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February 2003

Roaming Causes Deleted Files to Reappear


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All of a sudden, all the users in my organization can't permanently delete files from their own folders on the server. After a user deletes a file from a folder, the next time he or she logs on to the server and opens the folder, the file reappears. I can delete the files directly on the server, but doing so isn't a permanent solution. I've checked all the users' permissions, and the users have full control of their own files. I haven't made any changes on the server or to the user folders. Could a virus be the cause? I've kept my antivirus software up-to-date, and scans haven't turned up anything.

I'm sure that Windows 2000 is the cause of your problem. Win2K's synchronization algorithm checks every file and folder in a roaming profile to see whether it exists in the local profile. When Win2K discovers that a file or folder is missing, the OS propagates the file or folder to the appropriate destination. To my knowledge, Microsoft hasn't corrected the algorithm in any service pack. The only remedy I can suggest is to avoid using roaming profiles, but this workaround probably won't work for you.

End of Article



Reader Comments
There is one work around for this if you are enforcing Group Policies. The policy is listed under: Computer Configuration/User Profiles/Delete cached copies of roaming profiles. There are a few drawbacks though. There will be an increase in bandwidth due to the entire profile being downloaded from the server on each Logon.
You also lose the ability to load the locally cached profile in the event the user cannot gain access to the profile server.

Dave Mineo February 05, 2003


Actually I have found a way to fix this issue, well at least I have the same issue and it fixed mine. Go the server that the profile is stored on and check the perm's. You should see the username@domain.com and system listed and both should have full access. Now, if your logged in as admin or your username add your user name and/or admin to the security and give them full access. Now when you hit ok you will have access to expand the profile but you will quickly see that you will not be able to open anything in the profile including directorys. All I did was make admin take over ownership on the profile and then I was able to browse the profile. After that I had my user delete something from her desktop and had her logoff and log back on and she was golden.

Craig Stewart September 17, 2003


I had the same problem. In my situation, the clients were running W2K Pro., with the HDD formated with FAT32.

I corrected the problem by running "CONVERT C: FS:NTFS" in a command promt, rebooted the host client, and the problem went away.

You didn's specify the OS or the HDD format in your question, so I can only assume that the HDD is also formatted with FAT32.

Good Luck.

bob March 18, 2004


I had the same problem and I corrected it by right clicking on the folder where the user's profile (files) are stored and allowed the users FULL access to their folders. By default the users have MODIFY control and they must have FULL control to enable them to change the files when they log off and download their information back to their user folder.

Ricky Fleming June 15, 2004


If you combine Win2k server and WinXP Pro you will have to reconfigure your policy with the new adm file of WinXP. To do that open the mmc on a WinXP workstation (as a member of domain) and get the group policy snap in. open policy of domain and reconfigure folder redirection. I have had best results with redirection to standard profile path. Be aware that the group policy editor on the win2k server might give errors. you will have to configure future policy changes from a winXP workstation.

regards, umber . ch

Anonymous User March 09, 2005 (Article Rating: )


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