missing settings

I hope someone has an idea of how to help me. I am running Windows XP Home and booted up last night. Durring the sign on process the computer locked up. It would not complete the sign on process. I had to do a hard reboot.

After the reboot all of my personal settings and documents were missing, i.e. desktop theme was set to default, programs in my startup file that had been disabled were now enabled,etc. Also my documents folder appears empty.

If I do a search for a document file It will show up in the search results, so the file is on my computer and the path is correct in the search. Also some programs are acting like I have never used them before. i.e. when I run norton systemworks I am getting splash screens I have set not to show, I.E. is asking me questions I have checked the box to not ask again.

I must also have some missing (hidden) cookies as I had to sign on to the BB.

I tried to uses system restore, but there were no restore points available.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can recover my personal documents and settings? And no I don't have a current back up. I know I should , but I don't have one.

Bill

 

Yes it does use profiles, each user has certian access, mine is set to system admin so there should be no problem with me accessing anyting.

Bill

 

There was a profile noted as owner. However the owner profile was not listed as a sign on choice. I even tried deleting all other profiles as mine was the only one we used anyway.

I was able to use the search function to find where the files I had in my documents went to and I copied them back to my documents. Now I am down to the pain in the neck stuff of customizing windows to get it back to the way I like it.

Bill