windows 7 - A quantum rift in my profile - Super User

i've been given new machine @ work windows 7 professional installed on it.

i login our domain , proceed setup things way them --- setup desktop, visual studio, outlook etc.

a few days pass , come in 1 morning , computer appears "locked up". resolve issue turned computer off , on again, , realize had loose monitor cable. anyway, after logged in, appeared if had never logged in before. had re-setup i'd setup few days before.

i little frustrated proceeded on , kept working. during weekend came in install windows 7 (64-bit) because thought wasn't necessary. after protesting caved.

while installing (i didn't far) realized needed re-burn iso had. logged machine retrieve iso gone. didn't take me long realize though operating under setup profile. (files i'd downloaded before shift we're there, few scratch files i'd saved.)

after doing searching on computer can not find references of other profiles permissions seem locked down pretty tight , wonder if can't see other profile.

this why have "quantum rift" in profile. it's if profile has split 2 neither of them aware of each other's existence. able see files i'd copied other locations of harddrive, 1 such file/folder i'd created in c:\users\\archive folder. however, files appear have been lost in c:\users\

if provide insight why happened appreciated. getting ready zap computer though not doing further investigation on it. if happen again though, i'd know how resolve it.

i have had happen, logged fresh profile on windows vista. whenever happens, shutdown/reboot; problem has gone away.