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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.
syed
Posted 2014-09-12T16:58:56.453
Reputation: 1
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. :/ – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-09-12T17:10:11.0931
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 – 2014-09-12T17:11:55.707I 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 – 2014-09-12T18:58:05.020