Can I SUBST a network drive?

Question

I have a network share mapped to drive T: and I want to be able to access if easily from a specific directory. However, entering subst t: c:\volumes\test gives the error message Invalid parameter - T:

Is there a limitation on mapped network drives or Windows server 2003, or am I doing something wrong?

Update:

As EBGreen points out, I don't actually want to use subst, since it doesn't do what I thought it did. I'm coming from a Linux environment, where remote shares can be mounted on to a directory in the filesystem.

Is there something in Windows that'll let me do this?

Solution

Assuming that C: is an NTFS volume, what you want is to create either an NTFS volume mount point or a junction point depending on your needs.

You can use Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) to mount T: as a directory in C: or from the command-line (replace the GUID with the one of the target drive):

> md C:\Volumes\Test
> mountvol C:\Volumes\Test \\?\Volume{GUID}\

Alternately, you can also use mklink to create a junction point:

> mklink /j C:\Volumes\Test T:\

Since mklink is not included in Server 2003 (o.O), this shell-extension can be used to create and manage junction points.

Comments

[Harry Johnston]

subst does the exact opposite of what you are trying to do.

[Kalessin]

@Harry You're right. I haven't had to use it since about 1989 and its purpose had become somewhat confused in my mind over time.

[sean christe]

In the interest of credit where credit is due, Synetech and Harry johnson had it right, I had it backwards.

[Synetech]

@EBGreen, to be fair, if Kalessin’s avatar is at all representative, then English may not be their first language. ;-)

[sean christe]

No, any confusion was certainly my fault.

[Kalessin]

@EBGreen Given that English is my first language and I got subst usage backwards, I'll take the blame and walk away. Thanks for all your input anyway :)

[Harry Johnston]

I don't think either of these will work when T is a mapped network drive. Junction points are (sadly) user-context-independent, and mapped network drives are per-user-context.

[Synetech]

I couldn’t test because I don’t have any networked drives.

[Kalessin]

Mountvol lists possible values for the VolumeName parameter and drive T is not amongst them. I don't seem to have mklink available on my system, so I'll look into that... Edit: mklink is available only from Vista/Server 2008 onwards.

[Synetech]

@Kalessin, then Harry is correct; it does not support network drives. I would have thought that mklink would be available in Server2003 (considering it is a server edition). Well, junction points are nevertheless supported, so you can use this shell-extension (which should even make it easier to use).