Where are user profiles actually stored?

  • Thread starter Thread starter noahsatellite
  • Start date Start date
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noahsatellite

I have a user of a Windows 2000 domain who is having some real problems
with her account (her keyboard locks up when she logs on, no matter
what computer she uses, though every other user in her group works
fine).

I want to delete her user profile and start anew (keeping her
redirected documents, of course). Her profile is redirected to
\\server\profiles\username -- where can I find that actual directory?

Thanks,
Noah
 
I have a user of a Windows 2000 domain who is having some real problems
with her account (her keyboard locks up when she logs on, no matter
what computer she uses, though every other user in her group works
fine).

I want to delete her user profile and start anew (keeping her
redirected documents, of course). Her profile is redirected to
\\server\profiles\username -- where can I find that actual directory?
Click to expand...


In "%userprofile%" -- you can logon as this user (she
can logon and let you take over) and literally Change
Directory to that environment variable with this command:

cd /d %userprofile%

The /d is NECESSARY to insure DRIVE and directory are both
changed if you are defaulting to a different drive than her profile.

Usually profiles are in (something like):

D:\Documents and Settings\username

But that is NOT guaranteed and my method above works reliably.

You should do a full copy of her profile before deleting it of course,
something like:

xcopy /s /c /o "%userprofile% c:\SaveProfile\

Parenthesis are necessary; only CD works without them when
the directory has spaces....
 
Open the Active Directory Users and Computers on a Domain Controller or
install the Administrative Tools (adminpack.msi) found at microsoft.com.
Click Properties of the particular user object.

--
Regards
Christoffer Andersson
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services


No email replies please - reply in the newsgroup
 
I have a user of a Windows 2000 domain who is having some real problems
with her account (her keyboard locks up when she logs on, no matter
what computer she uses, though every other user in her group works
fine).

I want to delete her user profile and start anew (keeping her
redirected documents, of course). Her profile is redirected to
\\server\profiles\username -- where can I find that actual directory?
Click to expand...
On the server named 'server' in the share named 'profiles'. Go to the
server and look for folders with a hand holding them. It should be
obvious from the name of the folder which one you are looking for.

If you can't get to the server map a drive to \\server\profiles.

Cheers,

Cliff
 
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