How do I map a network drive to the root of a server (\\server)?

Question

In Windows XP I can very easily map a network drive to the root of my NAS server. I browse to it in Explorer (\\192.168.1.70), choose "Map Network Drive", then choose the drive letter.

In Windows Vista, mapping the root of a server doesn't seem possible. I have to go "Map Network Drive" from 'Computer', then enter the address, but it will only let me map to specific shares (sub-folders off of the server root) and NOT to the server root share.

Since my NAS has built-in shares (music, photo, video, etc.) then I would have to have drive letters for all of these, which I absolutely don't want.

Why can I easily map a network drive to the server root in Windows XP, but not in Vista? Is there something fundamentally different in the networking across the two OS's? Or do I need to do things a different way?

Solution 1

(Possibly partial answer here.) This isn't possible from any version of Windows (including XP) to other Microsoft-based servers. I suspect this may be the case for other OSes hosting SMB shares as well, but I don't have a way to confirm that.

From a machine running Windows XP Professional 32-bit, I attempted to map a drive to a machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 named FSDC-SERVER27. I was logged on to the XP machine with an account that has Administrative rights on both the local and remote computers. As shown here I was unable to map a drive to the so-called "root" of the server:

But this is not unexpected. Mapped drives in Windows have always terminated at a share.

Consider this: If it were possible to map a drive to the root of a server, there would be settings exposed to configure permissions for the "root" share. No such settings exist (at least in Windows). Indeed, all settings for controlling access to and the behavior of shares exist on the share definition itself.

Therefore I conclude it's not possible to map a drive in Windows to the "root" of a server.

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On Windows machines, the closest one gets to mapping to the "root" of a server is to map to the root of a specific volume. For example, on non-home editions of Windows, the automatically-generated shares known as Administrative shares include shares of the root of all fixed disk volumes (e.g. C$, E$, etc.). It's also possible on all versions of Windows to manually create a share of the root of a specific volume.

Solution 2

This is not direct answer, but what helped me to address the issue when the one would like to easily access all the fileshares on a server, but can't or does not want to type/remember server name or create multiple individual drives for each subfolder.

Step 1: Create a shortcut anywhere: Right click Desktop → Create shortcut (for example)

Step 2: Open a File Explorer window and drag the newly created shortcut to favorites section.

Note: In newer versions of Windows (eg. Windows 10), you can right-click on the newly created Shortcut on your desktop and choose 'Pin to Quick Access'

While it isn't exactly a mapped drive, you do get a place where all your shares are easily accessible.

This solved what I wanted, and when I searched for an answer, this topic popped up in google first which is why I decided to put the answer here.

Works in Windows 7, Vista, 8 with classic shell, etc

Solution 3

The NAS server is most likely running Linux with Samba.

You will need to define a new share which points to the root of the server, which in Linux is /. A better share may be to the folder containing the sub-folders of music, photo, and video, whose location you will need to find.

Configuring Samba is done by editing the file smb.conf. You could append to it, for example (there may be slight changes depending on the NAS operating system version) :

[root-share-name]
path = /
browsable = yes
read only = yes
force user = nobody

You will need to restart Samba for this to take effect, which (depending on the NAS Linux version) may be this command:

sudo service smbd restart

Or you may just reboot the NAS.

If you need more information about configuring Samba, you could easily find it on the Internet once you know the NAS Linux version.

Solution 4

\\hostname is not actually a valid "share". You need something after the host in order to map it.

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Comments

[Admin]

As far as I'm aware, Vista makes it illegal to access a share without a full path (host + share).

[codaamok]

Aren't administrative shares available in Vista? \\192.168.0.2\c$ May need professional version or some other hack to get it working. To get it working in my Win8 & Win10 LAN I had to make a registry change. Not familiar with Vista, sorry.

[Stevoisiak]

I believe this issue is still present in Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10.

[harrymc]

Is the NAS server configurable, like Linux with Samba?

[I say Reinstate Monica]

I just tried mapping a drive from an XP Pro box to the root of a Win 2008 Server as described by the OP. It did not work. (I have Admin rights on both systems.) Further, it doesn't make sense to map a drive to the "root" of a server. Mapped drives have always terminated at a share!

[Andy T]

HI, Sure, I understand that would kind of work but: a) this would mess up my built-in share structure (movie, photo, video) that the NAS software requires b) this still doesn't explain how come it's possible in XP and not in Vista

[Mâtt Frëëman]

Have you tried \\host\c$

[djsmiley2kStaysInside]

As you've pointed out this is impossible, and the user is mistaken about their current share. I suggest they check the current share mount point via net use in a command prompt to see what they have actually got.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

You can enter \\server into Windows Explorer too and see all shared resources on the server. But the question is about mapping a drive to the root--a totally different proposition.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

This is not a legitimate attempt to answer the question.