Drive Mapping in Windows® XP®
What are the ways to map a drive in Windows XP?
One of the most important performance of Windows that every user should
know is mapping drives. Mapping drive is a very simple process, but it
seems like little complicated. You might have to perform this at any
situations. Mapping a drive means connecting to a server share, so in
order to perform this you might need mapping of a drive which usually
means connecting to a server share in order to get some information. A
server share is basically a folder on a different computer that is being
shared with everyone else. So when you 'map a drive', you are just
informing that you want access to that folder on your computer also,
which is done by mapping it to a letter, i.e. F, G, H, etc.
The following are the ways to map a drive in Windows XP:
- Choose Map Network Drive
- Make the connection permanent
- Using command prompt
Choose Map Network Drive
In order to map a drive, you need to go to 'My Computer' and hit on the
'Tools' menu option. In the drop down list, you need to select Map
Network Drive. Find a drive letter that you need in order to access the
shared folder and then type in the UNC path to the folder. UNC path is
just a special format for pointing to a folder on another computer. You
first use two slashes '\' and then the computer name, \testcomp and then
another '' followed by the shared folder name, \testcompfoldername.
Make the connection permanent
You need to click on 'Reconnect at logon' in order to get permanent
connection so that the drive get mapped even after your computer is
restarted, you can click on Browse and find the computer When you are
not sure about the name of the folder. Hit on Entire Network, and then
select Microsoft Windows Network. After that, you need to expand the
workgroup or domain that your computer. If there are any shared folders
on a computer, you will get them when you expand each computer
individually. Then press Finish and you might have mapped a drive.
How to Start the Map Network Drive Wizard in Windows 7
There are several ways to start the 'Map network drive' wizard. One way is to double click on the Computer shortcut and click on the 'Map network drive' button
from the upper toolbar. Keep in mind that, if you browse through any
partition, the button will disappear. It will only be available in the
default Computer window.
Another alternative is to right click on the Computer icon and select 'Map network drive'. The'Map network drive' wizard will now start.
How to Map a Shared Network Folder in Windows 7
First, select the drive letter you want to use for this mapping. Then, click on Browse and select the network location you want to map.
In the Browse window, select the computer & the shared folder you want to map to. When done, click on OK.
Instead of using the Browse button
you can also directly type the location of the shared folder you want
to map. Also, you can navigate to that location in Windows Explorer and then right click on it and select 'Map network drive'.
If you want Windows 7 to reconnect to this drive at each logon, make sure you check the box that says 'Reconnect at logon'.
Also, if you map a drive to a computer using Windows Vista or Windows
XP, you might also need to connect using a user account defined on that
computer. In this case, check the box that says 'Connect using different credentials'.
When done, click on Finish.
In some scenarios, as the one mentioned above, you will be asked to
enter a username and password to connect to the network location.
Here there is a very important catch: when you type the username and
password, Windows 7 will use your computer as the 'domain'. This can
cause problems when trying to access the network location because you
will try to connect to another computer using a user defined on your
computer. And, most probably it won't work. As you can see from the
screenshot below, you need to make sure that the domain field has the
name of the computer you are trying to connect to.
To do this, in the user name field
type the name of the PC you are connecting to, a backslash ('\' key)
and then the user you want to use for the connection. That user must be
defined on the computer you are connecting to. Otherwise it won't work.
If you typed things correctly, you will see that the domain field has
changed value to the computer you are trying to connect to. When done,
click on OK.
If the mapping process worked fine, the newly created drive will open and will become available in the Computer window and in Windows Explorer.
How to Map an FTP Site in Windows 7
To map a drive to an FTP site, click on the link that says 'Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures'.
A new 'Add Network Location' wizard will start. Click on Next.
In the next window, click on 'Choose a custom network location'.
Now it is time to type the location of the FTP site. First type 'ftp://' and then the IP address or name of the FTP site. If you want to see more examples of how to type the address, click on the View examples link. When done, click on Next.
You will then specify a user name for connecting to the FTP site. If your FTP site allows anonymous connections, leave the 'Log on anonymously' check box ticked. Otherwise, uncheck it.
If you unchecked it, type the username in the appropriate field and click on Next.
Windows 7 now asks you to provide a name for this mapping. Type any name you want and click on Next.
To test the newly created mapping, check the box that says 'Open this network location when I click Finish' and then click on Finish.
In case you need a username and password to connect to the FTP site a
new window will open, asking you to type both these details. Type them
and check the box that says 'Save password', in case you don't want to enter it every time, and click on 'Log On'.
Net use command to map network drive in Windows XP and 7
Windows command to map network drive is "net use" and
we will use option * which automatically assign name of drive e.g. X
drive, Y drive, Z drive. Now let's see an example of mapping D:\ drive of remote host as windows mapped drive in your desktop:
C:\Documents and Settings\supportUser>net use * \\remoteHost.com\D$ * /u:domain\username
Type the password for \\remoteHost.com\D$:
Drive S: is now connected to \\remoteHost.com\D$.
The command completed successfully.
Now this network folder will be visible as S:\ drive in your My computer as shown below:
Command to show windows mapped network drive
Here is command to show all network drive which is mapped, we will use same net use command without any option to see all drives as shown below:
C:\Documents and Settings\supportUser>net use
New connections will be remembered.
Status Local Remote Network
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK A: \\hostname1\drive1 Microsoft Windows Network
OK I: \\hostname1\drive1 Microsoft Windows Network
Disconnected N: \\hostname3\drive3 Microsoft Windows Network
Unavailable Z: \\hostname3\d$ Microsoft Windows Network
The command completed successfully.
Command to disconnect mapped network drive in Windows XP and 7
You can use same
command net use to even disconnect mapped network drive, just pass /d
argument to net use command for disconnecting mapped network drive as
shown below :
C:\Documents and Settings\supportuser>net use /d z:
z: was deleted successfully.
