We have a windows 2003 server setup doing active directory. Recently we have added our first non XP machine. This is a windows 7 pro laptop. All is working fine on the user aspect side of this equation except when the person takes their laptop off network. Normally in xp you would have locally cached files that would later sync when on the net. How ever in windows 7 this does not seem to work. It basically breaks down once the user leaves and they are unable to access their data off network. Is this changeable. All I see online are folder redirection concepts but I dobut this is how i want to approach this.
Asked
Active
Viewed 509 times
3
-
Edited, "roaming profiles" are a **completely** different things from "offline folders". – Massimo Jul 27 '10 at 17:03
-
2Are you talking about just roaming profiles or offline files? They aren't the same thing. – GregD Jul 27 '10 at 17:09
-
@user19039, it's an easy mistake for an editor to make. Roaming profiles and Offline files are commonly mistaken by end users, so we're accustom to people switching them. And your question has elements of both; I think I might also be misunderstanding you. – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 18:18
-
1@user - From the FAQs: Like Wikipedia, this site is collaboratively edited, and all edits are tracked. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your questions and answers being edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you. – GregD Jul 27 '10 at 18:27
-
@GregD, I'm sure he's frustrated by Win7; and our not understanding his question isn't making that any easier. – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 18:29
-
1@user: I've noticed from your profile that you've asked four questions. Others have attempted to help you by asking clarifying questions in return and you never revisited your original question to answer them. Questions and tags are edited to make them clearer and try to get them answered. If you don't like the revisions to your question, you can roll them back and be done with it. But as I pointed out from the FAQs...this is a collaboratively edited site. – GregD Jul 27 '10 at 18:33
-
1There's a lot of clarification in the comments - it might help people to understand/answer your question if you could organize that information & edit it into your question. This takes a lot of patience from both asker and answerers at times. – Kara Marfia Jul 27 '10 at 19:05
-
@Kara, I'll edit it in, I don't think this one is going to have a good answer, sounds like something wonky. – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 19:18
-
1Sorry for the misplaced edit, the original question was quite confusing and looked (at least to me) a lot more related to offline folders than to actual roaming profiles. – Massimo Jul 27 '10 at 19:44
-
Wow... my edit may have been misplaced, but this one is just... wow. – Massimo Jul 27 '10 at 20:32
-
I just thought user19039 might want to work some of the new info into the question, but all's well that ends sometimes. ;) – Kara Marfia Jul 27 '10 at 21:41
2 Answers
3
If you want it to work the same as you have described your XP machines work, just find her profile via the UNC, right click the folder, and make it available offline. Windows Sync should* take care of the rest.
*I say 'should' because Offline Files has a long history of working only most of the time.
Edit:
This answer did not solve the problem; this does solve another common problem in Vista/Win7 however, and the comments contain quite a bit of information, so I'm not deleting it.
Chris S
- 77,337
- 11
- 120
- 212
-
+1, and i share your sentiment about 'offline files' I don't know what I dislike more, those, or roaming profiles. – DanBig Jul 27 '10 at 17:14
-
Are you using any form of redirection, folder redirection, home directory, etc? Or are you using profile location in AD with cached Roaming Profiles? Also, the questions says "it breaks down ... unable to access their data off network" - what error messages are you getting, what exactly do you mean by this. It sounds like you're trying to get at a home directory or something similar. – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 18:14
-
In Win7 his profile is in C:\Users (there is nothing in C:\Documents & Settings). Also in XP the %userprofile%\Local Settings was the only folder not part of the Roaming Profile. In Win7 %localappdata% is the only folder (by default) that is not part of the Roaming Profile. XP and Vista/Win7 profiles are very incompatible with each other, even if they look similar. USMT (part of WinAIK) is a tool MS created to move profiles from one format to the other: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-9F76-4177-A811-39C26D3B3B34 – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 18:26
-
A Server 2003 R2 DC (older is more questionable) should be able to set GPO for a Win7 client to use Roaming Profiles correctly; but the user can not have an XP profile in the location, if one is there it must be migrated or removed. I'm still confused as to what happens when the user leaves the network; their profile no longer loads, or is there some other error? – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 18:33
-
@Chris S - Just a minor correction. The user can have a Windows XP profile in the same location, you just have to name the Win7 profile something different. – GregD Jul 27 '10 at 18:39
-
-
Sounds like redirection is being used somewhere **or** the user's profile was created on the local machine before it was configured to use roaming profiles. Could you verify the user's profile exists in C:\Users and that their Desktop, My Documents, etc are there as well? – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 18:48
-
@GregD, if a XP profile exists Vista/7 will try to create a new profile under %username%.v2; if it doesn't have write access (which is common) it'll use a temporary profile (if a local one doesn't exist) or a local profile (if one already exists). – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 18:50
-
@User, was the profile created before roaming profiles were enabled on the computer? Easiest to tell by opening the System Control Panel, Advanced System settings, advanced tab, User Profiles Settings button; see if it thinks the profile is Local or Roaming. – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 18:52
-
Seems like everything is exactly right. Do you know if it's just that user (if you log another user onto that system, does it do the same thing for them)? My only guess at this point is some crazy GPO setting, registry corruption, or profile corruption; and those are pretty weak guesses. Sorry i can't help more. – Chris S Jul 27 '10 at 19:17
0
our csc cache would get corrupted alot and it was always the compination of nic mismatch ie running half duplex vs auto and not running uphclean. Well with win7 uphclean is builtin but I'd still check the network settings.
forgot to mention that maybe the source SHARE does not have CSC enabled
tony roth
- 3,844
- 17
- 14