Re: Rename Administrator.WORKSTATION folder?

From: Dave Patrick (mail_at_Nospam.DSPatrick.com)
Date: 10/09/04 

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 08:03:41 -0600

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!
Quantcast