Network setup advice

[LiamC]

OK brains trust, how would I do this?

I have three desktops (could end up four) and two laptops. And it's getting to the stage where one or two of the desktops are occupied all the time. What I want to be able to do, is logon to any of the machines and see all my files (i.e. centralised storage). But if it's a laptop, or for some reason the central storage is offline, I don't want opening Explorer to take forever while it searches for a network share it can't find, and then throw error messages, (like what would happen moving the home folder to a network share). I thought about using Junction Points, but I'm not sure how to proceed.

Systems will be a mix of 7 and 8, mostly, with a Vista and XP machine still hanging around.

At the moment I backup the User data folders via robocopy first to another local disk, and then to my NAS. System file backups are via Macrium Reflect.

 

[Mercutio]

Google Drive/Dropbox/SugarSync/Skydrive?

If you put a shortcut to a network location in one of your local library folders (e.g. shortcut to Images_on_LiamcsWorkstation.lnk), it is in fact indexed properly, even if the network host doesn't support the Windows Search Service, so that makes stuff like Pictures and Music pretty easy to redirect.

Technically you can use Offline folders to sync network locations that are offline, but in practice I've found that more of a hassle than it's worth.

 

[Bozo]

Can you put a shortcut on the desktop to your 'centralized storage'?

 

[LiamC]

The thing I don't like about cloud storage is that the terms of service make it very unclear as to what who can do what with the data. My data is pretty useless, but my wife takes lots of photos. They're her work, and she should decide who sees it, and who can use it.

As for the shortcut idea, yes I can do it. The objection is going around to all machines and changing the default opening location of all programs to the shortcut location. Say five computers for four people for x number of programs... This is really a setup issue I guess. It's something a business netork would have to deal with.

 

[Mercutio]

Windows 7 and 8 support Libraries, which can be located on any computer new enough to make use of the Windows Search Service (basically 7 or Server 2008R2 and 8 or Server 2012, plus Storage Server 2011), can locate applicable data on any folder that's been incorporated into any particular library.

You can also add libraries of your own; I have "Pictures" for stuff I decided to save from the internet, "Photos" for personal images, "Downloads" which replaces my default download location and centralizes access, "Money" for tax and financial records and "Customers" for data I need for my customers.

 

[LiamC]

I thought libraries wouldn't work on network drives? Or will it work on Windows network shares?

 

[Mercutio]

I thought libraries wouldn't work on network drives? Or will it work on Windows network shares?

The short answer is that there are workarounds for that. The bar-none easiest one is to just drop a shortcut to the path you want to include in the library. It's not exactly the same thing, but it works no matter where the files actually live.

There is a handy little add-on I forgot about: You need this thingie to properly add network paths to libraries if you just have regular desktop-y versions of Windows.

 

[LiamC]

Many thanks for that. I'll give it a try

 

[LiamC]

OK, that didn't work.

Installed the Windows Desktop Search add-in. Rebooted. Cannot add network drive to a library. FWIW, I right-click, drag the network location to the Libraries -> Documents library, drop and select Include in library. "This network location can't be included because it is not indexed." Machine has been idle for 18 + hours since the add-on was installed and rebooted.

Tried method where a shortcut was made with mklink /D. Same error. Tried Mercutio's solution with a simple shortcut. Same "cannot be included" error.

Hmmm. Not so simple.

 

[Mercutio]

Goddammit. I know I've done this because my laptop sees music on my file server in its library. I'll play with it a bit this afternoon to see if there was something else I had

 

[Mercutio]

On further investigation, I can make this work on one Windows 7 machine out of three where I tried and on a Server 2008R2 system, but not on two other 7 machines or a Windows 8 system. There's clearly a step I'm missing, but the behavior seems to hinge on the ability to add UNC paths to Index locations per the add-in I linked above, but even with the right patch installed it does not consistently appear as an available option, even on a clean and fully patched Windows 7 computer.

So that's weird.

 

[Mercutio]

... and here's the aw, fuck it, it works answer.

 

[LiamC]

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

Thanks. That works a treat.