Folder redirection with Win7 and 03 server

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YeOldeStonecat

[H]F Junkie
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Jul 19, 2004
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What are you guys doing for those?
Back in the XP days, in the users AD properties, I'd map something like a P drive to \\server\users\username
And on the desktop I'd remap the My Documents folder to that P drive, and all was well.

But with Win7...I go into users folder on the desktop, expand the Documents folder, you'd see the legacy My Documents folder under that...I right click..move..select P drive...and it appears to work fine.

But then when stuff like Adobe Reader updates come out (and tons of other software installations)....the installer pukes all over the place with error 1327 invalid drive P or something like that.
 
do the files in the drives have big grey X's down at the bottom of them (If they don't already have that thats your next problem..)

windows 7 has some really odd issues with server 03 (they all go away with server 08... extra $$ for MS)
 
I never have issues with folder redirection on windows 7 and server 2003.

However, i do not map it to a P drive, i map it straight to the server share throught GPU (\\server\redirection\%username%\) and it has always worked fine.

If for some reason that doesn't work, you can edit the registry to point the folders if you really want to
 
marley1 said:
why aren't you doing folder redirection with GPO?
Click to expand...

Same thing happens. Either manually, or GPO.... I was the on that turned you onto My Doc folder redirection in SBS..remember? :p My Docs to P:\ is still My Docs to P:\ and these other "glitches" with Win7 happen..such as installing some software. For some reason, Adobe updates and other software installs look for the My Docs folder....as if for a temp folder...but dunno why. It's like..they are not coded to be compliant with Windows 7 user folder redirection yet.
 
Oh wait, your using doc redirection on SBS 03 with windows 7 clients?

Yeah, thats totally different, hang on i have done it before, there was an SBS patch that helped i believe
 
why are you redirected to P tho?

GPO needs to be set to basic - \\server\users

in SBS 2003 I use the default My Doc redirector in the console, and I add a GPO for Desktop. originally i was using straight GPO.

I dunno if you told me or not.
 
marley is right. It can't be P:\ it needs to be \\server\share\user or something to that affect. I tried that already and it blew up miserably. Least with group policy that is.
 
yup had that screw me up in the past, especially with uninstalling programs, or when you get the call that the persons computer crashed, and you notice someone the person lost the mapping to the P drive, and the My Documents reverted back to default and you can't get any files back =p

Brian if you need help give me a call.
 
I'll try the different path....but I can't fathom how \\server\users\jsmith is different than P:\ when it comes to "moving" My Docs...be it via GP or manually.

I'm doing it manually at this one client because of the history of this network and a slow migration of old staff to the new standards and to a NAS...SBS03 was introduced to existing AD network someone else built. Hence me didn't throw the GP switch for My Docs redir. I've done it manually in the past since before SBS days with GPs...it's how I've done it, and never had any variation of a difference if I did it with GP or manually from the workstation (right click My Docs, properties, move...point to P:\)

There's something unique with Win7....XP never gave this glitch.
 
You can still make a P drive the home user icon, but gotta do it through the path from what I have found.

Just put 3 win7 64 at one client and the GPO worked without a hitch.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
I'll try the different path....but I can't fathom how \\server\users\jsmith is different than P:\ when it comes to "moving" My Docs...be it via GP or manually.
Click to expand...

Its not so much that it's different when "Moving" documents, however P: would be seen as an invalid drive letter when installing some programs, such as Cisco VPN client. Where it would see \\server\share as a valid location.

Windows 7 treats this a bit different, where on XP it didn't give a darn if it was P: or \\server\share
 
I'll give it a shot...redirecting to the whack whack server path instead of the drive letter.
Done for the day..off to the spine specialist....with this back problem, I'm so tired of this. Dang pain killers wear off by early afternoon and I'm freaking cranky as hell...but in the morning I'm dopey from the pain killers. Feel useless. Hopefully an operation on the back soon so I can get back up to speed.
 
i had the same thing happen...
did a \\server\users\%username% as the "H" drive
then pointed "my documents" to it..

so.. 6 other computers in this office work fine... but this 1 has issues installing acrobat.. i have to redirect the drive from H back to c:\users\username\my documents.. or whatever it is.. then it works..
but that's not cool.. i have 6 other computers in that domain that are running fine.. win 7 x64.. all servers are 2008, but the forest or domain level may still be at 2003...
 
ok.. i will be honest.. i am a a bit drunk right now...

but...

i manage 3 different networks that are on server 2008 and/or windows 7...
no one else has this problem.. i really think i just "googled" the problem and found a work around a long time ago...

despite whether or not, the "documents" folder in windows 7 can or cannot point to a mapped drive... Microsoft dropped the ball..
i want to move the whole folder, with all of the subfolders..
they should have included the c:\documents and settings\%username%\desktop and c:\documents and settings\%username%\favorites folders as something that could be synced with a server..

plus this one... c:\documents and settings\%username%\local settings\application data\microsoft\outlook

but hey.. knowing these folder locations are what keeps up employed, right??

i really hope that i can take a look at my "notes" from the past year and find an answer of how to prevent these "invalid driver H:" errors when installing and updating software...
 
If your domain and forest are at the 2008 level the fav folder and desktop can both be redirected,

In 2008 and 7 you need to redirect to a \\server path, otherwise you will get the invalid drive error. Just the way it works now.

MS does not recommend putting PST files on a network share so there is a reason outlook folder is not redirected
 
scottatwittenberg said:
they should have included the c:\documents and settings\%username%\desktop and c:\documents and settings\%username%\favorites folders as something that could be synced with a server..

plus this one... c:\documents and settings\%username%\local settings\application data\microsoft\outlook
Click to expand...

Have you looked into using roaming profiles? Roaming profiles enable those folders move with a user, so that those items are available from whatever computer they log on to.
 
imyourzero said:
Have you looked into using roaming profiles? Roaming profiles enable those folders move with a user, so that those items are available from whatever computer they log on to.
Click to expand...

Bad thing about roaming profiles without doc redirection is that it copies the my docs to the users PC everytime they log in. That can take awhile for users with 12 GB of my docs
 
imyourzero said:
Have you looked into using roaming profiles? Roaming profiles enable those folders move with a user, so that those items are available from whatever computer they log on to.
Click to expand...

k1pp3r said:
Bad thing about roaming profiles without doc redirection is that it copies the my docs to the users PC everytime they log in. That can take awhile for users with 12 GB of my docs
Click to expand...

Yeah, I support small clients, they don't go to other computers, and they have multiple GBs of data usually. I do put their outlook archives in their H: drives as well.
 
k1pp3r said:
Bad thing about roaming profiles without doc redirection is that it copies the my docs to the users PC everytime they log in. That can take awhile for users with 12 GB of my docs
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Yep. We used them with document redirection, but have since stopped using them because logon times were growing. It's kind of a pro/con thing because it reduced the number of help desk calls but it increases server load and logon duration. I hate setting up printers and email every time a user logs on to a new computer (we have roughly 600 computers and 800 users.) I don't mean to threadjack, but do you know of a best practice to have those things configured automatically for a user upon logon?
 
imyourzero said:
I hate setting up printers and email every time a user logs on to a new computer (we have roughly 600 computers and 800 users.) I don't mean to threadjack, but do you know of a best practice to have those things configured automatically for a user upon logon?
Click to expand...

I have always liked scripts the work according to AD group, that way i can map different printers and drives at login from one script.

and outlook 2007 autodiscovery is pure gold, best thing to happen in years lol
 
LOL, we just moved from Outlook 2000 to 2003. My local private hospital was recently purchased by a larger for-profit corporation and they haven't moved to 2007 yet - their standard is Office 2003 and it's their way or no way. I am one of two people in the hospital running Win 7 Pro, and I'm going to have to roll back to XP. :rolleyes: To be honest I'm kind of glad that we're still stuck on Office 2003, because I can't imagine the amount of calls that would flow in after our users experience the shock of the ribbon interface and our IT staff is not very large. 9 people including the director, but only two network guys including myself and we do not have a help desk tech so all of the stupid annoying calls that the application analysts can't handle because it's "not their area" or they don't want to make an effort to learn are transferred to me and the other guy.

So it's basically me and one other network admin keeping the infrastructure up, managing AD and Exchange, maintaining the servers, managing the backups, testing and rolling out new software, repairing PCs, punching down cat5, troubleshooting the normal and not so normal issues that pop up even though things should work correctly, and of course the dozens of calls over mundane things like "My account is locked out" and "I can't get to the Z: drive" and "Why aren't all of my emails showing up?" (Um, you sorted them by sender rather than date...sort by date received or scroll down!!) We desperately need someone to manage those routine issues so that we can focus on the important stuff. My director wants me to come up with a disaster recovery plan but I've had very little time to work on it between all of the calls...things like that take time. Hard to set up WDS or learn scripting or do a complete AV rollout when you're too busy fielding calls over account issues or toolbars that have been accidentally hidden, ya know?
 
Quickest way I've gotten around this is by running cmd as administrator, then mapping the "invalid" drive to *something* temporarily. I've only had any problems on Vista/7 redirecting any of the user folders to a mapped drive a few times, but mapping that drive as the local administrator usually does the trick.
 
You can redirect all of the users folders for Win7 with a 2k3 server, we do it here and it works beautifully.

In a GPO, set all of the folder redirection to basic \\server\share\folder
Make sure you uncheck the box marked give the user full access otherwise admins can't see the folder contents unless you take ownership.

Set the user's profile to map the share in order to create the folder and give them permissions to the folder.

Their home folder should look like this-

\\server\share\username\appdata
\\server\share\username\contacts
\\server\share\username\favorites
\\server\share\username\documents
\\server\share\username\desktop
\\server\share\username\music
etc etc etc.

Works great for us, we don't have a 2k8 server anywhere. We redirect all user folders and use roaming profiles, not because the users move around a lot, but this is the only way we can make sure that their data gets backed up. otherwise they save their stuff to the desktop instead of their documents, etc.

Oh, and don't set up outlook in cached mode if you have an exchange box in this setup.

And you HAVE to map their home folder to a drive letter, and modify the registry so that the userappdata entry points to the drive letter instead of a UNC path, otherwise your neighborhood Adobe applications will be angry and not work.
 
Eickst said:
And you HAVE to map their home folder to a drive letter, and modify the registry so that the userappdata entry points to the drive letter instead of a UNC path, otherwise your neighborhood Adobe applications will be angry and not work.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate on this, or show me a link that tells me what to edit?

Also, offiline files may help this too? Do you have those enabled or not?
 
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