Mapping drives based on user

WD Legacy Products Sentinel Products
1

Scenerio -

5 computers (Windows 8.1 pro) all using the local windows account “Owner”.  In general people may move from 1 computer to another each day.

On the DX4000 I have created 5 different user accounts (ie… SmithG, JonesH, BrownW) w/passwords.  These are full time employees.

On the DX4000 I have created 2 temp staff accounts w/passwords

On the DX4000 I have created 5 folders matching user account names.  These will be private folders.  These are full time employees.

On the DX4000 I have created 1 folder for everyone

I want to create the following drive mappings per user

S: = documents (Shared R/W folder used by all full time employees)

P: = everone (Shared R/W folder used by every account)

u: = user private folder (folder matches full time employee)

Temp accounts only have access to P: drive.

2

I am not sure you completed your scenario.

Creating the shares I understand and assume you used the wizard for this and selected the users and gave them either no access, read or write as needed.

Map your drives to the shares

I Assume under the “U” share you will have a folder for each user and only that user has RW and the others have none.

Then whenever SmithG logs onto the winodws box he will get what he needs and When Temp1 logs on they can only see what they should see.

You might also require the screensaver to have a password so Temp1 could not go over where BrownW was sitting and see the wrong stuff.  It is easy enough win Win 8 to click on the profile picture in the top right to sign off when they leave the box.

3

You are correct that the unique shares have 1 user associater to it.
Each computer only has 1 user account and that is OWNER. The 5+2 users have dedicated accounts on nas.
Is it possible to create a batch file that will ask for username & pass and then map appropriately?

4

Not saying it can not be done with a batch file, but I will say I don’t think either I or you can write such a file :)  And if even we did have such a file, then we need a file to unmap that is triggred when the user gets out of his chair.  What we really need is facial recognition software !!

That said, I think you have to add acounts to each computer for each user.  Everyone logging in a Owner is not going to get it.  It is not hard and it is how windows is designed to work.  Now you know your workplace better than I, but I am thinking not everyone is really going to use any computer?  I mean a temp may well use any computer, but is Bob just as likely to sit a Sally’s computer as well as Joe’s?  So you would not really have to add 7 accounts to 5 computers.  As an aside.  Depending on how much time you spend on this it may just be cheaper to get 2 computers for the temps

PLUS if the log in as themself the windows mail would open their email as well as show their desktop etc.  This can be done with local accounts, but the live login is preety slick also.

As I ponder this, I think we made a mistake making a share for each user.  But first question, do you have an app that really requires mapped drives?  As in as it stands now if you just click shares from the launchpad or Network from a file dialoge they will all show up and work properly for the correct user loged into the PC.

The normal route is to make one share called users with RW, then put a folder in each named Bob, Joe, and Sally.  Then right click Bob, properties, securty and remove Joe and Sally  So “S” or whatever the letter you said would map to users.  They would see 5 folders, but only could get into their own.

And as I said earlier having user accounts on the PC’s makes it so easy to lock the pc, switch users whatever.

Now this is not really a WD specific question and I know you don’t like my answer so you should also swing by the Microsoft group with your quizzer.  Just tell them Gramps sent you and if they are not nice to you I will wack em with a 2X4 :smiley:

Just tell them you are using WSSE (Windows Storage Server Essentials) as that group also does SBS 2011 and it does all this by default.

Holler back and let us know what happens or if you have more questions.