Copying Local profiles to Roaming profiles on a new domain

[JohnC]

We are in the process of upgrading our network operating system from Novell
to Win2k Server. All desktops on site are Win2k and belong to WORKGROUP. All
user's profiles are stored on there local machine. I would like all users to
have roaming profiles.

I have tried to log into the PC as administrator, go to the user profiles
tab and copy the users profile to the location of there roaming profile, but
the settings don't appear correctly. I guess this is because they are not in
the domain.

Is there a utility or way to save the settings on a users desktop etc and
copy them to there roaming profiles share.

Cheers
John

 

[Jobey]

You can manually copy the profiles directory (default is c:\documents and
settings\%username% to a shared directory on the network (this is only to
backup your info, not to actually access via roaming profiles), but the only
way you can actually activate roaming profiles is if the computer is part of
the domain itself and the user is as well.

Is the reason behind the wanting of roaming profiles strictly for backup
purposes, or are the users actually accessing other pcs and want their
profiles to follow them? If its for backup purposes, you can always just
set up a backup schedule for the profiles directory and store it on a
network share. If its for actually roaming, you'll have to join the domain.

Jobey

 

[JohnC]

I'm want to use roaming profiles for both purposes, I actually tried copying
a profile that wasn't a member of the domain and like you have stated, it
didn't work! Thanks for the reply

John

 

[Jobey]

John,

Not only do you have to have the computer part of the domain, but you should
specify in AD that the user is using roaming profiles. Therefore having
those users on a workgroup without domain permissions isn't going to work.

You CAN manually copy the c:\documents and settings\$username$ directories
to a network share for backup purposes, but you will not be able to access
them like you want without adding to the domain. Once you have added the
computers to the domain & added the users to the domain, then you can
specify roaming profiles through the "user profiles" tab (or in AD itself).

Maybe someone else has more information, but I know of no way to do complete
roaming profiles with only a workgroup.

Jobey