Hi.. Quoting your full text, so the layout of my reply may be more confusing!
Since my television lines are down and can not watch it, think I'm spending too much time at GOTD forums. And though my head's spinning with new things, some room is still left.
Its not just your spending too much time here. Its the awful colour scheme and layout of this GOTD forum. I browse many online forums well enough, but spending a few minutes on this forum makes my head spin too!
To cimmind: THANK YOU for info that is almost all understandable to me! It's funny you used the word "Administrator" as this has been somewhat of a problem to me. I am the ONLY person who uses this computer.
Your being only person to use the comp does not necessarily mean you need to have only one account. E.g. i have a main Admin account and i have created a new 'limited account'. I do all my internet browsing, document editing, multimedia viewing etc. through the limited account only. For installing any new software, i log off and go back to the admin account.
I have 3 email addresses -- 1 is name I originally used when I went with a new Internet provider and do not use; 2 is what I use daily; and 3 is a catch-all trash bin to me that I rarely use.
The number of email ids you have is totally different from the number of computer accounts. The two are unrelated, one does not influence the other.
On this puter in a Documents/User folder (can't recall correct name) there are different Folders, i.e., "Administrator", "All Users", "All Users.WINNT", "Default User", "Default User.WINNIT", etc. Makes me crazy because I am the ONLY person who uses computer.
As a single user, the Documents and Settings folder is expected to have a folder each for: "Administrator", "All Users", "Default User" (hidden), "Local Service" (hidden), "Network service" (hidden), plus one folder each for each additional account you may have created.
EITHER of the '.WINNT' folders OR the 'plain name' folders hail from the failed install you had. Which copy of your Win2000 OS is the working one can probably be deduced by seeing which folder in your C drive is bigger in size: "Windows" or "WINNT".
I think I sort of have 2 of everything because quite a while back I re-installed Win2000Pro and thought I messed up, so did a re-install again. No, really did not know what I was doing entirely so this is why I'm thinking I got two of everything.
[The following is purely my personal experience:]
For me, Windows repair somehow never works out, I have had occasion to do reinstalls often. What i do is as follows:
- I have set up my C drive as a 10GB partition, only for the Operating software and software program files
- I install and store all my documents, multimedia, games etc. on a separate partition.
- Whenever reinstalling the Windows, i choose to DELETE the existing C Drive, FORMAT the unpartitioned space, and THEN reinstall the Windows. By doing this, i have no trace remaining of any previous Windows installs.
[CAUTION: Do not try this if you do not know about partitioning. You will lose all data on the C drive]
But DID learn I should always keep "Administrator" and make no changes using this one. Hence, I think I'm using another one, but do not know which one. It all works for me, and that really is what matters.