Article ID: 818134 - Last Review: August 29, 2007 - Revision: 3.2

The %HOMEDRIVE% Environment Variable Does Not Point to the Partition That Hosts the User Profiles

Hotfix Download Available
View and request hotfix downloads

View products that this article applies to.

System TipThis article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled.

SYMPTOMS

If you configure Windows XP to host user profiles on a drive or drive partition other than the boot drive partition, after you start Windows XP, the %HOMEDRIVE% environment variable points to the boot drive partition instead of to the drive or partition that the user profiles are hosted on.

Back to the top

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322389 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389/EN-US/ ) How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

Back to the top

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support)

Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language. The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date         Time   Version        Size     File name
   -------------------------------------------------------
   07-Apr-2003  13:39  5.1.2600.1201  969,216  Msgina.dll

Back to the top

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

The only way to change the location of the User Profiles directory is during an unattended setup. For additional information about how to specify a different folder during an unattended setup, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

236621 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/236621/EN-US/ ) Cannot Move or Rename the Documents and Settings Folder

The resolution procedure in 236621 also applies to Windows XP.

Back to the top