Stopping users storing data on local hard drive

[berrick]

I'm looking for ideas on how to do this in an AD enviroment and would like to use this forum to start a discussion on your ideas.

Many thnxs

[Spyder2k]

Very simple; First create a share on a dedicated file server (eg \\fileserver1\profiles$) then in the user properties, under the profile tab, in the profile path/directory specify \\fileserver1\profiles$\%username%

This does basically this;

When a user logs on it copies \\fileserver1\profiles$\%username% into the 'Documents and Settings' directory. Then at logoff the significant changes to folder 'Documents and Settings\%username%' are replicated to \\fileserver1\profiles$\%username% (temporary internet files etc not being considered signifaicant here)

NOTE: I'm not sure how this works if the user account has been created and used before so proceed with caution if converting local to roaming profiles.

REF: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...bc_dsm_ivvs.asp

TIP: You should also look into Redirecting My Documents as 'heavy' My Document folders are going to take a toll on your bandwidth if using roaming profiles. Although a redirected My Documents is made available offline, the synchronization takes place at logoff which I've found to be more efficient.

[valter]

Thats mostly just for profiles because users are known to store GBs in their home folders, so idea of having storage folder as My Documents inside profile folder in corporate environment is not so smart thing

[tjhart85]

You could use a program like DEEP FREEZE, that will restore Windows to a pre-defined setting every time you reboot the computer (this will remove anything extra added since you last updated the deep freeze settings).

If you do this, you might want to warn the users that there files will be deleted at reboot though

[berrick]

Thnxs for the replies...

I guess i need to explain alittle more,

the users have profiles pointing to their home drives. ut the users still insist on storeing data to the local c drive. it is this i would like to discuss. I could hide the c drive and stop it from being explored but am interested in what ideas others have re this challenge

cheers

[valter]

I think by default when computer is a mamber of an AD user can't save any file in location other than My Documents, that means that they can't save any file for example on root of the C drive or make folder Files on C drive (unless they're local admins what is very bad idea). However, you can redirect My Documents location using GPO in AD so that My Documents points to for example their home folder on the server. I've made all my computers (150+) with double partitions (C & D) so My Documents is redirected to D drive, and they can store as much as they want, and of course the most important, they can't mess with system files on C drive ...