Windows doesn't load user profile - help

We have two user profiles setup on our Windows XP Home Edition. All of a
sudden, when I log on to one of them, I get the following error:

User Environment
Windows cannot load the locally stored profile. Possible causes of this
error include insufficient security rights or a corrupt local profile. If
this problem persists, contact your network administrator.

DETAIL - An I/O operation initiated by the registry failed unrecoverably.
The registry could not read in, or write out, or flush, one of the files that
contain the system's image of the registry.


It then logs me on with a temporary profile, which I can't modify without
losing the changes.

I created another new profile with the intention of deleting the old, but
realized it's going to be a pain to reconfigure all of the items, and I'm
also not savvy enough with outlook and a couple others app's to copy the
appropriate data files over so that they can be used correctly in the new
profile (so i don't lose calendar events, etc.).

Would there be any way to rescue the profile that's not working, or am I out
of luck?

Thanks,
Jim