One of the most searched topics on our site is "how to map a drive". Unfortunately, until now, the searches on this topic didn't return any result for our users. As a consequence to this, we decided to create this article in which we show you how to create a drive mapping in Windows Vista.

For those of you who don't know it, a drive mapping is a letter assigned to a disk or drive. The most common drive mappings are A: for the floppy disk and C: for the primary hard disk. If you are on a network, a drive mapping can reference remote drives to which you can assign a letter of your choice. For example, you can use the letter Z: to refer drive C: or a network server or a specific shared folder to which you have access to.

As you will see for yourself, the procedure of creating a map drive in Windows Vista is very simple. Just follow these steps:

First, click on the Computer shortcut from your desktop or from the Start Menu. In the toolbar you will find several buttons, including one called Map network drive.

Click on it and the Map Network Drive window will open. Firstly, you need to assign a drive letter for the connection and then type the drive or the folder you want to connect to.
The folder can be located on a remote server or computer you have access to, a FTP site or a shared folder on your own computer.

If you want to connect to a remote computer just type "\\" followed by the computer name or the IP address and then "\" followed by the location of the folder you want to connect to.
If you want to create a drive mapping to a folder on your own computer type "\\127.0.0.1\" (this stands for the local host) or "\\computer_name\" and then the path towards that folder.
Sometimes, when you create a drive mapping, you might need to use a special user name and password that allows you to connect to it. In this case, click on the Connect using a different user name link.

Type the appropriate user name and password and click on OK. Now you will return to the previous window. Click on Finish and the drive mapping will be created.

If you access the Computer shortcut again you will see that a new drive having the letter you assigned is listed and you can access it at anytime.

Related articles:
How to enable network discovery and file sharing
How to share files and folders
How to check your Network Connection Status
Windows Network Diagnostic - diagnose network problems the easy way
How to setup a wireless connection
Offline Files - How To Work With Network Files When Offline

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