Error when opening project from USB or Network Drive?

Hi

I’ve found a replicable issue with Meteor in Windows. Our students will need to be able to store their projects in their network drives or on USB pens for mobility between different machines/classrooms and working at home. To replicate

Insert USB pen
Open CMD
navigate to USB drive
Meteor create test123 (this will succeed)
CD test123
Meteor

This will fail with

C:\ProgramData\AppData\Local.meteor\packages\templating-compiler\1.3.2\plugin.compileTemplatesBatch.os\npm\node_modules\meteor\promise\node_modules\meteor-promise\promise_server.js:190
throw error;
^

Error: EISDIR: illegal operation on a directory, symlink ‘C:\ProgramData\AppData\Local.meteor\packages\meteor-tool\1.4.4_1\mt-os.windows.x86_32\dev_bundle\server-lib\node_modules’ -> 'E:\tester22.meteor\local.build141746.build\programs.build570278.server\node_modules’
at Error (native)
at Object.fs.symlinkSync (fs.js:897:18)
at Object.wrapper (C:\tools\fs\files.js:1586:35)
at symlinkWithOverwrite (C:\tools\isobuild\builder.js:740:5)
at Builder.write (C:\tools\isobuild\builder.js:266:7)
at ServerTarget.write (C:\tools\isobuild\bundler.js:2265:15)
at C:\tools\isobuild\bundler.js:2373:30
at C:\tools\isobuild\bundler.js:2506:9
at Array.forEach (native)
at C:\tools\isobuild\bundler.js:2496:26
at C:\tools\isobuild\bundler.js:2837:22
at C:\tools\utils\buildmessage.js:271:13
at [object Object]..extend.withValue (C:\tools\utils\fiber-helpers.js:89:14)
at C:\tools\utils\buildmessage.js:264:29
at [object Object].
.extend.withValue (C:\tools\utils\fiber-helpers.js:89:14)
at C:\tools\utils\buildmessage.js:262:18
at [object Object]..extend.withValue (C:\tools\utils\fiber-helpers.js:89:14)
at C:\tools\utils\buildmessage.js:253:23
at [object Object].
.extend.withValue (C:\tools\utils\fiber-helpers.js:89:14)
at Object.capture (C:\tools\utils\buildmessage.js:252:19)
at bundle (C:\tools\isobuild\bundler.js:2670:31)
at C:\tools\isobuild\bundler.js:2617:32
at Object.withCache (C:\tools\fs\files.js:1652:12)
at Object.exports.bundle (C:\tools\isobuild\bundler.js:2617:16)
at C:\tools\runners\run-app.js:588:36
at Function.run (C:\tools\tool-env\profile.js:490:12)
at bundleApp (C:\tools\runners\run-app.js:587:34)
at [object Object]._.extend.runOnce (C:\tools\runners\run-app.js:631:35)
at [object Object].
.extend._fiber (C:\tools\runners\run-app.js:890:28)
at C:\tools\runners\run-app.js:417:12

All works fine if the location is one of my local physical disks, replicated in Windows7 & Windows 10 on USB Flash drives and network drives.

Any suggestions on how to fix or where to report would be much appreciated. Hopefully I’m just being stupid and missing something obvious

May just be the way the error is outputted, but the path appears wrong, I would presume it should be

Folder path 'E:\tester22\meteor\local\build\build\programs\server\node_modules’
Rather than
Folder path ‘E:\tester22.meteor\local.build141746.build\programs.build570278.server\node_modules’

http://sourcedaddy.com/windows-7/how-to-create-symbolic-links-to-shared-folders.html

The pertinent part:

By default, you can use symbolic links only on local volumes. If you attempt to access a symbolic link located on a shared folder (regardless of the location of the target) or copy a symbolic link to a shared folder, you will receive an error.

You definitely got this error: Error: EISDIR: illegal operation on a directory, symlink

Thus you may have luck mucking about with the Group Policy as detailed in the article.