hi there our network consist of 2 w3k server. 1 is a PDC and the other is BDC. the users profiles are located on the PDC so the problem is that if the PDC machine fails then these shared folders and files would also be unusable to domain users even if they could still log on to the domain thru the BDC. I thought of getting a network attached harddrive and store all the shared files and users profiles on that harddrive and point the users profile to that drive so that if the PDC fails the users can still logon to the domain and access thier files. this is something that i haven't done before so am asking you guys if this idea will work or whats you recommendation on this senario. Kind Regards Saleh

Please see [url=http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2a5f4254-ab47-4a4f-b478-edff48120976.aspx]this info[/url] about best practices for managing roaming user profiles and folder redirection. By the way, you can use %LOGONSERVER% variable to force setting the logon server. See [url=the http://support.microsoft.com/kb/141... article[/url] for details.That's if we are talking about the Windows NT domain, because in Active Directory there's no PDC/BDC controller except for the PDC emulator role. If you are using the server with this role, please read [url=http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/44fcb1c5-9bc9-45eb-938a-b6aead33dff41033.mspx?mfr=true]this info[/url] to see how you can lower the server load by decreasing the value of the LdapSrvWeight parameter. If it's the problem with your Global Catalog server, see [url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241789]this[/url] to see how you can disable the requirement for the GC to be available for contact to validate the user logon. In short the operation is as follows: 1. You create the shared file folder on that your server that you will use to store roaming profiles 2. You copy the user profile content to that folder and set the profile path to the user properties in Active Directory Please see [url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324749]How To Create a Roaming User Profile in Windows Server 2003[/url] and [url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325853]HOW TO: Use Older Roaming User Profiles with Windows Server 2003[/url] for the details.