Windows 7 Still Not (Always) Reconnecting to Mapped Drive
I have read a lot of posts on this, but here is my problem.I am using Windows 7. I have a Western Digital My Book World, 1 TB NAS. The drive is mapped correctly. I have added credentials through the credentials manager in the Control Panel. The credentials are being remembered after logoff, shut-down and re-boot. If I shut-down and re-boot immediately, or, perhaps, within a 12 hour period, the machine will reconnect to the mapped drive at logon. However, if more than 12 hours elapses between shut-down and re-boot, I get the now-very-familiar "could not connect to all network drives" message and both folders of the NAS are shown to be disconnected in Computer. Of course, a click on the correct folder will connect. That is a pain, and the rest of my family that uses this computer will not remember to do this every time. It becomes quite a mess if iTunes is loaded with the NAS disconnected, since the music library obviously will not load and will then need to be re-selected the next time the program is started. I do not expect the other family members to be able to remember each of these steps. Thus, does anyone know each and every thing that must be done in Windows 7 to ensure that the mapped network drive will perpetually reconnect at logon? I say "each and every thing" because I have found that this is a highly iterative process. I keep discovering additional steps that need to be taken upon further and further "research." There must be a more intuitive approach.Thanks in advance.
December 27th, 2009 12:18am

Such behaviors are controlled by the sever side. If you mapped a driver to a share in Windows Server system, you can set the auto disconnect period. For your reference: Mapped Network Drive Disconnects From Server Important Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information. Therefore you may need to change settings for the My Book World drive to resolve this issue. I suggest you contact WD support for more information.Arthur Xie - MSFT
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December 29th, 2009 11:42am

Such behaviors are controlled by the sever side. If you mapped a drive to a share in Windows Server system, you can set the auto disconnect period. For your reference: Mapped Network Drive Disconnects From Server Important Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information. Therefore you may need to change settings for the My Book World drive to resolve this issue. I suggest you contact WD support for more information. Arthur Xie - MSFT
December 29th, 2009 11:42am

Hi,I have one of these WD World Book's too and had these kind of problems with Vista also. As I recall, they use a Linux system with samba. I could be wrong but I think I uncovered that when I was having the same problem. I just gave up using the World Book. Not only would the drive disconnect but the computers couldn't find the device on the network anymore. It would just fall off the network but if I unplugged the power from it and restarted it it would become accessible for a short while.It now collects dust. I was going to remove the tandem 500GB drive and use them else where but never got around to it.The bottom line is your not a victim of the Microsoft server side mapped resource time out dilemma.- Cory Curtis- Palmtek/Technoogies
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December 29th, 2009 8:35pm

Cory:Based on your response, I posted a variation my original message onto a WD forum. WD's official "support," whether by phone or by e-mail, is not real helpful. They blamed Windows for the problem, offered no real solution and only perpetuated the infinite loop to nowhere that is experienced by many people trying to solve what should be a simple problem. A Google search of "reconnect mapped drive" yields a whole of complaining about mapped drives that do not reconnect at logon. I have tried many suggestions, none of which have yet to solve the problem.
December 30th, 2009 1:13am

If WD cannot help on it, there is a workaround we can try. You may open Notepad and paste the following commands into Notepad. net use [driveletter]: /delete net use [driveletter]: \\server\share /user:[username] password /persistent:yes Please save this Notepad to a location with a name reconnect.bat. Then, launch Task Scheduler, you may create scheduled task to run this *.bat file. Probably you can set it to run after several hours. For more information regarding the “net use” command, please refer: Technet Library - Net useArthur Xie - MSFT
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December 31st, 2009 6:35am

Hi guys, I was having this problem with some vista machine, here is the fix I got from microsoft. It is some king of update but it works just fine. Look at it hope it works. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933657
December 31st, 2009 4:58pm

Does not apply, its just for vista.MCSE, MCSA, MCDST [If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]
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January 1st, 2010 9:26am

Arthur:I have tried this several times, to no avail. The information concerning the "net use" command is somewhat ambiguous, and I may have written it incorrectly. If we assume the following (which do not correspond to the actual information on the system), how would the "net use" command look:Drive letter: zServer: 10.1.0.3Share: publicUser: JoePassword: SmithAlso, looking at the information on "net use," there is a reference to an "accounts" domain of "Dan" in the examples, such that the command is noted to be "net use d:\\server\share/user:Accounts\Dan." I noticed in another thread the suggestion that the account noted in the credentials manager for this is "RemoteDomain." Would that make a difference here?Thanks,
January 10th, 2010 9:43pm

Arthur:Here is some further data.Looking in the task library, the history of the task I created shows the same thing each time. It first shows event 118, indicating that the task was triggered. The log then shows, at the exact same time, event 101, showing that the task failed to launch. Error value is 2147943645. Under "last run result," the following text appears each time: "The operation being requested was not performed because the user is not logged onto the network. The specified service does not exist. (0x800704DD).In Computer, the machine is identified as JOE-PC Workgroup:WORKGROUP. Any additional assistance will be appreciated.Thanks!
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January 12th, 2010 7:29am

In your case, the correct connecting command should be: net use z:\\10.1.0.3\public /user: 10.1.0.3\Dan Smith You can also add a new credential under “Windows Credentials” under “Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Credential Manager”. Network address: 10.1.0.3User name: JoePassword: Smith After adding the credential, the “net use” command will simply be: net use z:\\10.1.0.3\public If the command failed to execute when log on, maybe your network connection is not established when the task runs. You can configure the task in Task Scheduler. Open the task, click the “Settings” tab, check the option “If the task fails, restart every:”, and choose the waiting time. The task will re-run after that time.Arthur Xie - MSFT
January 13th, 2010 5:59am

Arthur:It is still not working. I have re-written the command several different times, in several different ways. I checked the option "If the task fails, restart every" 1 minute. The task, however, does not restart, according to the log. I am running a very simple network here. The computer logs onto the network every time on start-up, without any issue at all. I have disabled "power save" in the NAS, so it is not hibernating, This has been going on since September. It is extremely frustrating. It should not be that difficult.Any other suggestions?Thanks,
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January 13th, 2010 9:53am

Can you try restarting explorer.exe when the issue occurs and see if the drives then show as connected?
January 13th, 2010 8:55pm

That does not work, either. Plus, it would not save time since I can click Computer and then click the un-connected drive to connect. I would, however, like it to connect automatically on start up. Any other suggestions?
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January 15th, 2010 7:03am

One other thing, I disabled all firewalls to see if that might be the problem. It is not. The drive is still not reconnecting at start-up. At this point, it is not reconnecting at all.
January 15th, 2010 7:08am

Hi Jeffrey, I was looking for a cleaner alternative to the task scheduler solution proposed, so after some research, I wrote a small executable that solves the 'disconnected network drive on startup' issue, at least for me. I'd be interested if it solves it for you as well. You can download it here: http://zornsoftware.talsit.info/?p=129
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March 8th, 2010 12:49am

Hi Arthur, I have been having the same problem and do not understand how to create a Scheduled Task out of the bat file that I created with the net use commands. Could you please run me through how to create one using the Windows 7 "Task Scheduler". Cheers, Rhys
March 19th, 2010 8:00am

Unfortunately, it did not work. I have now tried it many times. I had, I believe, run a successful "task" based on what Arthur wrote above. It was working on one of my Windows 7 machines every time. It worked intermittently on my other Windows 7 machine (which is further from my router0. Now, it is not running on either machine at any time, although the task scheduler history notes no change in all in the success of the task starting and completing as against what it did when the drives were mapping successfully.
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March 31st, 2010 3:47am

Mr. Bungle: The only things of which I can think that have changed recently are the Windows 7 updates that I have downloaded recently. Most of these are "security" in nature, which makes me think that some level of local security has either been added or changed that is preventing the network drive to connect automatically upon logon. One would think that Microsoft could get this right so that this is not such a big problem. There are hundreds, if not more, posts on various sites discussing this problem or variations thereof. Any solution, from anyone, would be helpful. Thus far, I have (i) mapped the drives many times, (ii) made sure all credentials are correct, (iii) created a task that previously worked and which is still be shown as running everytime the computer is booted, and (iv) run Mr. Bungle's executable file. I have spent countless hours researching and trying to get this to work, but, now, to no avail. Thanks,
April 1st, 2010 6:22am

I have exactly the same problem and have a WD 1tb NAS drive (blue rings) Sometimes it works perfect, but if I log off and log back on, or come back from hibernate it will give an error saying cannot connect to network drive. I will try the Zorn Fix and see if it works...
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April 1st, 2010 11:37pm

I found that mine as software related. As soon as I uninstalled Zonealarm and installed a new firewall the problem went away...
April 13th, 2010 9:39pm

Jeffry From the net use link someone put up before, I created a file in notepad called reconnect.bat which I just placed in my startup folder. The contents of that are. net use [drive letter]: \\SERVERNAME\MAPPEDFOLDER PASSWORD /user:SERVERNAME\USERNAME /persistent:yes This corresponds to the technet article here net use [Driveletter:] [\\ComputerName\ShareName] [Password] [/user:DomainName\UserName] /persistent:yes I am running windows 7 home premium 32 bit Just for good measure I created the mapped share first through the windows gui and then set up credentials by using the credentials manager. Worked every time so far. For your example it would be net use z: \\10.1.0.3\public Smith /user:10.1.0.3\Joe /persistent:yes
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May 8th, 2010 11:57pm

The net use process works, but my question is why do we have to set up what is basically a forced reconnect? My Win 7 machine attempts to reconnect the network drives BEFORE it has established a network connection. Can anyone shed some light on why this occurs and how to correct the issue? (Win 7 Pro 64-bit on a Dell OptiPlex 780)
June 9th, 2010 6:51pm

In monitoring this over time, it appears that the "net use" process works -- sometimes -- but that the process described by Nivek2112 is the culprit of the frequent failures to logon. I pretty much can tell exactly when logon will fail by watching the attempted reconnection to the network drives before the network connection is established. Any light shed on this will be greatly appreciated. This has been going on now for 8 months or so. Thanks!
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June 10th, 2010 1:27am

I am just now beginning to use Windows 7 in a network environment and I am experienceing this same problem. I am moving directly from XP ... and I would note that if this scenario played out in XP then there would usually be an icon in the Windows Tray that would indicate that that the drive (share) was available, but not actually connected. If you clicked on this icon (looks like a desktop computer) then you can connect to these available shares. Is this icon (or its functional equivalent) not available in Windows 7 ? Note that my mapped share is on an XP machine in a workgroup that the Windows 7 machine is NOT a part of..... (probably relevent)
June 15th, 2010 9:15am

To All, Here is what I have found. This is a problem with Windows 7 and nothing else. After several test and looking at forum after forum. here is what I came up with. I have 3 machines. 1 (XP) and 2(Windows 7 recently loaded). the 2 machines that I loaded Windows 7 (fresh) were both XP. The 1 XP machine that is still XP for this post I will call File_Machine (because this is where I hold my files and map to from the other machines. 1. When my other 2 machines were loaded with XP I have no problem with mapped drives. No dropping or reconnection problems. 2. I load Windows 7 on 1 of my machines and start noticing when I would shutdown or logoff it woudl hang at the log off screen and the only way to shutdown is a hard shutdown. I knew it was related to a network connections not closing or something but could not isolate it. 3. Installed Windows 7 one the other machine (oohh by the way 1 is Windows 7 Ultimate and the other is Professional). I started experiencing the same problems with this machine mapping back the my File_Machine. 4. Saw a post referencing the idle network connection disconnect feature in the Windows Operating system.. so I looked at my XP machine (File_machine) active sessions. 5. I brought both windows 7 machine online and let them restore the network connections to the XP box. after being idle for a while the sessions dropped because they were idle (this is normal and by default). ok fine.. no problems there. 6. here is the kicker.. when I went back to either Windows 7 machine and clicked on the mapped drive, it hung and would not reconnect to the share. the share is fine and active. The problem is the Windows 7 is not sending the correct signal to the system housing the share to reconnect. 7. To confirm this I ran the following command on the XP (File_machine).. NET CONFIG SERVER /AUTODISCONNECT:-1 (this command disabled the autodisconnect feature in a network connection is idle).. the (-1) represents the duration to wait before disconnecting. -1 is to disable.. I believe the number range is from 0 to 655555 or something.. representing seconds. 8. after the was disabled there were no more dropped connections. 9. set the number to 1 and tested again.. and the problem came back.. What does this say.. Microsoft needs to look at Windows 7 reconnection attempt commands for idle connection and see what signal is being sent to the resource to say wake up and reconnect me because it's not working.. Hopes this helps everyone and Hope MS reads this and looks into it.. You know have the info on how to recreate the problem.
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July 7th, 2010 7:01am

This is a great step forward in cornering the issue. Hopefully this will help MS in coming figuring out a fix, on the Windows 7 side. For the time being, I'm wondering what I can do to my two Win 7 x64 boxes if my mapped network drives happen to be off two D-Link DNS-323 NAS boxes, which happen to be running some Unix-like kernel (BSD? Linux?). I've tried a multitude of things such as: downgrading the authentication level local GPO telling Avast 5 to ignore my mapped drive letters (both on-demand scan and shield configs) setting the DNS-323 boxes not to sleep the hard disk none of which made a difference.
August 5th, 2010 6:55pm

Sad but true, this is just another reason why Microsoft should kill the Vista kernel. The XP kernel was better for business. I wish MS would take these type of problems more seriously.
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August 9th, 2010 4:29pm

My compliments for your efforts. I've also had a frustrating time with Windows 7 not connecting to the mapped drive on my Thecus NAS for my Genie Timeline backup. I tried Zorn MapDrive and it didn't work. Then I mucked around with Credential Manager not making any changes but it worked. Then I uninstalled MapDrive and it still worked and hasn't failed since???!!! Could mucking around in Credentials Manager have changed something?
January 3rd, 2011 3:33pm

UPDATE The machine has just failed to connect to the network drive. Running MapDrive manually from the Desktop, which is where I moved the shortcut from the Startup folder, didn't work. Over to Microsoft.
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January 4th, 2011 2:37pm

I am having the same problem, Windows 7 x64, I am connected over VPN and can connect to shares on multiple servers, I will restart the computer and reconnect again to VPN and some shares will connect while others will not. Sometimes clicking on one share on the same server will unlock the other share I am mapped to on the same server. Definitely a Windows 7 problem. Get on it MS, my company might just go all Mac if this continues.
February 8th, 2011 3:56pm

Arthur, I found that the approach you suggested did not work as I, and many others, had hoped. The Credential Manager loads the info, but then "loses" it after a reboot/restart although the PERSISTENT:YES is included, and one is once again asked for their ID and password. What I did is to use the following command in a batch file: net use K: \\domain\c password /USER:domain\ID /PERSISTENT:NO If the batch file is placed on the desktop, one can execute the command as needed, or immediately upon booting. If a programmable keyboard is used the batch file can be executed when tied to on of the "My Favorites" key. Additionally, I can also disconnect a network drive quite easily without the red X displayed in Explorer. If Microsoft ever gets to the point that the Credential Manager works as it should maybe a work-around will no longer be necessary. Who knows?? Phasr
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March 2nd, 2011 9:56pm

Having a work around for users on a network to connect to a persistent drive is unacceptable in a business environment. Microsoft needs to look at this and fix it. Not every company has the need to script mapped drives to every user, so there should be a way to do it on an individual basis without having to use a backdoor method. It would be really nice for a Microsoft representative to respond with either the reason it is designed this way, or an admission that it is broken and being fixed.
March 31st, 2011 6:19pm

I have had similar issues to all of the above ones. As with many people I found that by opening my computer and then opening the mapped network drive would cause immediate re-connect with no dramas. As a simple workaround I created shortcuts to the mapped drives and then placed those shortcuts into |Start|Programs|startup The net result is that everytime a user starts up windows everything will load and then the shortcut will be activated, thereby restoring the network drive connection. This does result in an explorer window popping open to display the contents of the network drive, but one click to close the open window and everyone can carry on as normal. Maybe not pretty or elegant but it worked for us.
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April 11th, 2011 9:36pm

I agree. This issue was driving me crazy. I tried all sorts of things. I'd make a single change - document it and if problem was not fixed I'd usually undo the change and move on to the next change. I finally just quit doing my VPN connection but then I knew that eventually I'd have to connect up again. So, just for the heck of it I wrote a short batch file that would change to my network drives then sleep for 2 minutes and then change to my network drives again, over and over. This has been working great. Now I'm trying the above mentioned workaround: net config server /autodisconnect:-1 and I'll be disabling my VPN loop script and we'll see what happens...but this has been such a pain and ANY WORKAROUND IS UNACCEPTABLE! JB
May 2nd, 2011 6:22pm

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