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I have a new installation of SBS 2008. The server has a shared directory that I use to hold user's 'MyDocuments' folders. IOW, on the client machine 'MyDocuments' points to a folder on the server. I have shadow copies turned off on the server and the folder gives full control to authenticated users.

The problem is that the user files on the server keep reverting back to the version that was first loaded (copied from a prior SBS 2003 installation).

I obviously can't figure out what's going on. Help please.

Jon
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  • So you are using folder redirection on the clients, and when a file is saved, it's not actually written to the server? What kind of clients do you have? How exactly have you configured folder redirection? – Chris S Jan 24 '11 at 03:41
  • The event log on the client(s) should show Folder Redirection success/failures, pls post any event log entries. – Ed Fries Jan 24 '11 at 04:30
  • The clients are Win 7 pro and Win XP pro. – Jon Jan 24 '11 at 17:58
  • As for the redirection, in Win 7, I've added a library which points to the shared folder. In XP, I've changed the location of the My Documents folder using the Properties dialog on My Documents – Jon Jan 24 '11 at 18:02
  • Looking in the Event Viewer logs, I don't find any Redirection failures. Is there some place special I should be looking? – Jon Jan 24 '11 at 18:07

1 Answers1

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The method being used to move the My Documents folder is outside the norm and probably won't do what you need. The standard solution to provide redundancy, security and synchronization of user profile data in an AD/SBS network is to implement folder redirection. I suggest the following:

  • Remove any created Libraries.
  • Move the My Documents folder back to the default location on the local machine.
  • Move the folder redirection target on the server from it's default location on C: to another drive.
  • Enable folder redirection on the SBS box for a single test user.
  • Test and resolve any issues w/ folder redirection by logging on/off 2x and then checking the event log on the client. The issues are usually NTFS permissions issues on either the target or some of the source folders/files.
  • Once the issues are understood & resolved enable folder redirection for small groups of users, resolve any issues, repeat.

Folder Redirection works very well but can be challenging to setup the first time. It is worth taking the time to understand and get working though, very powerful. Depending on your network you may also want to implement DFS and use a DFS folder as the redirection target. DFS can provide redundancy and make future migration to a new server much easier.

Ed Fries
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