User profiles (W98)

[Leenie]

I recently set up some Windows 98 pc's on our NT network to user user profiles. Works great, however, when the users log out they get the following message:

Your local profile was created when the home directory was disconnected. Do you want to use the local profile to overwrite your home directory profile?

I've told them to answer NO, but I'm not sure what the message really means and whether they should be answering YES.

Any clarification on the message would be helpful.
Thanks.

Colleen Lane
Milton Public Library

[jdharm]

I have had the same setup and problem.

The issue usually resulted from a server catastrophe in which the server with the roaming profiles was offline for some period of time while the clients were online.

I directed the users to say YES when they log on and Windows asks them if they want to save their settings locally and YES when they log out and the system asks if it should overwrite the home directory profile. This just applies any new info/settings made in the session they are logging out of to their roaming profile. Maybe not neccessary, but no harm either if you have your policies straight to enforce the settings that matter to you on all users.

After about a week when all the users cycle through the system the query doesn't pop up any more.

Josh

[i]Sorry folks, I'm an idiot. Moose out front shoulda told ya. [i]

[Leenie]

But the profiles are on the pc side (c:\windows\profiles) not on the server so it shouldn't matter should it?

Colleen Lane
Milton Public Library

[mysterywolf]

for one of several reasons (the usual one is that the roaming profile is in the home directory on a network drive which due to the sequence of logging out gets diconnected too early in the process. this prevents any final synchronisation between locally stored and roaming profiles, and better network admin and/or better scripting can resolve this).

with roaming profiles you can choose to have them copied down at logon to the local pc, then if things go off-line you can carry on but without network access. theoretically the two versions will sync up depending on which is the latest version.
so the question you are being asked is 'now you are off-line do you want any changes affecting your profile e.g. a new desktop icon, to be merged into this locally stored copy of the roaming profile and next time you log on these changes will be transferred to the network one?
you say that the profiles are stored on the pc side but these are simply copies of the 'true' one. as you will find if you log on to a 98 pc first time or rename the local profile folder and do it.
first time users get asked if they wish to store a local copy as part of this process.
really though admin should sort out so that reconciliation happens before the network drive holding the home folder is disconnected.

[jdharm]

Local profiles are just temporary locations for the computer to work from. The users' "Home Directory" is the permanent location their profile is stored, usually on a network share. The home directory is specified in the users' account details on the domain controller (server). This prompt is asking if you want to update the permanent profile on the server with the changes recorded in the temporary location on the local drive.

Whether it matters on not depends on your setup. In mine I want all the users to have the exact same settings across the board, I don't want any customizations or mods instituted by the users. So I have policies and settings enforced by the system, so it doesn't matter if the update occurs because I have the system set to change things back anyway. If you want your users to be able to personalize their workspace and have it follow them to any computer on the system then you do want to do the update, to ensure they have their latest changes when they go to another computer.

In any case, saying YES will cause the prompt to stop after all the users have updated.

Josh

[i]Sorry folks, I'm an idiot. Moose out front shoulda told ya. [i]

[mysterywolf]

ps and if your next question is how comes nt users don't get it there is a documented reason - but longish and so only if you really want it!

[Leenie]

Sorry. Another question. So even though the users all said YES the first time they logged in to save the settings locally, there's still supposed to be profile settings saved in their home directory on the server? Each user has a home directory (same as their login name) and I just looked and only their files (WP and Excel, etc) are there. There doesn't appear to be any profile settings (ie. Internet Explorer favorites, etc.).

Colleen Lane
Milton Public Library

[jdharm]

Yeah, I've noticed that. I haven't figured out how to synch the two because, frankly, I don't care about it in my setup. But I can tell you how this happens, at least in my case. When the home directories are created manually (i.e. File > New > Folder...) then all of those settings aren't there. When I use the NT User Wizard on the domain controler to create the account and specify the home directory then the profile is created with all of those elements (Favorites, History, Recent, etc.) and Win98 updates the network profile just fine.

So, if you don't have too many users you might try to delete and recreate the accounts, unless someone can tell you how to synch the profile directories manually. I don't know if simply copying the folders to the network once will take care of it or if there are some registry tweaks required.

Josh

[i]Sorry folks, I'm an idiot. Moose out front shoulda told ya. [i]

[Leenie]

We did create the user's home directories manually so the profile settings really are on the pc side only? I'm asking for backup purposes now. I need to know whether I need to bother backing up the c:\windows\profiles directory on each pc or whether by backing up their networked home directory on the server, which I am doing because that's where all their documents are,I am backing up their settings twice? As a test, I'm going to create a new user with the wizard and see what happens.

Colleen Lane
Milton Public Library

[jdharm]

I ran a little experiment. I logged on as a user on a Win98 client machine. When I did I said YES to the prompt that said that it was the first time I was there, did I want to save my settings. I then went to my network home directory and deleted all the settings files (history, application data, etc.). When I logged out I got a prompt that said a local profile had been created since being disconnected, did I want to save (the prompt you started this thread about). I said YES. Then I went to the network directory as an Admin and found that all the settings folders had been recreated by the Win98 client at logout.

This being the case, the files created by the Win98 client when I exited are the most recent profile settings. These are the only ones that matter. The local profiles on various client machines may or may not be the latest versions of the profile and backing them up, while maybe handy in an emergency is not necessary and ultimately maybe not helpful at all. Backing up the network profiles is best.

Josh

[i]Sorry folks, I'm an idiot. Moose out front shoulda told ya. [i]

[Leenie]

Okay I must be doing something wrong. I set up a new user and in the user manager made sure that the profile directory was the profile directory on the server. I logged in on a win98 pc and added a favorite to IE and then logged out. Then I went and on the server and looked in the users profile directory and no files are there. What am I doing wrong?

Colleen Lane
Milton Public Library

[jdharm]

One thing I have found I could do wrong is the address I use in the user wizard for the home directory. I can't use the UNC path, I have to use the local path.

For example, our user profiles are at \\SERVER\Users\usernames. But if I put this address in the wizard the profile isn't created. If I use the address d:\Users\username, the actual location of the profiles on the server, everything is OK.

Josh

[i]Sorry folks, I'm an idiot. Moose out front shoulda told ya. [i]

[Leenie]

I had used the UNC so I completely deleted the testuser and started over making sure to use d:\users\testuser on the server as the profile directory, but still there are no files showing there. The profile is only showing on the workstation's c:\windows\profiles directory.

Colleen Lane
Milton Public Library

[mysterywolf]

leenie,
try the same experiment again, only after closing all your apps etc, the last thing you do BEFORE you log out should be pressing the F5 key. i believe this should reconcile the two versions of the profile.

ps the engineers way of deleting win95/98 profile is to delete local and network and then switch off. this prevents write back and carries only minimal risk.
But DO NOT do this for NT and such as it may cause real problems.
also note that 98 profiles and NT profiles are not the same animal at all and the home directory is something different again.