Sign in
Microsoft.com
 
Microsoft
 
 
 

locked
Possible to map drive to "\\server" ? RRS feed

 > 

  • Question

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I realize this isnt specific to WHS really, but rather than create separate mapped drives for each share, is there any way one can simply map a drive to "\\servername" so that all the shares are simply sub-directories?

    Thanks!
    Sunday, April 29, 2007 11:26 PM

Answers

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    No, it's not possible to map a drive to the "\\server" UNC path. If you're mapping a drive, you must map it to a specific share.
    Monday, April 30, 2007 12:42 AM
    Moderator

All replies

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I don't see a way to do that. I am not sure that I would want to, I like the way it just shows users folders that they have been granted access to.
    Monday, April 30, 2007 12:28 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    No, it's not possible to map a drive to the "\\server" UNC path. If you're mapping a drive, you must map it to a specific share.
    Monday, April 30, 2007 12:42 AM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I have found that some applications require a mapped drive to be able to use the data.  However, I have been unable to map to \\server but to \\server.subfolder.

    Rick


    Monday, April 30, 2007 12:45 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    Not sure if this is what you want, and I'm sure you've already considered this, but there's nothing stopping you creating a share called "General", and then subdirectories "Photo", "Video" etc off that. Then just map to \\server\General et voila.

    If you could tell us what specific problem you've got then we may be able to help with workarounds...?

    Ian
    Monday, April 30, 2007 9:15 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Maybe I'm missing something here, but -

     

    Isn't that exactly what the default "Shared Folders on Server" shortcut does?

    Monday, April 30, 2007 12:58 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Sort of, but no. That shortcut shows you a view of the shares on the server - this is not the same as mapping a share to the machine.

     

    <probably a bad example> Think of it sort-of like air travel. From an airport you can see all the destinations you can go to. But, in order to actually explore a destination, e.g. london, you need to fly to it (map the drive).</probably...>

     

    SMB/CIFS (the protocol in use) sees computers, and then shared folders from the computer. Shared folders are the things that are mapped - you can't map a server as a whole. Just the way it works I'm afraid.

     

    Note that you _can_ have a shared folder, which contains multiple folders which are themselves shared. E.g. you could have:-

     

    \\server\General

                             \Music

                             \Photo

                             \Video

                             \TV

     

    All of which folders are shared. If you looked at the \\server then you would see the shares (General, Music, Tv, Photo, Video).

     

    Hope that all makes sense.

     

     

    Monday, April 30, 2007 1:40 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Yea.. basically, I just dont want to have to map 6 different drives on every one of my PC's to access these shares (or have to use unc paths any time I want to access them). 

     

    I thought about creating a "central" or "general" folder and placing all of the other folders in it, but you cant change or remove the existing "built-in" shares - such as Music, Videos, etc. (or can you??).  I guess Im just anal in the fact Id to use the built in folder icons and not have two of each folder... but unless theres some reghack or something which allows me to chnage where these built-in shares look (i.e. change \\servername\music to \\servername\general\music"), it looks like thats my only option.

     

    Thanks for the responses guys.

    Monday, April 30, 2007 2:22 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Yes, you can map to the Shares folder.

     

    \\servername\d$\shares

     

    Make sure you connect using credentials on the Home Server.

    • Proposed as answer by Al West Monday, February 1, 2010 12:13 PM
    Monday, April 30, 2007 3:35 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Yes, you can map to the Shares folder.

     

    \\servername\d$\shares

     

    Make sure you connect using credentials on the Home Server.

    Monday, April 30, 2007 4:00 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
     timofcourse wrote:

    Yea.. basically, I just dont want to have to map 6 different drives on every one of my PC's to access these shares (or have to use unc paths any time I want to access them). 

     

    I thought about creating a "central" or "general" folder and placing all of the other folders in it, but you cant change or remove the existing "built-in" shares - such as Music, Videos, etc. (or can you??).  I guess Im just anal in the fact Id to use the built in folder icons and not have two of each folder... but unless theres some reghack or something which allows me to chnage where these built-in shares look (i.e. change \\servername\music to \\servername\general\music"), it looks like thats my only option.

     

    Thanks for the responses guys.

     

    You should be able to create a "symbolic link" in \\servername\general that refers to the \\servername\music folder. The "problem" is that I don't know the name of the command that creates symbolic links for you (WHS uses symbolic links for most of its magic). It sounds like Vista has a mklink command https://blogs.msdn.com/junfeng/archive/2006/04/15/576568.aspx not sure if its available in WHS or not (I'm not at my WHS machine).

     

    Search google for "symbolic link windows" or "junction point windows" for more information.

     

    Jay

    Monday, April 30, 2007 4:49 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    Since WHS is a Windows 2003 server deep down, this problem is solvable using DFS.

    I have all the shared folders on my WHS collected in \\server\dfs. I can then mount that path and have access to all the folders directly as a driveletter.


    Monday, April 30, 2007 5:53 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
     swensc wrote:

    Yes, you can map to the Shares folder.

    \\servername\d$\shares

    Make sure you connect using credentials on the Home Server.


    Ive read all over saying you shouldnt reference drive letters with WHS... isnt that the case?
     Scuttle wrote:
    Since WHS is a Windows 2003 server deep down, this problem is solvable using DFS.

    I have all the shared folders on my WHS collected in \\server\dfs. I can then mount that path and have access to all the folders directly as a driveletter.
    Recommended reading to find out more about this?

    Thanks again guys!
    Monday, April 30, 2007 10:34 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I think all the files should be put in the same share at install, it takes such a long time to transfer files between shares even though they are basically the same drive.

    Eg transferring a file from \\server\music\artist1 to \\server\music\artist2 is fast, where as moving
    \\server\Users\username\music to \\server\music is damn slow. It should be the same speed right?
    Tuesday, May 1, 2007 6:53 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    (Damn... this editor is _impossible_ to use in firefox...bug, or "feature"?)

     

     timofcourse wrote:

    Recommended reading to find out more about this?

     

    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/storage/dfs/default.mspx

     

    It's not very hard to set up, here is a screenshot of my setup as seen from WHS:

    http://almstrom.org/dfs1.png

     

    And that folder mounted as a driveletter in Vista:

    http://almstrom.org/dfs2.png

    Tuesday, May 1, 2007 8:23 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    It looks like mapping \\servername\d$\shares will work but only if you connect to the WHS using the admin account. Connecting like this negates the point of having users because I can browse into any folder and make changes regardless of the permissions set in the WHS console.

    I did not have a chance to try the dfs yet but does anyone know if it would have the same issue?
    Also what are the chances that as WHS progresses that this functionality would be removed?

    Before I moved to WHS my file server was mapped on all my machines as "m:", nice and simple just use the m drive. WHS just has a shortcut on the desktop and nothing shows up when you open my computer or windows explorer so it is causing a little bit of confusion when it is supposed to make life easier. Also it is causing issues with applications that don't accept a UNC path.
    Wednesday, May 2, 2007 3:50 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    It's easy enough to setup mapped drives for shares. Double-click on (My) Computer, then in the address bar, type in \\server\ and press enter. (Asssuming your server name is server). This will bring up a list of the shares. Select and right-click the share you want mapped, and select "Map Network Drive". Select the drive letter you want, and press OK. And there we are. Ensure the reconnect at logon checkbox is set.

    Wednesday, May 2, 2007 5:48 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
     IanPeters wrote:
    It's easy enough to setup mapped drives for shares. Double-click on (My) Computer, then in the address bar, type in \\server\ and press enter. (Asssuming your server name is server). This will bring up a list of the shares. Select and right-click the share you want mapped, and select "Map Network Drive". Select the drive letter you want, and press OK. And there we are. Ensure the reconnect at logon checkbox is set.



    Hi Ian,

    this is correct, but you are missing the point of his problem: he wants to access multiple shares with one mapped drive, instead of having to use a separate drive letter for each share.

    Dirk

    Wednesday, May 2, 2007 6:07 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Recommended reading to find out more about this?

    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/storage/dfs/default.mspx

     

    It's not very hard to set up, here is a screenshot of my setup as seen from WHS:

    http://almstrom.org/dfs1.png

     

    And that folder mounted as a driveletter in Vista:

    http://almstrom.org/dfs2.png

     

     

    Can you give us the details step by step how you set this up.

    Thanks

    Thursday, May 3, 2007 5:59 AM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    I just managed to get it going... not 100% if I did everything how it should be, but its working and it seemed to make sense.  One thing to keep in mind which has been mentioned several times - theres most likely to be numerous existing Windows Server 2003 features removed in the final build.... although I hope DFS is not one of them as its the best solution I have found for what Im looking for, theres always a chance...

     

    So, with that little disclaimer, here's how I got it working..

    1. On WHS Server, open Services and set "Distributed File Systems" to Automatic and start it
    2. Open Programs > Admin Tools > Distributed File Systems
    3. Right click top entry and choose "New Root..."
    4. Select "Stand-alone root"
    5. Enter hostname of WHS Server
    6. Enter the "root name" of the share which youll "link" all the default WHS shares shares to (I named mine "shares")
    7. Click "Browse" for the Root Share and create a folder where DFS will create the links under.  ** This is where I wasnt 100% on where to place it.  I ended up creating a "WHS" folder on the root of the C: drive.  My thought was it wouldnt (shouldnt) be affected by WHS DE.  If anyone has any other suggestions please speak up.
    8. Right click \\servername\sharename and choose "New Link..."
    9. Enter whatever you want for the Link Name... I named most of mine the same name as the WHS default share is called (i.e. Music, Photos, etc), and renamed a couple others ("Users" to "Personal" and "Public" to "Misc")
    10. Enter the WHS share path (i.e. \\hostname\music)
    11. Rinse and repeat for each share.

    Once this is done you can simply create a single mapped drive to \\servername\sharename rather than having to link to every single one.

     

    Hope this helps and big thanks to Scuttle for recommending this cool feature and everyone else for their suggestions.

    Saturday, May 5, 2007 4:00 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

     timofcourse wrote:
    I realize this isnt specific to WHS really, but rather than create separate mapped drives for each share, is there any way one can simply map a drive to "\\servername" so that all the shares are simply sub-directories?

    Thanks!

     

    DFS is well, Overkill. It's not needed here

     

    Yes it is possible, but you already have this by right clicking the WHS tray icon and going to shares or alternatley you can create a desktop shortcut to http:\\server and move that to the quick launch area This would be the prefered method and works even if you dont load the connector software at startup. It is also the quickest way to get to the shares because you dont have to open Windows Explorer to find it.

     

    If you are really deadset on this showing up as a mapped drive you will have to share the "Shares" directory on the data drive. right click on the Shares folder to share the drive and Use the permissions "button" on the sharing tab (do not use the security tab) and add "Windows Home Server Users" to the list and give them "Full control" Leave the "Everyone" entry alone. your permissions of the folders inside d:/shares will remain unchanged and will not cause any change in the servers security.

     

    You can now map a drive as  http:\\server\shares and it will show up as you describe. Check the reconnect at logon box and your good to go. you can use Desktop search (From any client) to index the server shares and get search results from the shares folder. (You will need to install the WDS 3.01 update to Index UNC shares)

     

    Rex Geissinger

     

     

     

     

    Monday, May 7, 2007 12:22 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Why not just RDP into WHS, launch Explorer and go to the drive that shows all your default shares....  You will then see that they are all under a folder called "SHARES".   Simply right-click the SHARES folder and create a share at this level.

     

    Now you can simply map to "SHARES" which will contain all your subfolders....  Or you can map directly to a specific folder using the default sharename.

     

    This is what I did. 

     

    You may want to set your permissions on the new share to match the others...

    Monday, May 7, 2007 2:30 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    The only reason I can think of as to why it would take longer to transfer between shares would be if you had duplication on in one share but not the other. Is this the case?
    Monday, May 7, 2007 9:02 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
     Rex Geissinger wrote:

     timofcourse wrote:
    I realize this isnt specific to WHS really, but rather than create separate mapped drives for each share, is there any way one can simply map a drive to "\\servername" so that all the shares are simply sub-directories?

    Thanks!

     

    DFS is well, Overkill. It's not needed here

     

    Yes it is possible, but you already have this by right clicking the WHS tray icon and going to shares or alternatley you can create a desktop shortcut to http:\\server and move that to the quick launch area This would be the prefered method and works even if you dont load the connector software at startup. It is also the quickest way to get to the shares because you dont have to open Windows Explorer to find it.

     

    If you are really deadset on this showing up as a mapped drive you will have to share the "Shares" directory on the data drive. right click on the Shares folder to share the drive and Use the permissions "button" on the sharing tab (do not use the security tab) and add "Windows Home Server Users" to the list and give them "Full control" Leave the "Everyone" entry alone. your permissions of the folders inside d:/shares will remain unchanged and will not cause any change in the servers security.

     

    You can now map a drive as  http:\\server\shares and it will show up as you describe. Check the reconnect at logon box and your good to go. you can use Desktop search (From any client) to index the server shares and get search results from the shares folder. (You will need to install the WDS 3.01 update to Index UNC shares)

     

    Rex Geissinger

      

    Mapping a drive to the shares is necessary as shortcuts and UNC paths dont really help when you have to define paths to the shares in programs. 

     

    Now, Ive read in at least one or two places that you should not reference server drive letters (including the installation documentation) at all as it could potentially have adverse affects.  Are you sure theres no issue with this?  Lastly, by changing the permissions to your recommendation, does this still preserve the permissions I apply in the WHS console?

     

    Thanks!

    Monday, May 7, 2007 2:19 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Timofcourse, IMHO I don't think you need worry that Microsoft will disable the underlying Server 2003 features at RTM. The documentation lists the areas to stay away from as those may break WHS. I don't think Microsoft would basically encourage such use of Server 2003 features only to take it away later down the road.

     

    Again, IMHO, even though around 80% of end users are less softisticated, there is still that other 20% who are very computer literate, and I don't believe Microsoft will cut them off, espcially after encouraging such usage. (These figures are not in stone of course) lol

     

    We have beta members using such features as running programs as services, (such as Orb and uTorrent), and streaming multi-media data across the Internet, not just in their own LAN. Those who have the capability to take advantage of these underlying features will continue to do so, while those who don't, well, won't. Just as in any computer usage, how much of a computers technological capabilites are utilized depends upon the expertise of the person using it. I believe this will be true of WHS too.

     

    Seree

    Monday, May 7, 2007 3:02 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
     timofcourse wrote:
     Rex Geissinger wrote:

     timofcourse wrote:
    I realize this isnt specific to WHS really, but rather than create separate mapped drives for each share, is there any way one can simply map a drive to "\\servername" so that all the shares are simply sub-directories?

    Thanks!

     

    DFS is well, Overkill. It's not needed here

     

    Yes it is possible, but you already have this by right clicking the WHS tray icon and going to shares or alternatley you can create a desktop shortcut to http:\\server and move that to the quick launch area This would be the prefered method and works even if you dont load the connector software at startup. It is also the quickest way to get to the shares because you dont have to open Windows Explorer to find it.

     

    If you are really deadset on this showing up as a mapped drive you will have to share the "Shares" directory on the data drive. right click on the Shares folder to share the drive and Use the permissions "button" on the sharing tab (do not use the security tab) and add "Windows Home Server Users" to the list and give them "Full control" Leave the "Everyone" entry alone. your permissions of the folders inside d:/shares will remain unchanged and will not cause any change in the servers security.

     

    You can now map a drive as  http:\\server\shares and it will show up as you describe. Check the reconnect at logon box and your good to go. you can use Desktop search (From any client) to index the server shares and get search results from the shares folder. (You will need to install the WDS 3.01 update to Index UNC shares)

     

    Rex Geissinger

      

    Mapping a drive to the shares is necessary as shortcuts and UNC paths dont really help when you have to define paths to the shares in programs. 

     

    Now, Ive read in at least one or two places that you should not reference server drive letters (including the installation documentation) at all as it could potentially have adverse affects.  Are you sure theres no issue with this?  Lastly, by changing the permissions to your recommendation, does this still preserve the permissions I apply in the WHS console?

     

    Thanks!

     

    Yes, It will preserve all permissions inside the shares folder. you will not be able to access another users private folder or any other that you do not have access to. You will still use the console to modify permissions for new or existing clients just like before. This will map a single drive letter (on the Client) and open a window with all the folders listed as sub folders.

     

    Rex Geissinger

     

    Dont forget to mark a post as an answer if it answers you questions...

    Monday, May 7, 2007 3:13 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    Rex,
       This is basically exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the help. Still I hope before this product is released the MS makes something more official, for example no sooner than I mapped this as the m: drive then another user created a new folder manually through windows explorer. Not sure how WHS handles this, I removed it and created an "official" folder through the console but it's still a shortcoming.

    I guess we'll see, thanks again for the sharing the information.

    -Ken
    Thursday, May 17, 2007 2:49 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

     

    As a follow-up I created a folder manually under the m: drive, where I mapped my WHS shares on my computers , and started filling it with files. When a folder was created before there were only a few text files and I did not notice a difference. For this test I created a folder manually and started copying large files into it. At some point the WHS started to exhibit odd behaviour. It was very sluggish, copying files to or from any folder was very slow, logging onto the server through the console took over 10 minutes and when I was finally connected the responses were very slow. When I controlled WHS with remote desktop it had the same issues, very sluggish. The console said that WHS was balancing the load constantly, it never stopped for the two days I left it like this and I was unable to connect to the WHS from the livenode.com website. Once I removed the files from the manually created folder and put them into a folder created using the console the WHS performance returned to normal. I guess just a word of caution for anyone mapping a drive to WHS using this method and another reason to hope MS come up with a better way to handle this before the final release.

     

    -Ken

    Tuesday, May 22, 2007 3:26 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Ken, could you please provide a less experianced tester with a bit of clarification? lol  This may be very clear to somebody with more experiance, but, well, here goes: Ok, in this "manually created" folder you created, were you saying you created this folder without the use of the Connecter software on a client, or did you create this manual folder at the Server desktop? When you "transferred" files to this mapped folder, did you transfer from shares on the Server, or from a client, or both?

     

    I don't know if this has any bearing on the behavior you have seen, but I read a post which said a manually created share, seperate from the defaul share folders automatically created during the OS setup were currupt when the tester attempted to stream them across the network via an Extender device such as an xBox 360. I did a search for the thread, but wasn't able to locate it, so sorry I can't offer it for you to view

     

    So, I am wondering if manually created files simply, for reasons unknown at the moment, do not work correctly in the Home Server. This is why I am asking for clarification of your Test Enviroment, and what you did or didn't do while running the test. I am puzzled why manually created folders don't fair well in our Home Server, and why the files within them seem to be currupting and/or causing abnormal behaviors. Any thoughts on this subject? If manually created files are having difficulty, we need to know, and report this to the WHS Team. Perhaps Cek can offer some insight into why this is occurring. Thanks Ken,

     

    Seree

    Tuesday, May 22, 2007 7:46 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

     

    Hello Seree,  Basically what I did was I mapped the shares folder on the WHS to my personal desktop as described above by Rex Geissinger, I used the drive letter m: for no particular reason. The "manually created" folder was on my personal desktop I opened a Windows Explorer window, I browsed to the m: drive, where all the folders on the WHS were like Videos, Photos, etc.., right clicked and selected New > Folder and named it Test. By "transferred" I simply mean that I copied files from my personal desktop computer to the "Test" folder on the m: drive, personally I used xcopy with 6 Linux DVD distros of between 4 - 6 GB each. I did not run any tests where I copied files from another area on the

     

    Hope that clears things up, I can not speak to whether or not these files became corrupted in the process of this test, I did not run any tests on the files before and after to verify integrity. As far as submitting this as a bug I'm not sure it qualifies as I was/am using WHS in a way that is not intended. I have seen posts in the past about corrupted files and the recommendation was to always access files on WHS using the UNC path, even when you are on the WHS machine itself.

     

    -Ken

    Tuesday, May 22, 2007 9:07 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Thank you Ken, and yes, that did clear things up for me a lot. I really appreciate your taking the time to respond to my question. Have a great day,

     

    Seree

    Tuesday, May 22, 2007 9:27 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Hello All -

    I'd like to know how Home Server creates a drive letter share and drive letter+folder share the way they do using the OS tools available, not using the Home Server Console. This thread looks to be related to what I'm looking for so I'm adding my request here rather than open a new thread.

    In Disk Management I see 2 drives, and all the HS shares are based off of the 2nd drive. But that 2nd drive is not visible anywhere else. I am familiar with creating a share of an existing folder. I am familar with "Share and Storage Management" as well. What I'd like to do in theory with this 2-drive setup as it looks like in HS is 1) make the 2nd drive visible, 2) map a drive letter to the root of that drive, 3) add a folder to that mapped drive letter, 4) create a share of that drive letter+folder, 5) make the 2nd drive invisible again. This way the result should be similar to what HS has in "Share and Storage Management > Shares" and also looking under "Computer". I'm thinking. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, shares need to be created off of existing folders, so until I can do steps 1-3 I'm stuck. Hence my question here. Anyway...my steps are what I'd like to do if I could, but what is really going on in the actual configuration (and therefore what can be done and how it is done) compared to what I'm thinking may be very different.

    I thank everyone for their responses to this. I bet it's easy and has been answered...but I could not find it...

    ChrisR

    Monday, May 10, 2010 4:09 PM