SP2007 : My Site broken

Scenario:
Client me a old MOSS VM for development purpose and as the project is related to Profiles, I logged on to the Main portal site and clicked on My Site link on the top.

Error 1 : File not Found



Solution:
If you notice , Sharepoint is saying that there is no such site. So that means we need to create one before we proceed further.

Steps :
1. Go to Central Administration
2. Click on Application Management
3. Under "SharePoint Web Application Management" , click on Define managed path.
4, Make sure to select right Web Application where you want My Site ( In my case http://ws2003 ) from the drop down menu
5. Add a new Managed Path 'mysite' with 'Explicit inclusion'
6. Click on Application Management again on the topnav
7. Click on Create a new Site Collection
8. Create a new site collection at 'http://ws2003/mysite' using 'My Site Host' site template

Cool.. we solved Error 1 :)

So I clicked the My Site link on the top again and got

Error 2 : Your personal site cannot be created because Self-Service Site Creation is not enabled. Contact your site administrator for more information.

Solution:
If you notice , SharePoint is saying that some setting is missing and need to be enabled.

1. Go to Central Administration
2. Click on Application Management
3. Under ' Application security' section click on 'Self-service Site Management' link
4. Set the radio button to 'On'

Cool.. we solved Error 2 :)

So I clicked the My Site link on the top again and got

Error 3 : Your personal site cannot be created because the managed path "personal" has not been created for this site. Contact your site administrator for more information.

Explaination:
SharePoint is saying that my site tried creating a site for the logged in user but couldn't because the managed path 'personal' is not defined, under which it was suppose to create all the personal sites.

There are 2 ways to solve the issue.
Solution 1:
Use a managed path which is already defined in the web application settings , i.e. sites. Here's the steps to do this
1. Go to Central Administration
2. Click on the SSP Site from the left menu
3. Click on My Site Settings link under 'User Profile settings'
4. Replace the value in 3rd textbox from 'personal' to 'sites'

Solution 2:
Create a new managed path 'personal'
1. Go to Central Administration
2. Click on Application Management
3. Under "SharePoint Web Application Management" , click on Define managed path.
4, Make sure to select right Web Application where you want My Site ( In my case http://ws2003 ) from the drop down menu
5. Add a new Managed Path 'personal' with 'Wildcard inclusion'.

Cool.. all errors gone. Click on My Site to get to your personal site collection