Redirecting My Documents folders
To redirect My Documents folders, you must be a member of the Domain Admins security group.
Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2003 enables you to redirect (to a single shared folder on your network) the My Documents folders of all client computers on your network that are running Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional. You can redirect them to the default Users shared folder on the server or any shared folder on your network.
Note
- It is recommended that you redirect the My Documents folders to the default Users shared folder on the computer running Windows Small Business Server, because this folder is automatically included in Windows Small Business Server Backup.
Redirecting My Documents folders provides these key benefits:
- These folders can be included in the server backup.
- Users can recover files that have been deleted accidentally.
- Even if users log on to various computers on the network, their documents are always available.
Users that store data on their local computers risk losing that data in the event of a hard-disk failure or other catastrophe. It is often difficult to train users to store important data on the server. By redirecting users' My Documents folders, you can begin storing user data by default, without having to provide any additional user education. The My Documents shortcut appears on the users' computers, but instead of the data being stored in a local folder under Documents and Settings on each client computer, the data is saved to a shared folder on the network. If you are backing up the server regularly, all user data stored in the client computers' My Documents folders is backed up by default.
When you reserve disk space for deleted files, we recommend that you also use disk quotas. Disk quotas are enabled by default on the volume where the user's shared folder is located (for example, C:\Users Shared Folders). These default settings are as follows:
- Quota: 1 GB
- Warning: 900 MB
These settings mean that users can store up to 1 gigabyte (GB) of data in their redirected My Documents folder (and cumulatively in all folders on this volume). By default, user accounts based on Windows Small Business Server user templates have the same quota settings. You can adjust the default quota settings if they do not provide adequate disk space for users' files.