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.