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.

That’s all on windows command to map remote host as network drive in windows XP. As I said using command line to map network drive is much faster than using windows explorer, it prevents your computer from being hung during mapping process. Since net use is one of basic command this trick should also work on other version of Windows operating system e.g. windows 7 or Windows 8. Let me know if you find any other faster way of mapping drives in Windows XP or Windows 7.

Read more: http://javarevisited.blogspot.com/2012/12/mapping-network-drive-in-windows-xp-command-net-use.html#ixzz3SFhQNyMF