Error message when a user tries to save an item to a list or respond to a survey in a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web site: "An unexpected error has occurred"

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SYMPTOMS

Consider the following scenario. You deploy Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in a server farm environment. The server farm contains multiple load-balanced front-end servers. A user connects to a Windows SharePoint Services Web site. Then, the user tries to save an item to a list or respond to a survey. However, the user intermittently receives the following error message:

An unexpected error has occurred.
System.Web.HttpException: Unable to validate data. at System.Web.Configuration.MachineKeySection.GetDecodedData(Byte[] buf, Byte[] modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength) at System.Web.UI.ObjectStateFormatter.Deserialize(String inputString)

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CAUSE

This issue occurs if SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is not installed on the same drive on each load-balanced front-end server in the server farm. For example, in a scenario in which you have two front-end servers in a server farm, this issue occurs if the following conditions are true:

SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is installed on drive C on one front-end server.
SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is installed on drive D on another front-end server.

This issue occurs because layouts and ghosted page files must use the same path on all load-balanced front-end servers in the server farm.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, make sure that you install SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on the same drive on each load-balanced front-end server in the server farm.

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