Solved Cannot Delete User Profile Folder in Previous Location

[JackALope52x]

Hi All,

I just recently got a new bigger SSD to use as my boot drive. I wanted to move my User Profile over to my secondary HDD to help save room on the SSD. I used Brink's tutorial User Profile - Change Default Location (which was great by the way) in order to do this. Everything worked out smoothly until I went to delete the old user profile folder.

When I go to delete the folder a window pops up warning me that the file is shared (which it isn't) and asks me if it is OK to continue. Once I click continue another window pops up and informs me that the action can't be completed because the folder is open in another program. I can't seem to figure out what is open. I have tried using different administrative profiles and rebooting the computer multiple times but nothing seems to work. I was however able to delete the folders inside the user folder (Documents, Pictures, Music etc.) without any problems.

I was wondering if anyone else had this problem and if there is a way to fix it? Any help would be much appreciated and please let me know if anymore information is needed.

Thanks in advance,
JackALope

 

[TwoCables]

The C:\Users folder contains hidden critical folders (and files) that cannot be moved or deleted.

 

[JackALope52x]

Thanks for the quick reply TwoCables! Are these folders / files stopping me from deleting a specific user profile folder? I have deleted other user profile folders before without any problems. Why is this one different?

 

[TwoCables]

Thanks for the quick reply TwoCables! Are these folders / files stopping me from deleting a specific user profile folder? I have deleted other user profile folders before without any problems. Why is this one different?

There are things like AppData.

 

[ryo]

hi,
i think this cause by NTUSER.DAT as hidden file.
maybe some of the services or background process run with this profile user. did you try to rename first the folder and delete it?

 

[JackALope52x]

Thanks for the reply Ryo.

Is the NTUSER.DAT in the Users folder or in the profile specific folder? Also I haven't tried changing the folder name, but thanks for the tip. I will try it when I get home.

 

[TwoCables]

Are you trying to delete C:\Users? Or, a profile folder inside of it?

 

[JackALope52x]

Are you trying to delete C:\Users? Or, a profile folder inside of it?

I moved my user profile from my boot drive to a secondary drive. So now I am trying to delete the user profile folder off the original boot device. Not the whole Users folder.

 

[JackALope52x]

WOW! I solved it!

So I decided to go into my Control Panel and change the folder options and make it so I could view all hidden folders. I then went into the AppData folder on the user profile and started deleting items so I could find out what was open and running. I then found a item called CurrentDatabase_372 that could not be deleted because it was open in Windows Media Player Network Sharing Center. So I just disabled Windows Media Player Network Sharing Center and then the item deleted perfectly fine and so did the user profile folder.

It's amazing how a tiny hidden application can cause so much trouble. Thank you guys for all your help in this matter!

-JackALope

 

[AddRAM]

Excellent, and thanks for posting how you solved it.

 

[ryo]

sounds great.