Mount network drive as physical drive

Question

Is there a way to mount a network location so that it appears as a local physical disk? e.g. \\computer\share as D: (not a network drive)

Edit:

Hey guys, does anyone have a solution to this?

Answer 1

As I said on this (almost) identical question:

Are you sure this is really what you want to do? There's a very good article on why this is a bad bad bad idea over at Joel on Software (see point #3)...

The concluding statement is:

Conclusion: the next time someone tries to sell you a programming product that lets you access network resources the same was as you access local resources, run full speed in the opposite direction.

If you want to know why, read the relevant parts of the article.

And the short answer to your question is: No. Not easilly, and the reason is that a local disk is expected to have all sorts of functionality that a network share does not. A local disk expects a local file system (NTFS/FAT/etc), which a network share does not have (Well, it does, but at the server it's hosted on, not your location), as well as a whole host of other features that just can't be safely or reliably replicated (see the linked artical).

Answer 2

Yes, this is possible in Windows Vista and in Windows 7.

Open the Command Prompt as an administrator. Then type the following command:

mklink /D C:\LinkName \NetworkLocation\LocationName

This will create a "symbolic link" on Drive C called "LinkName", which will link to "LocationName" on "\NetworkLocation". Windows will of course know that this is a symbolic link, but will treat it as if it was a folder on the local drive. All applications will treat this symbolic link as a local resource.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

If you want to script it, use the NET USE command:

The syntax of this command is:

NET USE
[devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]]
        [/USER:[domainname\]username]
        [/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
        [/USER:[username@dotted domain name]
        [/SMARTCARD]
        [/SAVECRED]
        [[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]]

NET USE {devicename | *} [password | *] /HOME

NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]

Answer 4

You can mount a network drive as a virtual physical disc using the iSCSI protocol to access an iSCSI server - for example, you can set one up using Free NAS - Google it for more info.

Answer 5

I'm assuming you're using Windows, but you don't say which version. In any case, in Windows Explorer in the Tools menu select Map Network Drive. If you're on Vista, for example, which hides the menus, just press and release the Alt key to show the menus.

You can also use the SUBST command:

SUBST M: \\COMPUTERNAME\SHARENAME