Is is possible to....

[CGIMana]

I just started a new Network IT job where I'm responsible for all the computers and network. The previous guy was cheap and used old used HD's to setup the Server. well the User data folder he made a network drive on each PC and set the My Documents target to be that folder. He had it set up as a RAID 5 with 3 drives. Two of the drives died and every user lost all the documents they had in My Documents. I replaced the drives with new drives and Mirrored two of them and the third is just there. Anyway my question is, can I make it so the Target for My Document is on the local machine AND on the server? I have been looking at Shadow Copy, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to work like I want it to. Any ideas?

 

[wasisnt]

I dont see how you can have 1 folder pointing to 2 locations without finding a way to copy the data to the 2nd location automatically each time its written to the 1st. Plus you need to avoid having 2 different copies of the same files.

Why not leave it on the server and implement a backup? That way when something happens you can restore from the backup. Just get some USB hard drives and do one for each day and setup an automatic backup to run at night.

Shadow copies is a good suppliment to backup but not a replacement for it.

http://www.onlinecomputertips.com

 

[CGIMana]

Well with the new drives in place it's unlikely anything will happen. But the power tht sign my paycheck want something.....100% and a 99.9% isn't good enough for them. I'd stake my job that two new maxtor scsi drives aren't both going to fail at the same time.....but I just don't trust Maxtor that much. I tried putting C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\My Documents; u:\mike :C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\My Documents"; "u:\mike" and almost any combination I could think of and it still says invalid location. I would like to submit this action as a implementation for Longhorn (if that's what they are still calling it) but what do I do untill then? I just need an active back-up of a working folder. Would Norton Ghost be able to help?

 

[scottew]

I would go with the server and a good backup solution. I prefer backing up to a tape. I use Veritas Backup Exec and do a backup of all of our servers every night.

 

[wasisnt]

So you dont have RAID 5 anymore but are using a mirror? I would think if you did a nightly backup and had the mirror going you would be ok unless of course both drives died or the server fried. That way you have real time copies of the documents on 2 drives and a out of server backup in case of a disaster.

You could also have multiple backups of the user docs run during the day if they arent too large and your software can backup open files.

As for redirecting to 2 locations simultaniously I cant think of anything off hand.

http://www.onlinecomputertips.com

 

[CGIMana]

I found a program that does almost Exactly what I was looking for. FOr anyone interested

http://www.folderclone.com/

 

[MiggyD]

This may be a little late (and possibly stupid) but I only did this one time (and yes it was a laptop) at my previous job.

I had to work on several maps. They were too numerous and too large even for CDs. Do to the "business" (and 9/11) VPN and dial-in were not allowed. I thought about MS's Briefcase program, but ended up choosing "Syncronize" for the catalist.

What I had ended up doing was to Syncronize the "Maps Folder" on the server so that I could work on them at home and once I linked up at work (and after my boss reviewed them) I manually clicked Syncronize from the Tools menu so that everyone in the other town departments could access the latest map changes.

At my current job, everyone's got a desktop. If you're interested, I can attempt sync-ing to see if it works with desktops too. If it does, this may be a more inexpensive option.

--MiggyD

--> It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's an OS update patch! Ahh!! <--

 

[CGIMana]

This was a thought, but sync only works when the user logs out. and I'm not sure if you can select the source and target folders.