Which is best, My Docs in Profile or Redirect?

[ccdriver]

Our school network is on an AD domain. We used to only have Windows 98 computers. We have added a couple of Windows 2000 and also some XP Pro workstations. We have a new order of XP Pro machines on the way.

We will continue to have a mix of Windows 98 and XP machines until the 98 machines are finally retired some time in the future.

In the past, the user documents were stored in the same folder as their profile. That doesn't seem to be a problem with Windows 98 but we have a few mishaps with XP Pro. A profile would get overwritten and all the students data would be deleted in the process.

I have been reading about using redirect so that the profile would be in one folder with a redirect to the user documents in a different folder.

My questions:

Which way is better?

Which way are most AD domains configured?

I've read that using redirect speeds up log on and of course, I know of the perils with both in one folder. Are there any other advantages or disadvantages to either way?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SelbyGlenn]

One of the main advantage is as you've mentioned - speed. If your docs are stored in your profile then they will be downloaded to your PC by default every time you log on. You should keep you profile as small as possible especially if there are a large number of users logging on and off at the same time. The other main advantage of keeping them seperate is that you are not keeping all your eggs in the same basket. If your profile becomes corrupt you will still have your documents safe. If possible, keep your documents on a server seperate to your profiles as this should also improve the speed of your network.

Hope this helps, Glenn
BEng A+ MCSE CCA

 

[ccdriver]

Thanks for that information and advice.