I'd just finished doing a fresh install of 2KPro, all the drivers and

apps and everything. It was 5:00 AM.*



Right! So I deliver the box, plug it all in, hit the power and it

....BLUE SCREENS! WTF! It's self destructed a chunk of the registry and

Repair "can't find" a Windows 2000 installation. (Mumbles something

about forgetting to do the ERD thing...**)



Right! I got the custom built, bootable 2K CD-R right there with all the

drivers and apps, so I'll just reinstall everything.



Tooling right along, it totally wipes the WINNT directory tree, no

problem there, reinstalling all... It overwrites things in the Program

Files tree, leaving things not part of 2k alone. That's good.



Then I notice that instead of simply overwriting or blowing away the

Documents and Settings tree, it's created Administrator.WORKSTATION All

Users.WORKSTATION and Default User.WORKSTATION folders. I figure, "Eh,

must be like how 9x offers to do a reinstall into windows.000, except 2K

doesn't offer a choice, it just *bloody well goes and does it without

asking!*" Oh well, it'll work, no worries, right? I'll just delete the

old ones..."***



WRONG!



I've run into some programs, among them Netscape 7.2, that absolutely

cannot handle the Administrator folder being named anything but

Administrator. It will not finish installing so it won't run.



So, now that you know how I got into this situation (with *help* from

"Choices? You don't get choices!" 2K Pro install, how do I fix it so

those three folders can have the .WORKSTATION amputated from their

names?



I've dug through the Registry and found that the Administrator folder is

NOT referenced in any Values, just Data attached to Values, so that

could be edited to point to a new Administrator folder, except there are

files in that subtree it won't allow to be copied. The All Users and

Default User subtrees CAN be fully copied, but those two are referenced

multiple times in Values, which cannot be edited with regedit.





Soooo, how do I fix this short of "nuke and pave"? (Again!)





How about a little "Repair/Rename Administrator and User Folders and all

Registry References" program? It'd show all those folders under

Documents and Settings, with checkboxes by the ones you wish to fix,

which activate edit boxes to enter the new names. Clicky the Restart

button and watch it work the magic during boot before 2000 locks things

down? (Like how the BEST defragger for 2000 and XP, O&O Defrag, takes

care of the MFT and other exclusively locked files.)



*Had to fight for a while with a hard drive that was pulled from a new

HP cheap-PC, and you know the dirty nasty things HP, Compaq etc often do

to their drives to try and keep you from simply using them in a new box.

"NTLDR is missing"! Zero fill, baby, ZERO FILL! (For several hours...)



**It _was_ 5:00 AM, remember! :P



***How about fixing this with SP5 so that when I make streamlined

install CDs, this little "issue" of creating these other default

folders _never happens again_? Or at least give users the CHOICE

to use the existing folders!

You didn't format the drive before the reinstall. These articles may help.



http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314045



http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296834



--

Regards,



Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft MVP [Windows]

http://www.microsoft.com/protect



"GAlan" wrote:

| I'd just finished doing a fresh install of 2KPro, all the drivers and

| apps and everything. It was 5:00 AM.*

|

| Right! So I deliver the box, plug it all in, hit the power and it

| ...BLUE SCREENS! WTF! It's self destructed a chunk of the registry and

| Repair "can't find" a Windows 2000 installation. (Mumbles something

| about forgetting to do the ERD thing...**)

|

| Right! I got the custom built, bootable 2K CD-R right there with all the

| drivers and apps, so I'll just reinstall everything.

|

| Tooling right along, it totally wipes the WINNT directory tree, no

| problem there, reinstalling all... It overwrites things in the Program

| Files tree, leaving things not part of 2k alone. That's good.

|

| Then I notice that instead of simply overwriting or blowing away the

| Documents and Settings tree, it's created Administrator.WORKSTATION All

| Users.WORKSTATION and Default User.WORKSTATION folders. I figure, "Eh,

| must be like how 9x offers to do a reinstall into windows.000, except 2K

| doesn't offer a choice, it just *bloody well goes and does it without

| asking!*" Oh well, it'll work, no worries, right? I'll just delete the

| old ones..."***

|

| WRONG!

|

| I've run into some programs, among them Netscape 7.2, that absolutely

| cannot handle the Administrator folder being named anything but

| Administrator. It will not finish installing so it won't run.

|

| So, now that you know how I got into this situation (with *help* from

| "Choices? You don't get choices!" 2K Pro install, how do I fix it so

| those three folders can have the .WORKSTATION amputated from their

| names?

|

| I've dug through the Registry and found that the Administrator folder is

| NOT referenced in any Values, just Data attached to Values, so that

| could be edited to point to a new Administrator folder, except there are

| files in that subtree it won't allow to be copied. The All Users and

| Default User subtrees CAN be fully copied, but those two are referenced

| multiple times in Values, which cannot be edited with regedit.

|

|

| Soooo, how do I fix this short of "nuke and pave"? (Again!)

|

|

| How about a little "Repair/Rename Administrator and User Folders and all

| Registry References" program? It'd show all those folders under

| Documents and Settings, with checkboxes by the ones you wish to fix,

| which activate edit boxes to enter the new names. Clicky the Restart

| button and watch it work the magic during boot before 2000 locks things

| down? (Like how the BEST defragger for 2000 and XP, O&O Defrag, takes

| care of the MFT and other exclusively locked files.)

|

| *Had to fight for a while with a hard drive that was pulled from a new

| HP cheap-PC, and you know the dirty nasty things HP, Compaq etc often do

| to their drives to try and keep you from simply using them in a new box.

| "NTLDR is missing"! Zero fill, baby, ZERO FILL! (For several hours...)

|

| **It _was_ 5:00 AM, remember! :P

|

| ***How about fixing this with SP5 so that when I make streamlined

| install CDs, this little "issue" of creating these other default

| folders _never happens again_? Or at least give users the CHOICE

| to use the existing folders!

"Dave Patrick" <mail@Nospam.DSPatrick.com> wrote in

news:ebEhJjgrEHA.4044@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl:



> You didn't format the drive before the reinstall. These articles may

> help.

>

> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314045

>

> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296834

>



There were files on the drive I'd salvaged from the original drive

that was going bad. Couldn't format the drive with no way to

save those files.



Microsoft just needs to fix this "feature" of creating new

folders under Documents and Settings when not doing a 100%

squeaky clean install.



With 95 and 98, installing Windows over itself is an often

useful way to fix many problems.



With 2000, it's 1/3 "nuke and pave" where it totally wipes

the WINNT directory tree, 1/3 9x style "over-install" where it

simply overwrites Windows' files in the Program Files tree,

and 1/3 creating problems with new folders in

Documents and Settings.



Hopefully I can fix the thing without having to reinstall it

all again.



And brickbats to Netscape for making their installer incompatable

with a non-default Administrator folder name!



What I'd love to know is how a system that had just the night

before been running fine and properly shut down, no install

cleanup or anything else pending for the next boot, blow its

own Registry to bits while simply starting up? It was the

Software section it was complaining about.

win9x doesn't do profiles hence the difference. Not sure why microsoft is

responsible for your lack of backup capability. Check those articles for

how. For the other issue this may help.



Possible Data Loss After You Enable the "Write Cache Enabled" Feature

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281672



--

Regards,



Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft MVP [Windows]

http://www.microsoft.com/protect



"GAlan" wrote:

| There were files on the drive I'd salvaged from the original drive

| that was going bad. Couldn't format the drive with no way to

| save those files.

|

| Microsoft just needs to fix this "feature" of creating new

| folders under Documents and Settings when not doing a 100%

| squeaky clean install.

|

| With 95 and 98, installing Windows over itself is an often

| useful way to fix many problems.

|

| With 2000, it's 1/3 "nuke and pave" where it totally wipes

| the WINNT directory tree, 1/3 9x style "over-install" where it

| simply overwrites Windows' files in the Program Files tree,

| and 1/3 creating problems with new folders in

| Documents and Settings.

|

| Hopefully I can fix the thing without having to reinstall it

| all again.

|

| And brickbats to Netscape for making their installer incompatable

| with a non-default Administrator folder name!

|

| What I'd love to know is how a system that had just the night

| before been running fine and properly shut down, no install

| cleanup or anything else pending for the next boot, blow its

| own Registry to bits while simply starting up? It was the

| Software section it was complaining about.

"Dave Patrick" <mail@Nospam.DSPatrick.com> wrote in

news:#oGX$RAsEHA.3728@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl:



> win9x doesn't do profiles hence the difference. Not sure why microsoft

> is responsible for your lack of backup capability. Check those

> articles for how. For the other issue this may help.

>

> Possible Data Loss After You Enable the "Write Cache Enabled" Feature

> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281672



What does the write cache have to do with reinstalling Windows 2000

creating new directories in Documents and Settings, which causes

various programs to not work?



I tried at least a dozen different methods of fixing this "feature"

to get the directories back to their proper names.



I finally gave up and reinstalled 2000 with formatting the drive.

Fortunately I hadn't yet wiped the customer's old, failing, drive

and was able to connect it to her PC and recover most of the important

files.



I consider this a lesson learned. You can't install Windows 2000

over itself if trying a repair install fails, it'll cause problems

instead of fixing them!

"GAlan" wrote:

| > Possible Data Loss After You Enable the "Write Cache Enabled" Feature

| > http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281672

|

| What does the write cache have to do with reinstalling Windows 2000

| creating new directories in Documents and Settings, which causes

| various programs to not work?

* Possibly addresses the original problem.



| I tried at least a dozen different methods of fixing this "feature"

| to get the directories back to their proper names.

* 314045 and 296834 addressed this issue.





--

Regards,



Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft MVP [Windows]

http://www.microsoft.com/protect

	
Quote:
	

	

		

			
				Originally posted by Dave Patrick 

"GAlan" wrote:

| > Possible Data Loss After You Enable the "Write Cache Enabled" Feature

| > http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281672

|

| What does the write cache have to do with reinstalling Windows 2000

| creating new directories in Documents and Settings, which causes

| various programs to not work?

* Possibly addresses the original problem.



| I tried at least a dozen different methods of fixing this "feature"

| to get the directories back to their proper names.

* 314045 and 296834 addressed this issue.





--

Regards,



Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft MVP [Windows]

http://www.microsoft.com/protect 
			
		
	
	




This below only applies to the all users and default user folders.  I was able to change the other one, but that was a few weeks ago and I've slept since then.



Windows DOES have a spot.  Note that this is the same for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.  What you may want to do is have booted into safe mode prior to this.

[list=1][*]Boot Into Safe Mode[*]Go to the C:\Documents And Settings   Directory[*]Make sure you can see all files and folders, including the hidden ones.[*]Make a copy of the folders you want to change[*]Rename those folders to the name you would like the folder to be.[*]Open the registry editor and navigate to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList[*]Change the folder names for the All Users and Default User Folders to the new folder names[*]Close the registry.  Reboot[*]Delete the Old Folders.[/list=1] 



NOTE: A word to the wise: Have all Microsoft Installation disks handy.  Office, VS.NET and all other MS programs may need the disks for securty reasons to verify the programs.  It is not a full reinstall, just a verification.  



I am just finishing a rename as I was having problems with programs working improperly because of the "." in the name of the folder.





Rob Reynolds

MCP

http://robz.webhop.org

	
Quote:
	

	

		

			
				Originally posted by robz 

This below only applies to the all users and default user folders.  I was able to change the other one, but that was a few weeks ago and I've slept since then.



Windows DOES have a spot.  Note that this is the same for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.  What you may want to do is have booted into safe mode prior to this.

[list=1][*]Boot Into Safe Mode[*]Go to the C:\Documents And Settings   Directory[*]Make sure you can see all files and folders, including the hidden ones.[*]Make a copy of the folders you want to change[*]Rename those folders to the name you would like the folder to be.[*]Open the registry editor and navigate to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList[*]Change the folder names for the All Users and Default User Folders to the new folder names[*]Close the registry.  Reboot[*]Delete the Old Folders.[*]Here is the kicker.  Now you must go through the registry and rename any instance of All Users.WINDOWS to the new name.  The same for Default User.WINDOWS.  Expect this to take a while.  There is a whole section under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Install Folders where you have to right click and rename the keys instead of just modifying them.[*] Reboot one last time.[/list=1] 



NOTE: A word to the wise: Have all Microsoft Installation disks handy.  Office, VS.NET and all other MS programs may need the disks for securty reasons to verify the programs.  It is not a full reinstall, just a verification. 



I am just finishing a rename as I was having problems with programs working improperly because of the "." in the name of the folder.





Rob Reynolds

MCP

http://robz.webhop.org