How do I Map a Network Drive?

First of all the good news, and these are is that mapping a network drive is extremely quick and easy to implement.


When you map a network drive you are configuring a file folder on a remote computer that can share files or folders of data over a Local Area Network (LAN). You can map a network drive using Window's Explorer if you are running Windows XP. You can also use the MS-DOS prompt to map your network drive.

Map a Network Drive in Windows XP
Right click on the start button and select Explore, then up at the top, you should see the menu bar. From this menu bar, select Tools, you can then click on the option to Map Network Drive and a new window will popup.

Once a new Map Network Drive window pops up, it will ask you to choose a drive letter. There will be a drop down list that will show you which drives are available. You might notice that if you already have mapped drives, they will be indicated by a shared folder name that is seen inside the dropdown list corresponding to the drive letter.

Once you selected the folder to map from the drop down list, you must name it. It is important to note that you must name this file following the UNC (Universal Naming Convention). This naming convention is used to identify resources on a network. Usually the UNC has three parts; the first part is the server name, the second part is the share name. The third part is optional, but used often, it is the file path. You can combine all three of these parts with backslashes. For instance: \\server\share\file_path

Besides typing in the UNC by hand, you can also just click the Browse button, using this button; you can search and choose the correct folder.

Once you have selected your drive letter and selected the folder to map out, you can now click the "Reconnect at Login" check box. This checkbox should only be checked if you would like to make this network drive permanent. In other case, after you log out of the computer it will un-map the drive. Another option is if your remote computer needs to have a different username and password in order to log in. You can easily input this info by clicking on the hyperlink and entering the information.

Now, all you need to do is click Finish. If there are any problems mapping the network drive, an error message will popup, the error message might say that the computer was unable to map your drive, at this point, you should check to make sure you named the folder properly. Another possible message you may receive is if the drive was previously mapped to a different location. Usually the computer will ask you to replace the existing connection with then new one that you specified. You can easily click yes and the computer will disconnect and un-map and older connections.

It is important to note that you can disconnect a mapped network drive at any time. Just right click on your Start button, click on the Tools menu and click Disconnect Network Drive. From here you can easily follow the prompts.

Mapping a Network Drive using a Command Shell
You can easily map a network drive using a command shell along with the "net use" command.

Open a command shell. You can click the Start button, then the Run option and then type in the field "command" and press enter.

You will be using a similar command to the one found below:


net use j:\\computer\folder
The "j" represents your drive letter that the will be mapped and the \\computer\folder is the new shared network path.

Please note that you should make sure to use your back slash and not your forward slash when mapping a network drive. It is also important to note that if the drive is not available or not online, you won't be able to map it.