Junction Points and User Accounts

soumodeler · 12 Jan 2014

I goofed and need some help! I set up a friends computer with a SSD for the C: drive and 2 mirrored HDDs for data on D:. I used a junction point to move the Users directory to the data drives. I now realize this was a bad idea.

Now you cannot login. You get a message about the User Profile Service failed or you get a temp user account.
I can log in using safe mode and get this message: "C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable." I cannot use most programs or install new ones.

I think my junction point has been messed up and I do not know how to fix it. I want to remove it and have the Users directory back on the C: drive. I used ubuntu to move the profile back to C:\Users and deleted a shortcut that was pointing to D:\Users. That did not help.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Ztruker · 12 Jan 2014

Boot a Windows 7 install DVD, take the Repair Computer path and get to a Command Prompt.
Use diskpart to find your boot and data drives:

diskpart
list vol

If you boot drive turns out to be D: then change to the D: drive by enter D:
Do a dir. What does it show you?

I have my Users folder redirected to my D: drive and this is what dir looks like on my boot drive.:

Code:

C:\>dir
 Volume in drive C is Lenovo_C
 Volume Serial Number is 9575-A2CF

 Directory of C:\

2013/12/20  12:00 AM    <DIR>          Brother
2013/11/08  01:13 PM    <DIR>          Intel
2014/01/06  04:27 PM    <DIR>          ldiag
2012/07/26  02:33 AM    <DIR>          PerfLogs
2014/01/04  05:13 PM    <DIR>          Program Files
2013/12/29  11:50 PM    <DIR>          Program Files (x86)
2013/12/20  10:10 PM    <DIR>          rexxprogs
2014/01/05  03:15 AM    <JUNCTION>     Users [D:\Users]
2014/01/12  08:29 PM    <DIR>          Windows
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               9 Dir(s)  29,845,626,880 bytes free

These are the directions I followed to set this up. One of the few times I find a tutorial elsewhere easier to follow than one here:
Move the Users Directory in Windows 7

soumodeler · 14 Jan 2014

I recreated the junction point, no luck there. Still cannot log in with the user account, just a temp profile.

Ztruker · 14 Jan 2014

Can you create a new account then copy the users data over from the old account?

Fix a corrupted user profile - Microsoft Windows Help