File locations for Full Text Catalogs using SQL Server 2005 on VMware I have an issue with one of our development SQL Server Servers. We have databases that use full text search catalogs. Just some background info, our servers are configured to use separate drives for logs, data, and the default installation location This server is a virtual machine. When I try to create a new full text search catalog, it forces me to create it in the default installation directory, citing that you can't create a catalog on a removable drive. This seems kind of contrived since this is a VM, none of the drives are &quot;physical&quot;, and the drive it will let me install it on isn't any less &quot;removable&quot; than the the others.
It does this on any of the test servers, but for this conversation the specifications are:

Windows Server 2008-R2 x64 Standard Edition
SQL Server 2005 9.0.5057
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.0.88016

All of these drives are attached to the vm as Hard disks, not mapped drives.

But when creating a new catalog, I always receive an error unless I put the catalog on the same drive the instance is installed on.

Is this just a quirk with sql server, or is there a work around? I know in newer versions of sql server, the catalogs are stored internally, and so this isn't an issue, but a number of our servers are still and will stay for quite some time on sql server 2005. Has anyone else seen this issue? Did you find a solution?
Use a folder other than the root of the hard drive.  UAC is preventing you from writing to the root of the drive.