other than that it doesn't see much action
loading or deleting programs. Very little is changing in the core
programs, it's mainly just data file traffic. So I'm wondering why the
profile has been lost?

Could this problem be caused by Windows updates. From memory both
previous occasions occurred after a update; or is this just
coincidence?

Is there a way to stop this problem happening again?

Any help from you gurus would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

<nospam@lucidavinks.plus.com> wrote in message
news:97bb0187-f3bf-4fac-9fe6-09c53baaa20d@q77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> This is the second or third time this has happened in 3 years. On
> previous occasions I put it down to the amount of use the PC got as a
> main machine, but not this time.
>
> This PC (AMD 2800+, XP Pro patched to the eye balls) has been
> relegated to a networked file & print server. It gets regular registry
> checks, defrags etc but other than that it doesn't see much action
> loading or deleting programs. Very little is changing in the core
> programs, it's mainly just data file traffic. So I'm wondering why the
> profile has been lost?
>
> Could this problem be caused by Windows updates. From memory both
> previous occasions occurred after a update; or is this just
> coincidence?
>
> Is there a way to stop this problem happening again?
>
> Any help from you gurus would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris

It is extremely unlikely that your profile is lost. Have a look
in the folder "c:\Documents and Settings". What subfolders
do you see there?