How to Recover Windows XP Corrupt Local Profile

1. Click the Windows 'Start' button, then click 'Control Panel.' Double-click 'User Accounts.' Click 'Create a New Account' to open a dialog box.
2. Type the new user account name in the opened dialog box. Click 'Next.' Select a user account type and click 'Create Account.' This creates a new profile and creates a new directory on the hard drive where your profile settings are stored.
3. Click the Windows 'Start' button and select 'Run.' Type 'C:\Documents and Settings\Old_Username' into the text box where 'old_username' is the name of the account that is corrupted. This opens an Explorer window that shows all of your profile account directories.
4. Right-click the profile account directory that is corrupted and click 'Copy.' Right-click your new account profile directory and click 'Paste.' When the popup dialog asks if you want to overwrite 'Ntuser.dat,' Ntuser.dat.log' and 'Ntuser.ini,' click 'No' to keep the original files.
5. Log out of the computer and log in with the new user account. The errors are removed, and your old preferences are added to your new account profile.