How do I mount a network drive to a folder?

Question

Does anyone know of a third party (or even windows native) solution to this simple problem?

I want to map an internal network share on our windows server to a folder on each of the client machines in the network. I don't want to to use drive letters; I would just like to set up a folder on my C: drive that is actually a Windows share. For example, C:\Data\Network Docs should actually point to \\Server\SharedData\.

Is this possible? Is there any tool that does it? All clients are using Windows XP and Windows 7.

Solution 1

In Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can create a "junction folder"/"Symbolic link" to redirect the contents of one to another.

Simply type:

mklink /d "c:\data\network docs" "\\server\shareddata\"

I have not tested it with a FQDN, but as far as I can tell, it should work. I have tested it with a network mapped drive, and this works perfectly... so at a last resort, you can map first, then do this.

The /d creates a directory (c:\data\network docs in this example) and it must not exist. It will be created by this command.

You must have admin privileges when you run CMD. You can do this under an admin account by pressing ctrl-shift-enter instead of enter when you run CMD.

The end result is also achievable in Windows XP, but it is not as easy. Guide here

Solution 2

It runs ok for me:

net use \\\server\share\folder1\folder2
mklink /d "C:\Users\Admin\test\mi_enlace" \\\server\share\folder1\folder2

Solution 3

For PowerShell:

(Remember to run as Administrator!!!)

New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "C:\Somewhere At SMB Client" -Target "\\SMB-SERVER\Somewhere"

And if you want to delete it, simply delete it in File Explorer. DO NOT CALL rm OR del in PowerShell, as it would delete all the files. Instead, cmd /c "rmdir C:\Somewhere At SMB Client" or (Get-Item C:\Somewhere At SMB Client).Delete() would do the trick.

Solution 4

This is an example fore the solution already provided by William Hilsum

open cmd
type: cd \folder-parent-of-the-folder-to-clone
type: deltree folder-to-clone (or you will get the following error: Cannot create a file when that file already exists)
type: mklink /d "folder-to-clone" "g:
\folder-to-clone"
The software will prompt: symbolic link created for folder-to-clone <<===>> g:\folder-to-clone

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Comments

[Admin]

please update for windows 10 also

[Admin]

Related: Mount Remote CIFS/SMB Share as a Folder not a Drive Letter on Server Fault.

[Bill]

Note that for Windows XP, the linked guide explicitly says, "you can’t create a junction point on an NTFS drive that points to a network drive." (for Windows XP)

[Nick]

Adding to @Bill's comment. You can't make a junction point in Win7, etc either, but the mklink tool functions like a symbolic link. If you try to use a junction (ie, using the Sysinternals junction tool), it will make the junction, but will not function.

[dave k]

Works for Windows 8.1 as well. Make sure to run the command prompt with administrative privileges.

[Cestarian]

This is a symbolic link, not a junction link, there is a difference.

[Steve Hiner]

A shortcut can't be used like a normal folder so this won't work to do what they are requesting.

[userJT]

what about win 10?

[userJT]

will this persist over months and years (reboots?) (I am currently using map network drive to letter but would prefer mapping to folder)

[Ben Johnson]

@Nick That is not true; one may absolutely make a junction point in Win 7, using mklink with the /j switch. This is clear from the help output: mklink /? That said, one may not make a junction (reparse) point from a local disk to a network resource; junctions work on local volumes only, which is why the \d switch is required in this instance.

[Nick]

@BenJohnson yes - sorry to not be clear - I meant to say that you can't make junctions between local folders and network folders and you need to do a symlink instead.

[still thinking about it]

Point taken. I was still a beginner at that point! i needed to get some reputation points for a course i was doing.

[Eryk Sun]

Please delete any mention of "junction". Mount points (i.e. junctions) are not allowed to target remote filesystems because they're defined to be evaluated on the server side, as opposed to symlinks, which get evaluated on the client side. In this way and other ways, mount points and symlinks do not behave the same and are not intended for the same use cases. Mount points are not legacy/outdated symlinks. They have a specific place in the overall scheme of things. Also, this answer should mention L2R (local to remote) symlink policy, which may disallow following symlinks with remote targets.

[Mawg says reinstate Monica]

Courses require S.E rep??!!

[Simon Melhuish]

You don't have to be an administrator if you create a link in a folder you control for a share you have access to - either with your own credentials, or after running net use \\computer\share sharepass /user:shareuser.