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Is there any way to mount a remote CIFS/SMB/SAMBA share as a folder/directory and not as a drive letter. For example, I want this map:

\\Server\ShareName -> C:\Folder\ShareName

Instead of the usual map like this:

\\Server\ShareName -> Z:\

The server is Linux/Samba and the client is Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. The closest I've found is being able to mount a local volume as a subfolder using the Windows disk manager, but it doesn't appear to handle remote CIFS shares (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307889).

3 Answers 3

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Just to map a network share directory you would use this command:

net use \\Server\ShareName\Directory

This mapping would:

  • not be persistent
  • would have to be established and authenticated at user login
  • you would access the share using the UNC path, and not a local drive letter

If you want to access the network share through a location on your local C: drive, you'll want to set up a symbolic link:

mklink /d  C:\Folder\ShareName \\Server\ShareName\Directory

Now when you navigate to C:\Folder\Share you'll see the contents of \\\Server\Sharename\Directory. You'll still need to provide authentication for the resource with something like net use (or just be logged into a domain account on a domain system that has access) otherwise the link will probably error out angrily.

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  • @OrangeDog: Symbolic links are supported on NTFS file systems only and are available in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. In other words: If you use XP, you have to upgrade.
    – Quandary
    Aug 10, 2012 at 10:54
  • @Quandary: Yes, I know. The question was whether there's a solution that doesn't use symbolic links (junction points perhaps?) that would work on XP.
    – OrangeDog
    Aug 10, 2012 at 14:39
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    @Bob That would do ONLY if you want a shortcut. (more here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4339220/is-there-a-way-to-map-a-unc-path-to-a-local-folder) But if you need a "working folder" the one some app could use you're, well we're out of luck. Bottom line you CAN NOT do a mapping of a network folder to a local folder only to a local disk! Again... according to Microsoft. Unfortunately...
    – dorbar
    Jun 22, 2013 at 18:17
  • @OrangeDog, I'm a bit late to the party here, but junction points don't seem to work with SMB shares: mklink /j C:\localmountpoint \\server\sharename gives Local volumes are required to complete the operation.
    – Mathieu K.
    Oct 6, 2020 at 16:47
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    This answer is correct in the second part, starting at "If you want to access the network share through a location on your local C: drive". The first part (everything before that) is not the answer, and does not answer the question as stated. Please remove.
    – Mathieu K.
    Oct 8, 2020 at 17:44
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http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/mountvol.mspx?mfr=true

From the horses mouth:

If you are running out of drive letters to use, mount your local volumes with no drive letters.

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  • 2
    I'm not sure I understand... In my case, I'm not running out of drive letters - I just don't want to assign/create more drive letters. I'm also not seeing a way to make mountvol mount network shares (the VolumeName param apparently wants a GUID representing a local volume name, not a network share).
    – Anagoge
    Jan 23, 2010 at 11:56
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Click "Start", then click Computer. You're now in 'My Computer/Explorer'.
Right-click Computer, and click "Add a network location"
Then enter the server and share you would like to connect to

\\[servername]\[sharename]
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  • This is kind of close, but it doesn't let me choose what folder to mount the share in. It seems to only allow "mounting" the share under "Network Location" in My Computer. Ideally, I could mount it in an arbitrary folder like C:\Folder\ShareName. Samba on Linux seems to allow this, so I was hoping that Windows did as well.
    – Anagoge
    Jan 23, 2010 at 21:44
  • You can not choose what folder to mount it in the way you can in Linux. You can however then create a shortcut to it on the desktop.
    – Nunya
    Jan 23, 2010 at 23:33
  • Once the shortcut is created as suggested by Nunya, right click on the shortcut and copy to the clipboard. Go to the folder where you would like to access the share and paste. The shortcut to the remote share is added.
    – user227730
    Jun 24, 2014 at 15:58
  • You can mount local drives as a folder, like in Linux, without needing to create a link, by using Volume Mount Points: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938934.aspx I'm not sure whether there's any way to mount a share in a similar manner.
    – Eric Smith
    Mar 26, 2015 at 23:58
  • @user2227730, that appears indeed to be merely a shortcut. Browsing files one or two levels down shows the \\host\sharename\subfolder format. Thus, not a solution.
    – Mathieu K.
    Oct 6, 2020 at 16:28

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