I recently re-built an SBS 2003 Machine for a client that had user profiles folder re-direction configured previously and was horrified to find that after the rebuild, I couldn't take ownership, delete or even read any of the users folders even as administrator, I searched and searched but could find no answer to this problem.

Having tried various methods and suggestions from other IT professionals, In the end I gave up.

Thankfully I found a really simple tool that enabled me to reclaim ownership of these folders and files so I thought I would post it here to save anyone else from the same data-loss problems.

The tool is a very simple folder locking tool (Just simply applies a password to any NTFS folder) called DirLock.

Out of curiousity I decided to try it on the re-direction folders, It's as simple as locking the folder with it, then unlocking it again to restore ownership of all files and subfolders to the administrators account.

Hopefully this information is some use to somebody.

See the download.com review of, and download DirLock