How to Map a Network Drive in Windows 7

Mapping a network drive in Windows 7 is fairly easy, assuming the networked drive you are trying to map, or connect to is properly set up. If the network drive was not set up for sharing, you will have difficulties mapping it.

Suffice to say, you may need to follow some extra instructions in order to make mapping a drive work. Let’s start with the basics though. In the following instructions, I will provide you the means to simply map a network drive using Windows built-in Map network drive wizard.

The below instructions are based on using Windows 7 x64 Home Premium, and Windows XP Professional.

Map a Network Drive Instructions

1. Open Computer, or Windows Explorer via a shortcut, or from the Start menu
2. If you simply opened Windows Explorer, click on Computer in the left-side column
3. Click on Map network drive in the toolbar, or select it from the Tools drop-down menu
4. Assign your network drive a letter
5. Click the Browse button to browse the network where the drive, or folder, is you wish to network to
6. Select/Highlight it and press the OK button
7. Place a mark in the checkbox next to Reconnect at login
8. Click the Finish button

Now you should find your mapped drive, or folder, listed in Computer. At this point, it’s always a good idea to test out the connection to make certain you have permission and can access the shared resource drive.

The above simple instructions may not work for you, especially if the other computer you are connecting to is not in the same Windows 7 Homegroup, or it is a server network.

If so, you may need to…

1. Check the box for Connect using different credentials
2. Click the Finish button
3. You will be prompted to enter the appropriate credentials
4. Check the box Remember my credentials

Believe it or not, mapping to previous versions of Windows may require a bit more work…

Map an XP Drive from Windows 7

If you cannot map an XP shared resource, even after providing credentials, follow these instructions to resolve the problem.

Create a Windows 7 local account as an XP User Account

On your XP machine…

1. From your Start menu, right-click My Computer and select Manage
2. In the Computer Management console window, select Local Users and Groups, and expand the Users directory
3. In the right-side window, right-click in the open area and select New user… from the context menu
4. For credentials, input a Windows 7 User name, Full name, Description, and Password
5. Uncheck User must change password at next logon, and check Password never expires
6. Click the Create button
7. Close the Computer Management console window

Now, from your Windows 7 computer, you will be able to access and map to shared folders. If you require full access to the drives, then follow these steps to be added to the Administrators Group.

Go back to your XP machine and re-open the Computer Management console

1. Under Local Users and Groups, expand Groups
2. In the right-side window, open Administrators
3. Click the Add button and enter the User name you had previously created, and click the Check Names button
4. Once found, click the OK button
5. Exit the Computer Management console

Now you should be able to map an entire drive, though don’t forget you may need to manually enter it in the following format: \\XPMACHINE\DRIVE_LETTER$.

Additional Solutions to Mapping Network Drives

In a Windows Client TechCenter forum thread, a poster had the following issue, I have Windows 7  64 bit Home Premium,and I can’t map a network drive.  I use a Cisco VPN client to connect to my University network, and then when I go to map the drive I get a message that it can’t be found. ~Dshare. Although the answer received by a Microsoft tech did not solve the problem, it does demonstrate the issues surrounding Windows drive mapping.

In a later thread reply, a solution was presented by another responder…To make things work, I had to trick windows into thinking that the two shares were on separate servers by adding an alias entry in the hosts file (system32/drivers/etc/hosts), 192.168.0.103 DNS323USERS, Then I mapped one share using \\192.168.0.103\Sync and the other using \\DNS323USERS\Users. ~Win7Noobee

Another solution…The solution to my problem above was that I had to disconnect the mapped network drives in Win 7, so that they did not show up as network shared drives in XP Mode.  Once there were no mapped/shared drives in XP Mode, I created new mapped drives by right-clicking on the network folders, and then I could run the installation/setup files as previously done in Windows XP. ~Roy H. _