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I'm trying to recover from carelessly deleting my user account folder.

I've got a backup but Windows will not restore the folder under Users.

My account still exists, so I renamed it and created a new one with the same name as the folder I deleted.

Still doesn't show up under Users.

Would appreciate some help.

Just a FWIW; I can't offer any help with the specific Windows 7 problem but, since I'm going through a motherboard failure issue, I'll pass along something I wish I'd started doing years ago...

For about $70 you can pick up a disc caddy that can create an exact clone of a SATA (the most common in use in PCs) type 1 through 3 hard drive, 2.5" or 3.5". The one I got is made by Aluratek: http://aluratek.com/external-sata-hard-drive-duplicator. It's easy to back up our data files, but not so easy to recover system or application files in the event of a disc crash or other major problem.

You can also use applications like Ghost to clone a hard drive, but I wanted an option that was idiot proof. Too, when not in use as a disc duplicator, the Aluratek can be used as an external disc caddy plugged into a USB port. Put a hard drive in the caddy and it automatically maps as another drive letter, just like inserting a thumb drive into a USB port. Handy for extra storage space or as another data backup option.

With the disc duplicator, I picked up a 500GB hard drive for 50 bucks. I took the existing drive out of my workstation, stuck it and the new drive in the duplicator, pushed two buttons and voila: about 30 minutes later I had an exact, bootable clone of my existing hard drive. The copied drive went back into the manufacturer's packaging and into my safe. Did the same with the 2.5" drive in my laptop. I plan to do a "clone run" again should I ever make major changes to the in-use drive, either profiles or applications.

So now, in a worst-case PC scenario, I can put the cloned drive into the same or a different chassis, and be back up and running immediately (other than possibly needing to update hardware drivers if the disc goes into a new box). I keep my data backed up separately and can restore that to the new drive once it's installed.

I think this is a consideration for anyone comfortable with removing and reinstalling a hard drive...which is awfully simple to do on most desktop or tower PCs. A little trickier with laptops, but still not that difficult. During the past eight years I've had two hard drives crash and now a fried motherboard. Handy peace of mind to have that cloned drive for a little over $100.

Thanks for the replies.

Win 7 Pro 64bit Chrome (is a 17" laptop")

Currently using a netbook.

Last night, when downloading a program from CNET, I picked up a combo of malware (search protect by conduit, mixiDJ V8 toolbar, getsavin). I had Malwarebytes Pro running when infected. Thought that would have caught it.

Uninstall initially showed the programs but after uninstalling them, they remain but are not listed.

Ran a full scan with Malwarebytes Pro, then a full scan with Avast free, then a boot time scan with Avast. The boot scan found a few issues but didn't fix the new infections.

I cleared and deleted the unwanted extensions and home pages within Chrome.

Then I spent a couple of hours using regedit removing more than 50 entries containing, mixiDJ, conduit, and getsavin. Then cleared any cookies related to any of these programs.

I did file searches in Windows explorer again to see what was left. One of the files was in a subfolder of my 'Mike' user folder, but it did not appear. Figuring it must have been a hidden file, I highlighted the 'Mike' folder and checked the box for hidden files, then hit apply. That's all it took to wipe the folder out.

Initially, I was careful to allow anything to write to the drive. I downloaded a recovery program to a thumb drive (Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery) but it choked twice halfway through scanning.

I decided to buy the next program, WinUndelete, $50, since it claimed it would work. Again, downloaded to a thumb drive and ran it. It didn't find nearly as many files as I lost and I was saving the restore on an external hard drive. I ran it again on the 'Mike' folder and then once on the entire C drive. No joy.

At this point, I started my Outlook and erroneously thought it was unaffected.

I went ahead and restored 1100+ files in the recycle bin and then tried to restore the 'Mike' folder from a December full backup. That is when I realized that Mike was still not as 'Mike'. Still not appearing under users. Tried to restore again from the backup beginning one level up at 'Users'.

I ran duplicate finder and now see three copies of the files, including one in /user/mike but the folder and contents are still hidden.

It was then I realized that my Outlook email was, in fact, missing messages since December. This includes all records of folks asking to be put on the notification list for our range.

Even after much data was written, I decided to continue trying to recover at least my Outlook data.

I downloaded Piriform Recuva and am running it now using the deep option. Thinks are not lokking good.

To top it all, even though it doesn't appear in Chrome settings and extensions, if I click on the homepage icon, it still loads the mixiDJ V8 screen.

After I created the new account, I figured out how to solve the missing folder. Luckily, there was a restore point for one hour before the problem. It simply restored that folder\subfolders.

But I'm not sure how to correct the accounts. The new 'Mike' loaded just icons without my normal screen saver/fences. I deleted that user but chickened out and kept the files.

The original account to which I had added temp, I reverted back just to Mike.

Now, I have desktop\Mike\... and c:\users\mike... and they appear to be syncing. There is no option to delete desktop\mike while c:\users\Mike could be deleted.

The main thing was restoring the Outlook files up to March 16th. I have Earthlink set up to store messages four days, so was able to retrieve all emails since the error.

My contact group for interested members is fully restored and I dispensed backups both as csv and Outlook files.

Glad you got it sorted out. Profile issues can be a pain

Good advise for a backup and all software is reliable and for free:

Use a Linux Live CD/DVD/USB. Get a 2nd harddisk and boot it. Linux comes with a program called Disk Dupe (dd). Read the manpages and clone your primary disk.
An alternative is clonezilla, you can get it at http://clonezilla.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;