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We have a big problem that's just started happening. One of our network apps (may it rot in hell) requires a mapped network drive to function. Therefore, we map a drive to the network share in question for the users. This usually shows up of course in Explorer as:

Sharename on 'Servername' (Q:)

Problem is, it now shows up as

Disconnected Network Drive (Q:)

And I can't remove it in any way

  • Right-click and select disconnect: "The network connection could not be found"
  • CMD: net use q: /delete - "The network connection could not be found."
  • CMD: net use \servername\sharename /delete - "The network connection could not be found."
  • CMD: net use Q: \servername\sharename - "The device is already in use"
  • Delete the user profile - no change
  • Log in as new, never-logged-in-before user - same problem
  • REG: delete HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2##servername#sharename - no change

Other items of note:

  • Client machine is Windows Server 2003 R2 x86
  • Server is Windows Server 2003 x86
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  • Are your event logs showing any interesting or related entries?
    – RobW
    Feb 19, 2010 at 15:19
  • Do you have a shortcut on the Desktop to that Q: ? If yes, try to delete it. And use UNC paths.
    – user220971
    May 23, 2014 at 12:33
  • @comarc This question is over 4 years old and already solved. Please read through the tour you skipped.
    – Chris S
    May 23, 2014 at 13:25

3 Answers 3

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Hmm, okay. I think this might have been a vendor problem!

In case it should assist anyone else (I've seen this issue a few times on Google with various responses), I disabled all the new services installed by the vendor, and after a reboot all drives were fine. It seems one of their services was mapping a drive in (.Net) code, and somehow blocking the network from then on.

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  • Out of curiosity, what was the vendor of the problematic service? What kinds of things was it doing?
    – Hank
    Feb 28, 2014 at 19:13
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I've had quite a few problems with mapped network drives disappearing over night and other issues. One thing I started doing was not using mapped network drives but referring to network paths using UNC notation e.g. \10.1.1.1\sharename\path\file.ext

Another issue I had was being told I was connected to a share when it wasn't listed from Windows Explorer. I had to use the NET USE command from the command-line to list, then delete, the offending connection.

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  • Thanks for your thoughts. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in the OP, "don't use it" isn't an option (or a particularly useful one) and I've also tried the NET USE process already, as mentioned.
    – Cylindric
    Feb 11, 2010 at 11:26
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I have had the same problem as the OP that persisted with multiple users on the same workstation running Windows XP sp3. I did some poking around in the registry and found this: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\PostBootReminders\Microsoft.NetDriveReconnectFailed.

This folder contained the following key/value pairs:

"Title"="Could not reconnect all network drives"
"Text"="Click here to open My Computer and see the status of your network drives."
"IconResource"="shell32.dll,10"
"ShellExecute"="::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
"ShowTime"=dword:00000000
"RetryInterval"=dword:00000000
"RetryCount"=dword:00000000
"TypeFlags"=dword:00000001

Of course, this is the text that appears in the information bubble when mapped drives can't reconnect.

When I deleted the Microsoft.NetDriveReconnectFailed folder and its keys from the registry (of course I exported them to a .reg file first), and rebooted the computer, the problem went away. Every user was able to map drives normally, and login scripts worked correctly.

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