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Cannot delete user profile folders Server 2008 R2
I have a new Server 2008 R2 server and I am trying to setup Remote Desktop Services to redirect all users profiles to E: instead of C: so their files don't fill up C:. I have tried folder redirection but this still leaves alot in the other parts of their profile on C:. I used a local policy "set path for remote desktop services roaming user profile" to redirect the entire profile to E:\profiles. This seems to work but in the process of testing I would like to delete some of the profiles I have been testing with and cannot delete them.
I first deleted the user's profiles from System Properties / Advanced / User Profiles. Next I went to E:\Profiles and the folders were still there. When I try to delete, at the command prompt, access denied, in the GUI, "You require permission from the computer's administrator to make changes to this folder." Try again, Skip or Cancel. Trying again does not work. I try to take ownership and can on the test user's folder but not the subdirectories, my docs, app data, etc... If I go to those and try to take ownership, I can click ok on all the boxes and it takes me back out like it worked but it ignores me and does not change ownership. The RDS server is a domain member and I am logged in as the domain administrator. Incredibly aggrivating!!! I need a way to delete these provile folders as periodically throughout the year we need to delete some to resolve problems and every summer I delete the profiles of students who have graduated. Rebooting the server and attempting to delete before the test user loggs on does not work either. I am out of ideas. UAC is disabled as a requirement of one of our other programs.
I first deleted the user's profiles from System Properties / Advanced / User Profiles. Next I went to E:\Profiles and the folders were still there. When I try to delete, at the command prompt, access denied, in the GUI, "You require permission from the computer's administrator to make changes to this folder." Try again, Skip or Cancel. Trying again does not work. I try to take ownership and can on the test user's folder but not the subdirectories, my docs, app data, etc... If I go to those and try to take ownership, I can click ok on all the boxes and it takes me back out like it worked but it ignores me and does not change ownership. The RDS server is a domain member and I am logged in as the domain administrator. Incredibly aggrivating!!! I need a way to delete these provile folders as periodically throughout the year we need to delete some to resolve problems and every summer I delete the profiles of students who have graduated. Rebooting the server and attempting to delete before the test user loggs on does not work either. I am out of ideas. UAC is disabled as a requirement of one of our other programs.
ugnvs
Looks like your server is not in production yet? If so, you can boot it from Ubuntu or Knoppix live CD and delete anything at your will. These CDs have NTFS support and do not care of NTFS permission as long as you are logged in as root.
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I'm sure a live CD would work fine but I would like to fix this so it is not an on-going issue.
I followed the instructions in the article linked to by acbrown2010 and that worked. I did have to take ownership again after running the script but then I was able to delete the users folders.
Now for the final part, how can I prevent this from continuing to be an issue? Of course I want the user's folders to be private from each other but I would like to be able to delete them easily. Is there such a thing as below but for Server 2008 R2?
"Note that if you are just setting up folder redirection and want to make sure that administrators will have access to the folders, follow the steps listed in the following article: Enabling the administrator to have access to redirected folders." http://support.microsoft.com/kb/288991
I followed the instructions in the article linked to by acbrown2010 and that worked. I did have to take ownership again after running the script but then I was able to delete the users folders.
Now for the final part, how can I prevent this from continuing to be an issue? Of course I want the user's folders to be private from each other but I would like to be able to delete them easily. Is there such a thing as below but for Server 2008 R2?
"Note that if you are just setting up folder redirection and want to make sure that administrators will have access to the folders, follow the steps listed in the following article: Enabling the administrator to have access to redirected folders." http://support.microsoft.com/kb/288991
The steps for Windows 2003 are the same for Windows 2008. A lot of the technet articles haven't been updated since Windows 2008 came out.