PC resetting to factory default after each shut down!

BengaLover

LENOVO all in one pc, running windows starter.
Seemed to 'stick' the other day, did a force shut down, restarted and it ran the usual disk check.
The whole pc then was at 'out of the box' stage, and all documents gone, even tho my installed software (corel, etc) was still there.
Also tried a system restore, but even though I selected a restore point to before the problem happened, it still went back to the factory setup.
Every time I shut down the pc, it goes back to the 'out of the box' stage, as if it was turned on for the first time.
I have got windows defender and avast, and they dont appear to suggest any problems in the line of virus or malware.
Something simple I hope??

chin_grin

It may be creating new profiles on each boot. This was a common windows fault.

Restart the machine and tap f8 to bring up the safe boot menu. Go in to Safe Mode with Networking (so you'll still have access to the net).

If you go to C:\Documents and Settings (or Users on Windows 7) is your profile folder there with all the original documents?

You may need to create a completely new profile copy over all relevant files and then delete the old profile.

Take a look at this article for more information.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

BengaLover

Ok the link article didnt really make much sense, but i will try what you advised later.
In Safe Mode what would my profile folder be called, just profile?
If it IS, what do I do then?

Also, I noticed that when I transferred some photos from SD card it saved them in temp folder, if that is relevant?

BengaLover

UPDATE to confirm that all my pics etc ARE in the windows user profile...
NOW WHAT??
Thanks!

BengaLover

Anyone?

rolion

Run a full backup of your documents,ignore the status of installed applications.

Create a new user,called 'SysAdmin',give Administrator Rights.
Create a new user called "BengaLenovoLover" and give Normal User rights.

Do installs and configurations as "SysAdmin" and do the normal,day-to-day work as "BengaLenovoHater" user...

Keep doing backups daily,weekly,monthly !

Regards

homer911

Perhaps a red herrring, but do PCs still have 3V batteries for the BIOS?

If so perhaps yours needs replacing?

BengaLover

its only 2 months old so wouldnt have thought so..

homer911

BengaLover wrote: »

its only 2 months old so wouldnt have thought so..

In that case go back to however you bought it off and get them to resolve it or replace it

rolion

Lenovo will ask you to restore OS by using " System Restore " media...

BengaLover

Yeah, that was my first try, it didnt work.

Monkeynut

i seen you wrote that the machine did a chkdsk on boot-up.
have you dropped machine or been rough with it can cause bad sector on hdd.
have you been shutting it down properly, so your filesystem doesn't get corrupted.

i had a similar problem it ended up been faulty ram. not uncommon but not the usual culprit for this problem.

but first things first, i would like to think for been so new, that its not a hardware issue. so most likely it just a corrupt SID. e.g a registry key is corrupted. this website has helpful instructions for you. http://www.sysprobs.com/fix-temporary-profile-windows-7

norbert64

I'm having a similar problem myself at the moment on Windows XP.

We were happily using our PC yesterday evening, then switched it off with
''Install Updates and Shutdown''.

Turned it on this morning and our whole profile has been wiped/reset to factory settings.

No desktop icons, (save for My Computer and Recycle bin) no ''hot babe'' wallpaper, none of our installed appz/games/programs.
No email account set up in outlook.

Thankfully, everything is still actually there under
C:\Documents and Settings\users\jeffrey\mypictures
but I'm wondering how exactly do we rectify this, or what caused it to begin with? :cool: