0

I want to relocate my user directory C:\Users\Edwin to a mapped network drive E: (i.e. mapped from a network share \\192.168.22.9\share).

The difficult part is in relocating the user directory itself. I found 2 possible solutions, both of which were not applicable to me due to my use of a network drive.

1.Moving C:\Users\Edwin" to "E:\Users\Edwin and then use junction symlink (mklink -J) to link back to C:\Users\Edwin.

This doesn't work for me because i can't create a junction symlink from a directory on a non-local drive.

2.Changing the value of registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ProfilesDirectory from %SystemDrive%\Users to E:\Users BEFORE creating the "Edwin" user.

Thereafter, when "Edwin" user first logs in, the profile will be in E:\Users\Edwin.

The problem with this is that I run into a chicken-and-egg problem.

On first login as user "Edwin" the profile will be created in E:. However, at the moment I first login, the mapped network drive E: isn't there.

I've tried the following to no avail:

1.Create a persistent mapped drive as Administrator. Didn't work. The mapped drive is only visible to the Administrator user.

2.Create a persistent mapped drive using system rights (using PsExec -s). Didn't work. The mapped drive isn't "owned" by anyone, not even the current Administrator user.

3.Create a persistent mapped drive using the newly created Edwin user, without logging in as Edwin yet (using PsExec again). Didn't work. While is possible to create a mapped drive as a different user, once i tried to do it persistently (/persistent:yes), i get a Access is Denied error.

Any idea how this can be done? Or whether it even can be done at all?

P.S. I don't want to use roamin profiles and/or folder redirection.

3
  • AFAIK It can't be done. The only thing left for you to maybe try is, using the registry method, use an reference the netowrk share via an UNC path instead of a mapped drive letter. ie: \\servername\sharename\Users, but again, I doubt this'll work, at least not well. :/ Sep 12, 2014 at 17:10
  • 1
    Welcome to Super User! This may be an XY problem. Why are you trying to do this in the first place? Maybe there's a better solution that you've overlooked.
    – Excellll
    Sep 12, 2014 at 17:11
  • I m doing this because I have several users RDPing to my servers with drop box accounts and their profiles are as big as 30 GBs. I cant afford their profiles to stay on my server's OS drive. I have tried Folder redirection but the drop box folder is created in C:/Users...no matter what.
    – syed
    Sep 12, 2014 at 18:58

1 Answer 1

0

Although you don't want to use folder redirection , you can try creating a symbolic link (instead of a junction point ) on E:\Users\Edwin to C:\Users\Edwin. This symbolic link is always relative so if ur accessing this from the machine which has C:\Users\Edwin you're okay,otherwise it will return a location unavailable error.

3
  • symlink is created for local drives only. I m trying to put it on a network share.
    – syed
    Sep 12, 2014 at 18:59
  • i didn't understand your comment cause AFAIK symbolic links are not restricted to local drives only. you can create a symbolic link to a remote resource as well. This includes network shares. Sep 14, 2014 at 17:11
  • yeh you are right... my bad.. what I wanted to say is I tried the symlinks on networkshare and it didn't work
    – syed
    Sep 15, 2014 at 15:18

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .