I’ve relocated user profiles but something keeps creating new ‘documents’ folders on the old server

active-directorywindows-server-2003

I have been moving user profiles from one server to another. For the question we'll call them 'oldserver' and 'newserver' and the user is 'jbloggs'

While the user is logged out…

Copy the entire profile of jbloggs (\\oldserver\users\jbloggs) to the new server using robocopy.

When that is complete, rename the old folder to 'moved_jbloggs'

Then go into active directory and change the 'Profile path' to \\\newserver\users\jbloggs\profile and 'Home folder' 'Connect U:' to \\newserver\users\jbloggs

I have also changed the group policy 'redirect my documents' setting from \\oldserver\users to \\newserver\users

But when jbloggs logs in, a new folder is created in oldserver! \\oldserver\users\jbloggs\jbloggs's documents

Does anyone know what could cause the user folder to be re-created on the old server? Is there a further step that needs to be taken?

Best Answer

We had what looks like a slightly similar issue when we migrated user profiles to new hardware. Our "It's on fire and needs a fix" solution was to blow away the local profile on the machines that were logging in.

The other fix that we employed with some of our more difficult users was to open the registry and search for oldserver and change relevant keys to point to the proper location. Consider repeating the search with users\jbloggs\jbloggs's documents

As a *nix admin the explanation I made up and have no backing support for was: Windows is doing something silly with the cached profile. Blowing it away caused it to be rebuilt in a more proper manor.

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