Help! Howto delay maping drive until network is up?
Hello, I'm sure this has been addressed before, but I cannot find the answer. I have a network share that I want mapped to a drive letter at startup, but I get an error message because the network is not up for about 20 seconds after I log in. Is there a way to have the 'reconnect at logon' wait for the network to become available? Thanks
April 20th, 2008 1:28pm

Hi, Based on my test, I find that the message could not reconnect all network drives is just a notification letting you know that the network drives have not been reconnected during the logon. It will not prevent you from accessing the network drives once the network is available. Hope my explanation has addressed your concerns.
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April 24th, 2008 3:01am

I have experienced this same problem with network drive not connecting when the network connection is delayed. The difficulty arrises when a program is set to use the network drive letter. If the connection has not been established manually by clicking on the drive in my computer on startup, then, for example, Microsoft Money will fail when attempting to write a backup file to the network drive. So even though it is possible to access the drive manually, programs which attempt to do so will fail.If there is some way to require a delay before attempting to reconnect network drives on startup, it should solve this problem.Just to be clear, here are the steps of the problem:1) Have a previously defined network drive (x2) Have Microsoft Money set up to automatically save backup to network drive x:3) Startup computer, and receive message "Unable to reconnect all network drives."4) Open Money, do stuff5) Close Money, and get error message that drive is not accessible.Now, if after step 3 I go to My Computer, open the x: drive manually, then go on to step 4, everything works fine. But, I don't really like having to remember this. Adding a delay that allows my WiFi to get up and running before trying to reconnect the network drive should solve the problem. Is there some way to do this?Thanks for any helpM
May 10th, 2008 7:31pm

A quick workaround (in XP anyway, I haven't got Vista to test it - demonstrates this is a long standing problem that should have been fixed now wireless networks are becoming the norm and often connect late in the boot process) isto point the Money Backup file location (or any other programme that you want to access the network share without having to manually reconnect) at the UNC (\\server\share\file) rather than the drive letter(e.g. on the BT Homehub "\\thomson\bt_7g\directory\money backup file") and is now working for me. Not sure all the techies understand the problem as they're use to computers being on all day so that once they are up and running everything is okay and a quick visit to "My Computer" to manually activate the drivefirst thing in the morning doesn't bother them. For SoHo users we tend to turn the computer on to do a specific job and then turn it off again, accessing other programmes/areas of the operating system is a pain at best and very easy to forget. This can cause a big problem when using programmes like Picasa or similar which will remember media on connected drives but once the programme is started with thedrivedisconnected will forget and have to rexplore when the drive is reconnected. (is a big pain on a slow 500gb external I can tell you) Ideally Microsoft should put a second option behind "Reconnect at Logon" which is "Wait for network adaptor before attempting reconnect: wireless/lan/bluetooth,etc." Please? Pretty Please?. Thanks
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June 30th, 2008 5:23am

Hi there. I was wondering if you ever found a way to delay reconnecting to the network drive. I am experiencing the same problem with my wireless network at startup. Thanks!
November 19th, 2008 4:49am

bump- still a problem in Windows 7
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February 12th, 2009 4:18pm

This behaviour stopped for me by listing the servers where the network drives resided in LMHOSTS
August 20th, 2009 9:03pm

Using nLite to customize your Windows XP installation, there is an option that causes mapped network drives to wait until they are accessed for the first time before they try to connect. This is the perfect solution for me but I would like to know how to change this setting after installation.
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October 30th, 2009 4:56pm

Solution! After many days of trying to fix this (and months of getting annoyed by it), and seeing that no expert provided a solution to such a clear problem, I finally found the solution! run regedit.exe * Warning do not edit your registry if you don't know what it is * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\ Set or create a DWORD RestoreConnection = 0 restart and voila! Problem solved, the mapped drives will not connect untill you access them for the first time. :)
November 18th, 2009 4:17pm

While it may not prevent user from accessing the mapped drive, any application that needs to use a file in the drive with a failed reconnection status will not be able to find it, until Windows itself has succesfully mapped the drive frist during log on. Users will have to first manually refresh "My Computer" for windows to find drive, before being able to open any file through a third program. In today's Media Sharing environment, this is somewhat of a glitch, where users are storing media using DNLA hardware.
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January 31st, 2010 9:27am

This is a truely annoying and longstanding issue that is still a problem in Windows 7. I have written a small executable that solves the problem for me by allowing you to specify a timeout up until which the program will keep trying to map the drive until it is successful. I have taken this approach after some fairly extensive research. You can download the utility here .
March 7th, 2010 12:32am

This is still an issue. Please provide a work-around MSFT. Here is another idea I have, but doesn't seem to work quite right. Maybe one of you knows how to get this working.... I've heard of a way to make the wireless network "pre-login" before a user logs in. This would allow for the network to be established before your user login tries to map drives. Here is mention of it.... http://www.vistax64.com/vista-networking-sharing/63434-vista-wireless-connection-only-enabled-after-logon.html but I don't know how to do it in Win7. I think I ... might... have found a similar option in Win7 although I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly because it still doesn't work.... Go to "Control Panel->Network and Internet->Network and Sharing Center" On the left panel, click "Manage Wireless Networks". Right Click on the wireless network you are having this issue with. Select "Properties". Select the "Security" tab and then click "Advanced settings". There is a check box for "Enable single sign on for this network" which then enables "Perform immediately before user login" Is this what I'm looking for?
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July 14th, 2010 4:54pm

I have this issue as well, but with a wired ethernet connection using Windows 7 Enterprise. Behavior is the same as described above: on system restart I get a notification the network drives could not be reconnected and applications cannot access the mapped network drive until I manually go to Computer and open the mapped drive (which as a red X on it, but opens immediately when I double click on it)
July 15th, 2010 5:15pm

i would imagine the best/easiest way to do this is to make the service (of what ever app you're running) dependent on the wireless zero service (windows wireless) or lanman client service. this will force the service (application) to not run until the desired service has started. this is done through a regedit & should be done @ ur own risk... after you do the regedt you should be able to check the service & you will see the that it's now dependent. ****** The following steps need to be performed in order to create a dependency. Backup your current registry settings. Run 'regedit' to open your registry. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services and locate the service that you need to set a dependency for. Open the 'DependOnService' key on the right side. If the selected service does not have a 'DependOnService' key, then create one by right-clicking and selecting New > Multi-String Value. In the value field, enter the names of all services that the current service will depend on. Each service name must be entered properly and on a separate line. Click OK, close your registry and restart your machine.
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July 23rd, 2010 10:51am

I resent that this is considered answered. Please read nickmanners post below to understand why this is not an acceptable answer. This needs a TRUE FIX. It is a long standing problem for many.
December 20th, 2010 2:35am

Same issue with my Win7 on wireless network. There needs the ability to have a slight delay or a re attempt to connect to a mapped network drive. A TRUE FIX is needed and not work arounds that may or may not work.
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January 29th, 2011 1:50pm

I was in the same boat... wired connections, Windows 7 Enterprise... I have applications that reference data on a shared folder and must reference it via a drive letter. I applied the following to FIX the issue! - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937624 "To configure the EnableLinkedConnections registry value, follow these steps: Click Start , type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER. Locate and then right-click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System Point to New , and then click DWORD Value . Type EnableLinkedConnections , and then press ENTER. Right-click EnableLinkedConnections , and then click Modify . In the Value data box, type 1 , and then click OK . Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer." Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937624 In order to apply this fix globally, I applied the registry key via Group Policy in Server 2008 under Computer Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Registry. In here I right-clicked in the white space and clicked New > Registry entry, and filled out the fields. This has worked flawlessly! Cheers! Dstones
February 11th, 2011 12:55pm

Jason, with all due respect that is NOT THE ANSWER, in fact I think maybe you don't even understand the problem if you think it is. You'll notice several others on this thread have said the same thing, that you are not addressing the problem at all. I have a full windows7 pro environment with 2008 native active directory and all drives are mapped via group policy and anytime a user logs on or restarts their machine they get the popup telling them there's a problem. Now i do understand there's not really a problem, by the time they can click on a newtwork drive to see what failed it is there, but why why WHY does Windows (servers do it too) insist on telling users there's a problem when there is not?
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March 10th, 2011 8:58am

Edbert, i don't see your problem. When you log in to Windows, a bunch of "program" starts up, they called "services". Find the proper service, and do some voodoo. Something for something, i will tell you the name of the service, in return, you will learn two hungarian words: "hálózati" and "kapcsolatok". That's the name of the service in my computer. Think before you demand.
April 23rd, 2011 8:58am

This is still an issue. Please provide a work-around MSFT. Here is another idea I have, but doesn't seem to work quite right. Maybe one of you knows how to get this working.... I've heard of a way to make the wireless network "pre-login" before a user logs in. This would allow for the network to be established before your user login tries to map drives. Here is mention of it.... http://www.vistax64.com/vista-networking-sharing/63434-vista-wireless-connection-only-enabled-after-logon.html but I don't know how to do it in Win7. I think I ... might... have found a similar option in Win7 although I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly because it still doesn't work.... Go to "Control Panel->Network and Internet->Network and Sharing Center" On the left panel, click "Manage Wireless Networks". Right Click on the wireless network you are having this issue with. Select "Properties". Select the "Security" tab and then click "Advanced settings". There is a check box for "Enable single sign on for this network" which then enables "Perform immediately before user login" Is this what I'm looking for? I think the wireless network builds up berfore user login (has to be, otherwise other systems wouldn't see your shared folders without your login), and i think that's the main source of this problem. You led me to another solution. If the network builds up before you log in, that means the network services has to start before you login. The local services, such as the previously mentioned "Hálózati kapcsolatok" service (I will not help) starts right when you log in with your account. If you haven't got a password (or the system logs you in automatically with the password), all the services start at the same time, without watching each other's back. I think it's all about timing. You cannot map a network drive without login (it would be an anonymus request to the network), so the only thing you can do, is log in before you log in. And you can do this by enabling your user account to sign in as a service. It worked for me. And there's something else you can try if you want: to sign in that service (with that funny name) with the network service account (by default it logs in with the local system account).
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April 23rd, 2011 12:17pm

I'll chalk up your condescending attitude to a translation error. The problem is not a service, I do not practice voodoo, or ever intend to learn a single Hungarian word, nor have I demanded anything. Those four facts make your post 100% irrelevant. For the record I "solved" the problem throughout my enterprise with this (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937624) thanks to a post by dstones. Although I am no longer experiencing the issue or getting calls/complaints about it, the problem remains within Win7 and people should not have to hack their registries to make it go away.
April 25th, 2011 8:20am

The program MapDrive fixes this problem, link below. http://zornsoftware.talsit.info/blog/category/software Scroll down to the bottom and read up about the utility MapDrive, download link is also on the page. I set mine with a delay of 5 seconds and it works perfectly.
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July 24th, 2011 8:24am

Yet another time when a fix to a very basic and rather incredible Microsoft bug is either a registry hack or third party software.. Clearly the SDETs did not try to map networked drives under wireless connectivity. Interestingly such a problem does not exist in XP. MapDrive is useless to me because the share I'm connecting to requires authentication and the author insists on not allowing people to do that due to storing plaintext password. If I had time I'd go and change his stupid code myself to pass a login. The registry-hack above referencing a KB article about user accounts (obviously) does not fix this issue. OP must be talking about something different. I'm talking about your internet connection being wireless, which seems to have some lag in connecting (only starts once you log in), but the connection to network drives happens at the same time or else before that, and therefore fails due to lack of connectivity. HERES A SOLUTION I CAME UP WITH If you can call it that. It is not a hack but it's not necessarily a fix. Create a scheduled task. The trigger should be on user logon. It should execute a batch script that has this code (for example): net use Z: \\storage\share /USER:username [password] Note that this will fix the issue but it will still give you the stupid notification error unless you do the registration hack specified above (the one Nektarios posted, with RestoreConnection = 0)
November 14th, 2011 9:31pm

Yet another time when a fix to a very basic and rather incredible Microsoft bug is either a registry hack or third party software.. Clearly the SDETs did not try to map networked drives under wireless connectivity. Interestingly such a problem does not exist in XP. MapDrive is useless to me because the share I'm connecting to requires authentication and the author insists on not allowing people to do that due to storing plaintext password. If I had time I'd go and change his stupid code myself to pass a login. The registry-hack above referencing a KB article about user accounts (obviously) does not fix this issue. OP must be talking about something different. I'm talking about your internet connection being wireless, which seems to have some lag in connecting (only starts once you log in), but the connection to network drives happens at the same time or else before that, and therefore fails due to lack of connectivity. HERES A SOLUTION I CAME UP WITH If you can call it that. It is not a hack but it's not necessarily a fix. Create a scheduled task. The trigger should be on user logon. It should execute a batch script that has this code (for example): net use Z: \\storage\share /USER:username [password] Note that this will fix the issue but it will still give you the stupid notification error unless you do the registration hack specified above (the one Nektarios posted, with RestoreConnection = 0) Thank´s a lot DealerON, I was having the same problem. You were the only one ( this reminds me a song tittle, hehe) that really understood the bug in Windows 7, if you have a network drive with login, after reboot windows 7 does not reconnect the drive and does not let the user to reconnect manually, when connecting manually with double click in the drive, windows 7 should (if the network drive is protected with login) open a window to let the user authenticate. Every time I did a shutdown or reboot I had to manually disconnect the drive and map the network drive again!!! With your solution my problem is solved, I still have the annoying and stupid notification error because I haven´t made the registry hack yet, but now my network "reconnects" automatically. I can´t imagine how difficult to correct this may be to MS, but I doubt it would take more that a day or two, with your script took me 5 minutes (including reboot). Once again thank´s for your solution, you saved me a lot of stress every time my computer booted.
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November 16th, 2011 1:22pm

I have tried everything here an all the registry hacks on the internet and nothing worked. My issue was simply that it takes 3 - 5 seconds for the network to become connected. I too have come to the solution of using batch files, 2 of them. Here is my solution. 1) Map_Network_Drives.bat (should look something like) net use Y: \\storage\share net use Z: \\storage\share This should be set as a scheduled task to run at logon with a delay (yes delay option in windows 7) set of 10 seconds. (yes you can type in the exact time) 2) Disconnect_Network_Drives.bat (should look something like) net use Y: /d net use Z: /d This should be set as a logoff script in local group policy editor (click start and type gpedit.msc in windows 7). Pick if you want it at the computer level or user level (I chose user). Then under "windows settings" you should see "scripts". Add your logoff script "disconnect network drives.bat" to the list. Then RESTART your DONE! You don't need, RestoreConnection = 0 or any other registry hacks. This will not fix firewall or network card issues. Just the Red X on mapped drives on boot, which dissappears once you click on the drive. I hope this helps people out as this seems to be an ongoing issue. If you need me to explain more let me know. CL
December 9th, 2011 11:58pm

ok... I have a 95% success sollution in my organization. (We are running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise) I set up with grouppolicies for the mapsharing on userlevel. Then gave the computers those users log into also a grouppolicy to let the computers halt with starting up until the network was initialized. (Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon\Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon) But like i said... this is a 95% success sollution. Another and maybe better way is to use the computer grouppolicy to let the computers wait until the network is up (Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon\Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon) and then write a script with : net use Z: \\storage\share /delete net use Z: \\storage\share /USER:username [password] (personally I would always do the delete first to avoid further errormessages and to avoid a logoff batchscript.)
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December 20th, 2011 3:33am

Hi there, I had the same problem for quite a long time. I have 4 laptops (2xWin7 Ultimate, 1xWin7 Home Edition & 1xWin7 Professional). I have a Buffalo NAS and I mapped in all 4 laptops the Z: drive letter to users folders in the NAS. In one Win7 Ultimate and in the Win7 Pro, I could not make them to reconnect after reboot. The 4 laptops belong to different users, therefor different user ID´s and passwords. I use the net use command like this: net use z: \\NASname\user folder password /user:NASname\userid /persistent:yes I, as some of you guys said before, also thought it has something to do with network timing (mapped drive Z tried to connect before the network service was up & running) but then I asked my self: "why does it work in two laptops and not in the other two?"... So I started to check each windows user profile, windows login and compared it to the NAS user profile and login. What I found out was that the NAS user ID and password MUST match Windows Login user ID and password. ie., Windows user ID=tomas and Windows pwd=samot then NAS user id=tomas and NAS pwd=samot I changed the user ID and password for one of the Win7 Ultimate and Win7 Pro users at the NAS, restarted the laptops and voilá! it worked!!! .... Every time they reboot or turn on their laptops, they are automatically re-connected to the mapped drive in the NAS. That being said, I can assure you it has nothing to do with network service start-up delay. Hope this helps. JA
January 5th, 2012 6:41pm

I can confirm that the MapDrive fix from Zorn Software which was posted here on July 24, 2011 (see above) works very well and is very simple to do. I am on Windows XP Home SP3. There is nothing to install. Just download a small executable, put a shortcut to it in your startup folder, and than add the path of the network drive to the "target" field in the properties of the shortcut. Full instructions are at the site. Here is the link to the Zorn fix: http://zornsoftware.talsit.info/blog/windows-7-disconnected-network-drives.html#comment-25417 Just two things -- One, even though the drive always connects on startup with MapDrive, you may still get an annoying (but harmless) error message -- "Could not reconnect all network drives." To eliminate it, disconnect the mapped drive in My Computer, then re-map the drive with the option to "Reconnect at logon" unchecked. MapDrive will take care of the necessary connection so you don't need Windows to try (and fail) independently. Messages will go away. Two, after I remapped the drive as described right above, it would automatically disconnect after a small period of time. If this happens to you, to fix it, you need to adjust the registry to disable auto disconnect for the mapped drive. Microsoft has a quick automatic Fix It solution at the link below. If you prefer to manually edit the registry yourself, they also give you step by step instructions but the automatic Fix It solution worked for me and was a cinch to do. This may just be a Windows XP Home thing so others on other Windows versions may not face this last issue. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684 So now, thanks to Zorn Software, my mapped network drive connects 100% of the time at startup, with no annoying error messages, and the drive stays connected all the time! This has been a longstanding problem for many years with Windows users. I am very surprised Microsoft has not fixed this problem in all these years. There's no excuse for not taking care of it.
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February 13th, 2012 6:57pm

Hi, I use batch files with "net use" in my laptops too, but I suggest using /persistent:no and place batch file to "StartUp" folder - in 75% cases, this trick avoids to show "could not reconnect all network drives" message after return from Standby or Hibernate. :) PJ
February 17th, 2012 12:40pm

Hi: Another thing I do in my batch file is use TIMEOUT /t 60 which delays the execution of the net use commands for 60 seconds to allow other stuff to start. You can set it for anytime you want but 60 seconds works for me. Also to take it from 75% to almost 100% I inserted the command dir /b >?:test.txt (where ? is the drive letter you are trying to connect) after each net use command. What this does is to create a file on the drive with the directory listing in it. The nice thing about this is it does not go on until the file is written and if has to be connected to write it. Remember to use /persistent:no and reconnect at login box unchecked. That way when you shutdown the computer automatically forgets about the drive until the batch file in the startup folder is started and you do not get "could not reconnect all network drives". Terry
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February 24th, 2012 1:33am

Nektarios80's solution totally worked for me. Thank you! Now no more annoying black screen at start up after logging in. I had mapped drives set to "reconnect at logon" but they only work when I'm on VPN, and it takes me a few moments to get VPN up (if I even want it up) so this solution was perfect.
April 10th, 2012 5:15pm

I would also suggest checking out a policy which tells computer to wait for network before logging on. It's under Computer Administrative Templates->Network->System->Always wait for network at computer startup and logon. Hope it helps someone in the future.
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April 16th, 2012 8:29am

I just use a simple VBS script on mine... it's just a couple of seconds before my machine finds my server for some reason, but it's long enough to pop up the error. All I do is create a VBS file called something like mapnet.vbs with the contents: ' Map network drive script WScript.Sleep(10000) Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network") objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "F:" , "\\server\files" objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "M:" , "\\server\music" objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "P:" , "\\server\Pictures" objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "S:" , "\\server\disks" objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "V:" , "\\server\videos" The sleep delay at the top there is for 10 seconds, so you could bump it up to 20000 for 20 seconds. Once that's in, I just save the script and drop it in the startup folder on the start menu. Voila, delayed drive mapping, no batch files, no black boxes, just a nice silent little script :)
April 26th, 2012 12:13pm

For many years I have had my Vista desktops (3) and laptop 1, connecting and mapping to shared drives on a Buffalo NAS with no issues. Hardwired or wireless. Made no difference. Only recently have I started to get the "could not reconnect all network drives" message that this thread is about. I've searched the net and read many workarounds, posts, registry suggestions and tried several but nothing fixes the issue. One thing remains elusive......... What has changed ? At some point Microsoft changed something because this has only started to happen since W7 upgrades have been applied onto several of my machines, and on my Vista Ultimate PC it also now occurs and I can only assume a Vista Update zapped in the bug. This has worked with no issues for me for at least 7 or more years and is only now failing. so.. what changed ? Does anyone know ? The delay connect workaround then the .bat file to connect workaround is fine, but requires you to include password. Hardly very secure ? Microsoft? Own up.. what's actually causing this. i found this though..that shows hardcoding the IP address solve sit. Not dure of downside yet. http://marsbox.com/blog/howtos/windows-7-bug-could-not-reconnect-all-network-drives/
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May 17th, 2012 1:05pm

Has anyone tried this: For Windows Vista and above, use the subst command in a scheduled task as follows:2. Schedule the task as shown in this screen shot: 3. Use the necessary domain or local user to run the task.
May 30th, 2012 7:19pm

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