Re: Redirected folders not working on xp machines

"Todd" <> wrote in message news:448CDE33-C533-41D8-9290-...
>I recently migrated from SBS 2003 to 2008. We used a temporary "swing"
> computer... we installed 2008 on the temporary computer, migrated data over
> to it, then installed 2008 on the original server and migrated back. All
> seems to be working well now except for my redirected folders on 2 machines.
>
> The problem is that all of our computers were pointing to //oldserver/ when
> the group policy was applied to move redirected folders to the //newserver/.
> Well, the old server is gone now so we were getting errors that folder
> redirection could not be applied because the old server was offline. To try
> and fix this issue, we created an alias to trick the computers into seeing
> //oldserver/ on the new server. This worked for all the Vista machines, but
> not the XP machines. There seems to be an issue with XP and aliases.
>
> I'm not worried about losing data on the two XP machines, as I have a
> backup. I just need to force the two XP machines into forgetting about that
> old server location and the GP should apply without a problem.
>
> Any suggestions please???


Have you reset the location of the Folders in the GPO? This is what I have done in the past, and it works fine.


--
Ace

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"Todd" <> wrote in message
news:6312DCD8-9D30-43AE-8BAA-...
> That doesn't seem to work. In case it helps, here is what I get after
> running rsop.msc:
>
> Wednesday, July 29, 2009 8:48:13 AM
>
> Folder Redirection failed due to the error listed below.
> The directory name is invalid.
>
> Additional Information:
> Failed to perform redirection of folder Desktop.
> The folder is configured to be redirected from
> <\\SBS2008\RedirectedFolders\Kathy\Desktop> to
> <\\cfpserver\RedirectedFolders\Kathy\Desktop>.
> The following error occurred:
> The directory name is invalid.
>
>
> Failed to perform redirection of folder My Documents.
> The folder is configured to be redirected from <\\SBSERVER\Users\Kathy\My
> Documents> to <\\cfpserver\RedirectedFolders\Kathy\My Documents>.
> The following error occurred:
> The directory name is invalid.

Curious, from Kathy's machine, if you connect to that UNC,
\\cfpserver\RedirectedFolders\Kathy\My Documents, does it connect or exist?
How about to \\cfpserver\RedirectedFolders\Kathy?

Ace

"Todd" <> wrote in message
news:6312DCD8-9D30-43AE-8BAA-...
> That doesn't seem to work. In case it helps, here is what I get after
> running rsop.msc:
>
> Wednesday, July 29, 2009 8:48:13 AM
>
> Folder Redirection failed due to the error listed below.
> The directory name is invalid.
>
> Additional Information:
> Failed to perform redirection of folder Desktop.
> The folder is configured to be redirected from
> <\\SBS2008\RedirectedFolders\Kathy\Desktop> to
> <\\cfpserver\RedirectedFolders\Kathy\Desktop>.
> The following error occurred:
> The directory name is invalid.
>
>
> Failed to perform redirection of folder My Documents.
> The folder is configured to be redirected from <\\SBSERVER\Users\Kathy\My
> Documents> to <\\cfpserver\RedirectedFolders\Kathy\My Documents>.
> The following error occurred:
> The directory name is invalid.

Sorry, one more question. Does she have Full Control in the Share and NTFS
permissions to this folder?

Ace

"Todd" <> wrote in message
news:9198D1AA-910E-4347-B7A1-...
>I need to revisit this problem as it is still not resolved. I had to drop
>working on the issue altogether for a while due to other business needs.
>FYI, I'm a financial planner... not an IT pro. I had paid a person in
>California to take care of this migration for me but after a few problems,
>the guy ditched us. So, I'm left trying to clean up the mess. Luckily, I
>have enough geek in me to work on most of this.
>
> Ok, enough ranting. The only server migration issue I'm still facing is
> this problem with my two XP machines. Their redirected folders still
> won't transition over because they are looking for
> \\SBS2008\RedirectedFolders\Kathy\Desktop and \\sbs2008\...\My Documents
> which no longer exist. That computer is gone forever.
>
> After trying to force the gpupdate and running rsop.msc, This error
> occurs:
> ----
> Failed to perform redirection of folder Desktop.
> ...
> The directory name is invalid. (full error can be found below in old
> posts)
> ----
>
> Since permissions seem ok and no other solution has worked, I'm wondering
> if this might work... What if I completely removed the computer from our
> network so that it would go back to the typical location for files
> (c:\documents and settings\username\)? I guess I would also need to
> remove their computer from the server too, right? Maybe even their User
> account? Then, I could reconnect the computer and we'd lose the reference
> to the old server. Does that seem like it would work?
>
> My only fear is that I don't want to lose the user's email, calendar, and
> tasks. I'm not worried about the documents or desktop items as I already
> have a backup of them. Do you think this will work? And, if so, what
> procedure do I need to follow to remove the computer from the network?
>
> Todd
> One tired, frustrated financial planner who will never go into the IT
> profession!
>


If you delete the folders, they have nothing to do with the email account.
The email mailbox, and assuming you mean you are using Exchange, still
exists in Exchange. If a POP3 email, then the users emails are stored in a
PST file in the user profile, not in the redirected folders.

Now this goes back to how you've setup the redirection. If you had added the
users to a group to contol redirection, just remove her from the group.
Maybe the easy way out of this is to simply disjoing and rejoin the machine,
after you've removed her from the group or from the policy, or both.

Here are some notes on how to remove redirection.

======
Removing Folder Redirection

To remove Redirection:
- Make sure you have a recent backup of the server where the redirected
files are.
- Use Group Policy to set folder redirection back to the default location,
which is your profile folder on the PC. You can't just remove the policy,
because the folders will stay where they are. You need to redirect them back
to where they were.
- Re-initialize the offline cache. Redirected folders by default are
synchronized to be available offline. That's the little arrow in the corner
of the icon. Unfortunately Offline files in XP will keep trying to
synchonize until you re-initialize it.
- If you used the method to use a group to control Folder Redirection,
Remove the user from the folder redirect group. If not, move the user out of
the OU where Folder Redirection GPO is lined to.
======

Hang in there. You're probably making a better living as a financial
professional anyway! :-)

Ace