Settings not retained

[aj_nsc]

Ok, I've got a friend who is running Windows XP SP2 who left her computer on last night (big deal). But while we were away, there may have been a power surge or something like that (unsure if that makes a difference). The heart of the matter is this:

Whenever she restarts her computer, everything that has been saved to her desktop is no longer showing up, however its in the C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Desktop folder. Also, her settings such as power management options are not retained when she restarts. Any ideas of what is wrong or how it could be fixed?

[smoker]

Hi

This is beginning to sound a little mysterious... I just posted earlier this evening with a similar problem and noticed that someone else had the same problem a couple of days ago... what's going on !?