Unusual duplicate user profiles appearing HELP!

[marsdenprimary]

Hi,

For some WEIRD reason I've been having issues with our user profiles (Windows 2003) in that I have duplicate folder names (e.g. swilson, swilson, swilson) but when i open one of them it will be the profile for a different user in the address bar!! If I change the folder name to that user- it duplicates the name and replaces the folder name of some others almost randomly... what's happening?

I thought it was a corrupt profile at first but it looks like something else may be happening.

Any ideas? It's driving me nuts.

[marsdenprimary]

*bump*

[witch]

Sounds odd - I had profile issues lately and ended up deleting all profiles on the server, then using delprof both XP and Win7 versions to delete all local profiles on the pcs - had to go round and check each one as some got left behind - then used delprof in a script to wipe all local profiles on startup or shutdown.
Obviously no one must log on whilst you are doing this.
I still dont know what was going on but it *seems* to have sorted itself out now

[marsdenprimary]

How bizarre...sounds like a good idea but the only problem is these duplicate folders contain user work- they're ultimately the users 'My Document' folder / server share... so i'm not sure what to do. I wouldn't be able to just delete them and we don't use personalised profiles for desktops etc... The screenshot is of the users home folders.

I didn't set up our server (it was set up before i arrived at this school) so i'm just working with what i've got until we get a new one. Any ideas?

[witch]

So are the folders redirected then?
Is the data not replicated in each folder so you could delete the extra ones?

[marsdenprimary]

So are the folders redirected then?
Is the data not replicated in each folder so you could delete the extra ones?

No that's the weirdest thing- when you open the folder the address bar tells me it's a folder with a different name! It's like the name of the folder i am seeing is a 'mask' if that makes sense?

[glennda]

So is it renaming all folders the same? but when you open in the address bar its not?

Do you use a mandatory profile for all of them? Was it made using this user's account.

Sounds similar to the windows 7 My Documents being renamed.

[marsdenprimary]

So is it renaming all folders the same? but when you open in the address bar its not?

Do you use a mandatory profile for all of them? Was it made using this user's account.

Sounds similar to the windows 7 My Documents being renamed.

Yeah it's renaming about four folders the same. If i change the folder name to the one in the address bar- it changes the others! Mandatory profile for all of them. It's hard to say now if it was made with the account as the folder will have been created at logon using the homeshare.

It sounds similar to the Win7 issue but as i'm looking at these folders on the actual server- it must be something else...

What a bizarre mind bender!

[User3204]

Have you checked for desktop.ini files in their folders ?
I'm not sure why they would all change together, and I though this only occurred in Windows 7/2008.

The thing to check is run up a cmd prompt and dir on the folder, and if they come up differently it'll be the desktop.ini.