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Accepted
Stephen Woolhead
Asked: 2009-10-22 10:40:47 +0800 CST

Strange path in sysvol replication

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On our 2008 R2 domain, I have a strange entry in the list of folder replica.

\\?\C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain      dc1       Enabled      SYSVOL Share
C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain          dc2       Enabled      SYSVOL Share
C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain          dc3       Enabled      SYSVOL Share
C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain          dc4       Enabled      SYSVOL Share

While everything seems to work fine, I'm trying to decided if the first entry is something I should worry about.

Cheers,

Stephen.

active-directory

2 Answers

  1. The "\?\" notation is valid. I'm not sure why your machine is listing it that way, but it's perfectly valid.

    Explorer doesn't seem to like that notation, treating it as a UNC, apparently. CMD.EXE likes it fine, thought. Try doing a "dir \?\C:\WINDOWS" (or some other valid directory) from a CMD prompt on one of your Windows PCs and you'll see what I mean.

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  2. Best Answer

    The \\?\ notation is primarily used to work around the MAX_PATH limit, allowing a path length of up to about 32767 chars. Some Windows API functions have a Unicode version that supports that notation, some don't. My guess is that dc1 is either a more recent OS or a higher service pack or patch level than the other DCs, and that MS rewrote either the NTFRS code or a library used by the NTFRS code to support \\?\ notation for the new version.

    Clicky for info.

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