Mapping a local folder to drive letter

[Guest]

Unlike my NT and 2K machines, on my XP Pro machine I'm having trouble mappng a drive letter to a folder shared on it's local hard drive

On all machines, I can share a local folder (ie: c:\temp) and give it a shared name (ie: c_temp), without any problems. On both the Win2K or WinNT machines, when I open "My Network Places \ Entire Network \ Microsoft Windows Network \ Workgroup" in the Windows Explorer, I see the local machine's name. It's then a simple matter of clicking on that local machine name, where I can then see the "c_temp" resource, then I can map it to a drive letter, say "T:", so that a local file, for example c:\temp\myfile.txt, can now be accessed on that local machine, as t:\myfile.txt

If I boot the NT or 2K machine without the network cable attached, obviously I can't see the other machines on the network, but I can still see that local's machine name, so I can still get to the c_temp resource to map it to the T: drive letter - that's what I want to be able to do - map a local shared folder to a drive letter on an un-networked machine, but I can't get this to work under XP Pro? Why does the XP machine not list itself as one of the machines in "My Network Places"

I'm logged in with full administrative rights, and the folder seems to share just fine, but when I go to "My Network Places", even though I can see other machines on the network, the XP machine doesn't see "itself" (ie: the XP machine's name doesn't appear), so I can't see the local c_temp folder as a resource in order to map it. I've tried it with and without the network cable plugged in. Can I accomplish this instead using some "net" commands in the Command Prompt window

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Thanks
Denis

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Unlike my NT and 2K machines, on my XP Pro machine I'm having trouble mappng a drive letter to a folder shared on it's local hard drive.

On all machines, I can share a local folder (ie: c:\temp) and give it a shared name (ie: c_temp), without any problems. On both the Win2K or WinNT machines, when I open "My Network Places \ Entire Network \ Microsoft Windows Network \ Workgroup" in the Windows Explorer, I see the local machine's name. It's then a simple matter of clicking on that local machine name, where I can then see the "c_temp" resource, then I can map it to a drive letter, say "T:", so that a local file, for example c:\temp\myfile.txt, can now be accessed on that local machine, as t:\myfile.txt.

If I boot the NT or 2K machine without the network cable attached, obviously I can't see the other machines on the network, but I can still see that local's machine name, so I can still get to the c_temp resource to map it to the T: drive letter - that's what I want to be able to do - map a local shared folder to a drive letter on an un-networked machine, but I can't get this to work under XP Pro? Why does the XP machine not list itself as one of the machines in "My Network Places"?

I'm logged in with full administrative rights, and the folder seems to share just fine, but when I go to "My Network Places", even though I can see other machines on the network, the XP machine doesn't see "itself" (ie: the XP machine's name doesn't appear), so I can't see the local c_temp folder as a resource in order to map it. I've tried it with and without the network cable plugged in. Can I accomplish this instead using some "net" commands in the Command Prompt window?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Denis

I don't know why the XP machine can't see itself. Perhaps there's a
firewall blocking access. Perhaps its network connection is disabled.
One possible solution is to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, so
that there's always a recognized network connection:

1. Go to Control Panel | Printers and Other Hardware.
2. Click "Add Hardware".
3. Click Next.
4. Select "Yes, I have already connected the hardware".
5. Click Next.
6. Select "Add a new hardware device" from the list and click Next.
7. Select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list"
and click Next.
8. Double click Network Adapters.
9. Click Microsoft.
10. Click Microsoft Loopback Adapter
11. Click Next twice.
12. Click Finish.

However, there's a much easier way to assign a drive letter to a
folder on the same computer. Go to a command prompt and enter:

subst drive: path

For example, this command assigns drive letter "g" to the folder
"d:\data":

subst g: d:\data
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Chuck]

Unlike my NT and 2K machines, on my XP Pro machine I'm having trouble mappng a drive letter to a folder shared on it's local hard drive.

On all machines, I can share a local folder (ie: c:\temp) and give it a shared name (ie: c_temp), without any problems. On both the Win2K or WinNT machines, when I open "My Network Places \ Entire Network \ Microsoft Windows Network \ Workgroup" in the Windows Explorer, I see the local machine's name. It's then a simple matter of clicking on that local machine name, where I can then see the "c_temp" resource, then I can map it to a drive letter, say "T:", so that a local file, for example c:\temp\myfile.txt, can now be accessed on that local machine, as t:\myfile.txt.

If I boot the NT or 2K machine without the network cable attached, obviously I can't see the other machines on the network, but I can still see that local's machine name, so I can still get to the c_temp resource to map it to the T: drive letter - that's what I want to be able to do - map a local shared folder to a drive letter on an un-networked machine, but I can't get this to work under XP Pro? Why does the XP machine not list itself as one of the machines in "My Network Places"?

I'm logged in with full administrative rights, and the folder seems to share just fine, but when I go to "My Network Places", even though I can see other machines on the network, the XP machine doesn't see "itself" (ie: the XP machine's name doesn't appear), so I can't see the local c_temp folder as a resource in order to map it. I've tried it with and without the network cable plugged in. Can I accomplish this instead using some "net" commands in the Command Prompt window?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Denis

Denis,

Do any of the computers have a software firewall (ICF or third party)? If so,
you need to configure them for file sharing, by opening ports TCP 139, 445 and
UDP 137, 138, 445, and / or by identifying the other computers as present in the
Local (Trusted) zone. Firewall configurations are a very common cause of
(network) browser, and file sharing, problems.

Please provide ipconfig information for each computer.
Start - Run - "cmd". Type "ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt" into the command
window - Open c:\ipconfig.txt in Notepad, copy and paste into your next post.
Please identify operating system with each ipconfig.

From the 2K and XP computers, check shares visibility (use actual name / address
of each computer as appropriate):
Start - Run then:
1) \\ThisComputerByName
2) \\ThisComputerByIPAddress
3) \\OtherComputerByName
4) \\OtherComputerByIPAddress
Report visibility of shares / error displayed in each test (8 tests total).

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.