Losing user profiles



We seem to be encountering an issue with a few of our clients where a
user will log on to a Windows 2000 or Windows XP workstation and their
workstation profile will be recreated. When reviewing the C:\Documents
and Settings folder the user profiles will be as such:

C:\Documents and Settings\USER <--- Original user
profile
C:\Documents and Settings\USER.DOMAIN <--- User profile after
profile is lost

Now, in every case, it is an Active Directory user account on Windows
Server 2003. We've tried installing the registry hive cleanup service
on Microsoft's recommendation to no avail. Also, we haven't been able
to trace any event log entries to the cause.

The resolution is simply to log on to the workstation as the domain
administrator and rename the profile folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\USER.DOMAIN
C:\Documents and Settings\USER.DOMAIN.OLD

After the user logs back in, everything loads correctly.

If anyone has experienced this or can shed any light on the subject,
it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Matt

.



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