Cannot create home folder in A/D logged on as Administrator(Windows Server 2003)

[Andy Bezanilla]

I have created a Domain Controller for a domain tree. I have created a Share folder called Users on D: and given requiered permissions, opened A/D and right click the user I want to create home folder for. In the Home Folder section I click on the connect to on the profile tab and type the correct path
\\Server1\Users\%username%
and I get the folloging message:
"The \\Server1\Users\%username%
home folder was not created because you do not have created access on the server. The user account has been updated with the new home folder value but you must crete the directory manually after obtaining the required access rights."

[Thomas Bianco]

in 7 years of network administration i have never got that to work correctly.

here is a script that i use to create user shares and set permissions and ownership. it's designed to work on existing folders as well as new users. assumes username contains no spaces

'user.bat. creates user drives and set permissions
'XCACLS is a microsoft resource kit tool
'setowner is a utility from http://ntsecurity.nu/toolbox/setowner/
'replace with your domain name
'
'useage: user.bat
'
if not exist d:\users\%1 mkdir d:\users\%1
pushd d:\users\%1
xcacls d:\users\%1 /T /p \%1:F "\domain admins":F \system:F /y
for /r %%i in (*) do setowner "%%i" \%1
for /d %%i in (*) do setowner "%%i" \%1
setowner d:\users\%1 \%1
net share %1$=d:\users\%1 /grant:everyone,Full /unlimited /remark:"%1's I: drive"
popd

[Ivan Ferreira]

Looks like you need a hotfix. See this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;824688

[Andy Bezanilla]

Has everybody had to go through this hotfix process? Microsoft is acknowledging that there is a problem. How is everybody dealing with this? I mean, being able to create home folders it is not an "obscure" feature used only by a few people!!!

[Thomas Bianco]

frankly, i've never found it to be a major source of effort, even with very large scale implementations.

when migrating 700 users to new home drives, i was able to write a 10 line script to read the list of account names, generate the home directories, assign permissions and share the folders.

bear in mind that creating the home directories from the management console will not remove them when the account is removed, nor will it assure NTFS permissions, nor correct any number of other complications.

the short answer is: it's would be more effort to convince microsoft to fix it then it would save by it's functioning.