XP Administrator account disappeared after crash

System restore no help

[Automan Empire]

Hello,
I have a pentium 4 machine running windows XP with a Belkin 550VA UPS.

I usually do all my work on the default administrator account. Recently I created two other accounts, one of which I gave administrator powers to, luckily.

Yesterday I was logging on, and an air compressor started nearby. Usually the UPS handles this seamlessly, but this time the computer crashed. When I restarted it, the administrator account was gone, along with my built-up desktop, favorites, dual monitor settings, all gone. No critical data lost, just a LOT of work to get it back to where I was.

I've explored everything I can to find the account. In the list of accounts, it shows the default administrator account, but if you click on it, all info is blank.

I tried going to two proior restore points, but that admin account will not come back. Does anyone have any suggestions to get it back, or should I just be happy it didn't lose the ONLY administrator account?
Thanks,
-Automan

[kaled]

Sounds like you'll just have to carry on as things are. A few weeks ago, a crash wiped out some settings on an admin account on my second laptop, but I didn't loose it altogether. One setting that went was the requirement to login when restarting - it just jumped straight in to my admin account without a username and password! This rather made me wonder if this fault could be repeated.

Kaled.

[Automan Empire]

Yikes, that does sound, how you say, exploitable!

After spending more "quality time" with the computer, I found the original administrator folders, which fortunately contained the boatloads of pictures I was seeking. A great wake-up call to do more frequent backups, fortunately without massive losses. The desktop file was missing about 1/3 of the items that used to be there for some reason. Still no luck reviving the old administrator account, but I'm still interested in ideas.
Regards,
-Automan