If you install a new Windows or Ubuntu over an old one, it should keep your users, and their IDs, intact, as well as profile/home directory.

It it possible to copy a profile from one user to another on Windows. �I wrote a util for this -�http://profiletool.codeplex.com/�- while I haven't tested it since Windows XP, it's (a) open source, so you can fix it yourself, and (b) the methodology can be done manually. �You may also be able to do this from the Profiles control panel capplet, or whatever Windows 7 has there.

For Linux, if you have a new account with a new uid, you can do something like this to fix:

mv /home/olduser /home/newuser

find /home/newuser -uid 1000 | xargs chown newuser

(where 1000 is replaced with the user ID of your old profile)

Windows requires a similar set of steps, but you also have to change ownership of the registry keys in the NTUSER.DAT file in the profile.

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 7:31 PM, Chakat Sandwalker <sandwalker@gmail.com> wrote:

Now that I have a copy of Windows 7 Professional x64, I can go ahead and install that and Ubuntu 9.10 x64 on my laptop. �However, I'm a bit unsure of how well my existing profile will be imported (if at all). �As I have the 32-bit version installed, I have to do a clean install. �In the past my user account has had its ownership changed to '1001', and I had to create a new account and copy the old stuff over.

In this case, would it just be easier to create a new user account and copy my data over to it? �The query's apropos Ubuntu, though the same could apply in Windows; that has its own foibles with using the same username (tacking on .WINDOWS was XP's method of doing things; I've no idea if Windows 7 does that).

Sandy
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