Hello, recently here at work we've been having more and more trouble with the "Could not reconnect all network drives" popup when users log on to their computer. All network drives have a red cross on their icon in explorer. It's a wired network. I've tried enabling the "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon" policy under Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Logon in the Group Policy Editor, but this didn't help. Updating the driver for the network card also didn't help. Once a user clicks on a network drive it instantly becomes available and stays available until the next reboot. The problem is that users have got programs which rely on having connection to certain network folders. So now they first need to open windows explorer and click on each network folder to get it connect before they can open their program. I've noticed users getting this error more and more after changing from 3com switches to cisco 2960 switches. Anyone any ideas? (Switching back to 3com switches isn't an option) Sincerely, Peter

Interesting you mention the Cisco 2960 switches. We recently rebuilt our wireless network and are supporting it with Cisco 2960 PoE switches. Home directory mapping in very hit or miss and I had been focusing on the wireless network since desktop users were not experiencing the problem. However the desktop users are not using the new Cisco 2960 switches either. Now I wonder if I am looking in the wrong place for a problem/solution.

I also wouldn't have considerd the switches if I hadn't noticed the problems didn't start occurring until the switches changed.

Hello Peter, Do you have other clients that not running Windows 7 also encounter the issue? What's the version of your server? This could help us narrow down to see if it's server related or clients related issue. Are those mapped drive can be access in a certain time or always available? Are there any auto disconnect settings on your server? If the connection time configured on your clients and server doesn't match, this issue could happen. And you mentioned: "Once a user clicks on a network drive it instantly becomes available and stays available until the next reboot." Do you mean when double-click the Red-X network drive, it can be connected immediatly? If so, the red-x might be caused by auto disconnection or third-pary software or offline file feature. Try a Clean Boot on both server and clients, check if the issue persists. If still happen, try disconnect and re-connect to see the result. If all the above not work, please provide us with more details. Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tnmff@microsoft.comThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

* Do you have other clients that not running Windows 7 also encounter the issue? We have other clients, Windows XP. They don't have the problem only the Windows 7 clients have the problem * What's the version of your server? The network drives are located on two servers - Server SOV16 which is a Windows Server 2003, Appliance edition SP2 - Server SOV17 which is a Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 SP2 * Are those mapped drive can be access in a certain time or always available? There is no time restriction. The mapped drives aren't automatically available after booting. If a user then double clicks on a drive it becomes immediately available and stays available. (See the attached images, the first image is the situation after booting, the second image is after double clicking on the T: drive) * Are there any auto disconnect settings on your server? Is far as I know, NO * Try a Clean Boot on both server and clients, check if the issue persists. The issue persisted after clean booting * If still happen, try disconnect and re-connect to see the result. If I disconnect the mapped drive and reconnect it, it's immediately available. But after rebooting the red cross is back

I also did some further testing and if I let the task scheduler exute the following bat file one minute after logging on, all network drives are available without a red cross. So it seems to me that windows 7 is trying to connect to the network folders before it has a network available net use /delete t: /y net use t: \\sov16\transfer /persistent:yes net use /delete f: /y net use f: \\sov16\install.net /persistent:yes net use /delete o: /y net use o: \\sov16\vbsource /persistent:yes net use /delete u: /y net use u: \\sov16\doclibsrolmat /persistent:yes net use /delete v: /y net use v: \\sov16\doclibsit /persistent:yes net use /delete z: /y net use z: \\sov17\install /persistent:yes

Hi Peter, Thanks for the quick update and glad you find a workaround currently. How did you map those drives? Using logon script? Please configure the Group Policy: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon\Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon. And add the following registry: (Note: Backup the registry firstly in case of any risks.) Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Service\lanmanworkstation\parameters Name: KeepConn Type: DWORD Base: decimal Value: 65535 Reboot to check if the issue persists. Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tnmff@microsoft.comThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hello, thanks for your suggestion. I had already tried the GPO, but I've tried it again in combination with the registry setting. But no success, there are still red crosses and the popup telling: "Could not reconnect all network drives" Any more suggestions? Regards, Peter

So it seems to me that windows 7 is trying to connect to the network folders before it has a network available I agree with you on this. I think you're using the logon script to map those drives. Right? It seems the scripts run firstly, then the computer connect to the network, therefore it shows the Red X. It's an expected behavior. After the computer connect to internet, try refresh Windows Explorer, will those Red-x disappear? I suspect your network connection maybe not stable recently. You can check the Event Viewer to see if there's any connection fail events. Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tnmff@microsoft.com This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

The drives are always mapped. (I've added them locally via windows explorer) Refreshing the windows explorer doesn't connect the drives, I do have to click them. The network connection is a wired stable connection. But for the moment I'm looking into the switches because it could have something to do with a spanning-tree configuration at switching level. But I need to do some more tests for that. The problems only started occurring after switching to cisc 2960 switches and spanning tree. Regards, Peter

I suggest you also contact Cisco support to further look at this issue. Since I cannot test this on my side, it's hard to troubleshoot the problem. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation! Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tnmff@microsoft.comThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hello, thanks for your help. I seem to have found the problem. The switches are configured for spanning tree, now after changing the port where I'm connected on to use spanning-tree portfast instead of normal spanning-tree the problem disappeared. It seems the spanning-tree protocol causes a bit of a delay which explains why the network folders don't connect. But it also seems that the GPO Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon\Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon. Doesn't wait for a logical signal because if you read the GPO description I would expect it to wait for a network connection to our domain but it seems it only waits for a signal and not a domain signal, if you know what I mean. Thanks again for your help. Regards, Peter

Glad to hear the issue is solved. Cheers:) MiyaThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi Guys I've tried all these suggestions, but to no avail. I've also tried the following script, which only maps one drive automatically, but if I double click the .vbs file, it maps both of the drives: On Error Resume Next Set objNetwork = CreateObject("Wscript.Network") Set colDrives = objNetwork.EnumNetworkDrives For i = 0 to colDrives.Count-1 Step 2 objNetwork.RemoveNetworkDrive colDrives.Item(i) Next objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "G:", "\\servername\sharename" ,true objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "H:", "\\servername\2ndsharename" ,true Would anyone mind running their eye over this to see if I've made a mistake? Many thanks Tony