Re: The Diretory is not empty

On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:33:42 -0800, "Tom Mason" <> wrote:

>I'm trying to create a folder in an existing namespace, with other folders
>in it, and add targets to this folder. Whenever I try, get this error:
>
> (See Attachment)
>
>What does it mean, "The directory is not empty"? Which directory?
>
>Tom Mason

It means the folder which you are trying to create as a link already exists and
is not empty.

You have a root folder \\masonfamily.int\ddrive
Then you add a folder "mailboxes"
This is physically somewhere like E:\Private Date\mailboxes
Now you want to add targets so that "mailboxes" points to a UNC say
"\\server\mail"
To be able to do this the folder "Mailboxes" must be empty and apparently it is
not.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

Dave,

What I have is a namespace "\\masonfamily.int\private data" into which I
want to put a folder called Mailboxes. If I create the folder without any
targets, it works. The error occurs when I try to add a target, such as
\\hard-eight\ddrive\mailboxes..

I previously had a folder "Mailboxes" in another namespace and had no
difficulties with it. We decided that it would be better to put things like
mailboxes and other documents into a separate namespace and use permissions
to restrict access to this data. Creating the second namespace was easy and
creating a folder called "Documents" with relevant targets was also easy.
But this Mailbox thing is very strange.

Tom

--
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe MB
AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU 4800+
4GB RAM
nVidia GeForce 8500 GT Video
250 GB SATA II hard drive
Pinnacle PCTV 7010iX TV Tuner
"DaveMills" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:33:42 -0800, "Tom Mason" <>
> wrote:
>
>>I'm trying to create a folder in an existing namespace, with other folders
>>in it, and add targets to this folder. Whenever I try, get this error:
>>
>> (See Attachment)
>>
>>What does it mean, "The directory is not empty"? Which directory?
>>
>>Tom Mason
>
> It means the folder which you are trying to create as a link already
> exists and
> is not empty.
>
> You have a root folder \\masonfamily.int\ddrive
> Then you add a folder "mailboxes"
> This is physically somewhere like E:\Private Date\mailboxes
> Now you want to add targets so that "mailboxes" points to a UNC say
> "\\server\mail"
> To be able to do this the folder "Mailboxes" must be empty and apparently
> it is
> not.
> --
> Dave Mills
> There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that
> don't.

Well, I solved this problem with brute force and probably ignorance. We have
three DFS servers here, two DCs and one member server. Nothing I tried
resolved the problem I was having creating the new folder until I did the
following:

* delete all namespaces and replications from all three servers
* remove DFS from the member server (you can't remove DFS from a DC)
* dcpromo one DC back to a member server
* remove DFS from this server
* use ADSIedit to remove all references to CN=DFSR-LocalSettings for all
three servers
* delete all DfsrPrivate directories in all replicated folder targets
* delete DFSRoots
* dcpromo the server back to a DC
* reinstall DFS on it
* reinstall DFS on the member server
* create new namespaces and replication groups for the desired folders and
targets.

One problem I encountered was that one namespace, Shared Data, somehow
lingered through the above removal and reinstall process. I could not find
where it was, not with ADSIedit or Regedit. I finally switched to Public
Data as the name for the namespace and that was OK.

I can now say with great emotion that DFS is truly a beast!. The error
messages that it issues are completely useless. It is very difficult, if not
impossible, to change a DFS structure once it has been created.

But, once you get it right, it works very well, at least for me.

Tom

--
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe MB
AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU 4800+
4GB RAM
nVidia GeForce 8500 GT Video
250 GB SATA II hard drive
Pinnacle PCTV 7010iX TV Tuner
"Tom Mason" <> wrote in message
news:FED398C3-3D3D-4E22-88FC-...
> Dave,
>
> What I have is a namespace "\\masonfamily.int\private data" into which I
> want to put a folder called Mailboxes. If I create the folder without any
> targets, it works. The error occurs when I try to add a target, such as
> \\hard-eight\ddrive\mailboxes..
>
> I previously had a folder "Mailboxes" in another namespace and had no
> difficulties with it. We decided that it would be better to put things
> like mailboxes and other documents into a separate namespace and use
> permissions to restrict access to this data. Creating the second namespace
> was easy and creating a folder called "Documents" with relevant targets
> was also easy. But this Mailbox thing is very strange.
>
> Tom
>
> --
> ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe MB
> AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU 4800+
> 4GB RAM
> nVidia GeForce 8500 GT Video
> 250 GB SATA II hard drive
> Pinnacle PCTV 7010iX TV Tuner
> "DaveMills" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:33:42 -0800, "Tom Mason" <>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>I'm trying to create a folder in an existing namespace, with other
>>>folders
>>>in it, and add targets to this folder. Whenever I try, get this error:
>>>
>>> (See Attachment)
>>>
>>>What does it mean, "The directory is not empty"? Which directory?
>>>
>>>Tom Mason
>>
>> It means the folder which you are trying to create as a link already
>> exists and
>> is not empty.
>>
>> You have a root folder \\masonfamily.int\ddrive
>> Then you add a folder "mailboxes"
>> This is physically somewhere like E:\Private Date\mailboxes
>> Now you want to add targets so that "mailboxes" points to a UNC say
>> "\\server\mail"
>> To be able to do this the folder "Mailboxes" must be empty and apparently
>> it is
>> not.
>> --
>> Dave Mills
>> There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that
>> don't.
>