How to Map a Network Drive
Tue, 05/22/2007 - 17:45 — Ciprian
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
Recommended articles:
ITsVISTA Tip 52: Map a Drive to an FTP site in Vista
Remove "Map Network Drive" Menu Item from Windows Vista or XP
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Comments
Map Network
is there is any programs that enable me to map network in windows xp like vista does??
i want to map the network in windows xp like the vista does but i can't find any programs do that
plz help me for this...
thnx.....
Mapping drives in XP
Hi all,
First, on XP, you usually don't need any special programs to map other computer's drives, however, you do need a user account with the right privileges on the computer that has the drive you are trying to connect to. If you are attempting to connect to a Windows server's drive, you'll need to make sure that the user's NTFS permissions on the server along with the group policy settings, it's best to create a "share" sub-group then add the users main group to the share group (You can only add a group to a group on Windows Servers, then add the share group to logon over network and log on locally, also disable simple file sharing (servers, 2000 pro, xp pro only).
Anyway, back to XP pro, simply go to My Computer, click on Tools, the first option is Map Network Drive.
There is a bug about XP remembering passwords, so I don't check the remember box, however, when you go to map a drive, look for a box that says "Reconnect at Logon" and simply check that box, and once that box is checked, don't also check the remember password box when entering username and password. When checking Reconnect at Logon, Windows automatically remembers the username and password.
As for connecting over the internet, I wouldn't advise it, as you would most likely have to enable NetBios Over TCP/IP which is a security risk as well as having to configure Port Forwarding on the computer's router that has the shared drive.
Also, I don't know about Vista or other versions of XP other then pro and Win 2000 pro but those OS's by default already have shared drives configured for admins which are called Administrative Shares, which is notated by the real physical drive letter followed by a $, you usually need admin rights on the computer your connecting to to use these shares though.
example \\192.168.2.5\c$
If you are connecting from a computer that has the capability to disable simple file sharing you would get the whole drive with full admin rights to the folder. Otherwise you'll only see publicly available shares.
Also, the $ can be used to hide the share name, example, if you share a folder on one computer and give it the sharename myfolder$, it can only be accessed by direct path as the name won't show up in the shared list.
Maybe this will help some of you out.
JB
Mapping remote hard drive
I'm trying to map a folder on my remote hard drive (F:/Music) to use it to store music on (for itunes). I've got the folder (F:/Music) to a shared stage but I am unable to use this method to map it as a network drive. I've been unable to share the external hard drive (F:) itself in order to map that as a network. Any ideas?
Cheers,
Chris
mapping internet folders
I have succussfully mapped drive letters to server folders over the internet using Novell NetDrive on WinXP.. but that doesnt work on Vista. The method shown here does work fine for a lan but over internet doesn't work at all.. Is there a step to do this that isnt listed here? BTW there are NO active firewalls that would prevent me from doing this.
Thanks for any help.
Username and Password?
Ok im trying to map my mac to my vista computer...but im having one small problem.
When i map the drive it asks for the username and password....but everything i try doesnt work...
It used to work...but the connection broke when i turn my mac off obviously...but now they are both on and i cant seem to get the right username and password combination to log me in...
192.168.1.100\.harry-t
thats where i want to connect to....and im pretty sure that was the username that i used to logon last time....but have no idea what the password is? any ideas how to change it?
THX
How to map a network drive - great "how to" Thank you
map network drive
I am at my wits end with this. I have a desktop running XP sp2 and a Laptop running Vista connected via a Netgear router gateway, which connects to the internet via cable modem. The laptop is using wireless, whereas the desktop is cabled to the router. I can connect to the internet with either so no problems with basic networking. I can ping either machine from each other but when I try to map a network drive from the laptop to the desktop host it fails with effectively "path not found". I tried disabling both firewalls provided by Norton360 (the Windows firewalls are already disabled). I have had this work before but it must have been a fluke as I don't know what made it work.
Any ideas please?
laki
How to map a drive between a XP PC and a Vista PC?
Dear sir,
I have two PC one has XP and the other has Vista. I am having problem mapping a HD driver.
And I am using a wireless router to connect two computer together.
Please help!
Best regards,
Kelvin
hello! i have the problem! i
hello! i have the problem! i try to connect to another pc using map network drive... i wrote an ip and folder name correctly.. but it shows log that i have to write the pasword.. but the password does not exists on that pc.. what i need to do?
I just mapped my network
I just mapped my network drive from a pc at another room, it worked instantly and flawlessly.
if your other pc with a shared folder is a vista pc, you can go to the network centre and uncheck "share using password" or whatever that is called on a english vista. I've got a duth pc so for me it is Netwerkcentrum -> Met wachtwoord beveiligd delen
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