Copying profiles - links not directories

[Joe McLain]

I've noticed when copying profiles that not everything is copied; it would
appear that some directories (My Documents, for instance) may be links
rather than directories. Outlook Express folders aren't copied at all; the
new profile points to the old locations.

Here's an example: A user brings us their laptop and they've been using it
for a few months while logged in as Administrator. We set it up to log in
to the domain, have them log in once so it creates a profile for them and
then we log in and copy (using Microsoft's tool) the Administrator profile
to C:\Documents and Settings\username. So far, so good. We then have the
user log in and check and, sure enough, everything's there. As there was 10
GB of stuff in the profile and the user's running out of disk space, we go
back to the user profile tool and delete the Administrator profile. The
user logs back in and, oh my God, all e-mail has been deleted. Warm fuzzy
factor = zero.

What gives? Is there a rationale for not copying the entire profile? Is
there a tool that works? I there something that I ought to know but
obviously don't?

Thanks -

Joe.