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We've got numerous Windows 7 machines that will show a mapped network drive as disconnected on boot up. Seems to be all versions of Windows 7 as well. In the "My Computer" windows the mapped drive is visible, but with a RED X on it. If you double click on it, the red X goes away and displays the contents of that share. I don't believe it's a timeout issue (as mentioned in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684) because this occurs imediately on startup.

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This may sound silly, but has the network card properly initialised when you try to log on? If you leave it at the logon screen for a couple of minutes before logging on, does the message still appear when you eventually do log on? If you try to log on as a user who has never logged on to this particular machine, are you told there are no Domain Controllers available, does it log on almost instantly or is there a delay and then logon? – Ben Pilbrow Aug 2 '11 at 21:10
The drive will never reconnect on its own. Whether we wait a bit or not to logon. But as soon as we double click on it, it reconnect immediately. – JimDel Aug 2 '11 at 21:18
OK, how does the never logged on user behave? Also, are your NIC drivers up to date on the computers? – Ben Pilbrow Aug 2 '11 at 21:25
Drivers are up to date and We'll have to try with a "brand new" user. Multiple EXISTING users (on the same machine) all have the same issue though. We'll have to wait to test though. Thanks. – JimDel Aug 2 '11 at 21:30
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The only reason I said a new user is to eliminate cached credentials being used if the network wasn't quite ready. A new user will force authentication with a DC, which should fail if the network isn't ready. Basically I'm just trying to determine if the NIC is really ready at logon or not. It could just be a crappy driver, crappy chipset or I might be barking up the wrong tree entirely! – Ben Pilbrow Aug 2 '11 at 21:36
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up vote 3 down vote accepted

This is a common issue with Windows 7, the best solution I've been able to find is to run a batch file that remaps the drive upon logging in.

net use [drive]: /delete
net use [drive]: \\server\share /user:[user] [password] /persistent:yes
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This is how we got around this problem. We have a batch script that runs at login that maps the drive for them. Or you can even map a share to a drive through a GPO ( User Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Drive Maps ) – Safado Aug 2 '11 at 21:45
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This seems so unnecessary, but i agree that its the best solution. Thanks. – JimDel Aug 3 '11 at 14:22
I came here suspecting the solution would be to use a script for logging in, even though that doesn't particularly suit me as a single user machine (with a home NAS, a common setup I'm sure). It seems the "reconnect at logon" checkbox for mapped network drives has absolutely no intelligence whatsoever. – deed02392 May 12 at 8:53
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up vote 1 down vote

It occurs because you're not connected to the mapped drive on boot up, under Windows 7 the drives only connect when you first access them.

Later on if you don't access them you can encounter the timeout issue.

All of our Win 7 machines exhibit this behaviour.

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The reason this is a problem for us is that when the user tries to run something on the Mapped drive, They get an error telling them there is no drive X: Other users with Windows 7 will have no RED X and no subsequent problems. – JimDel Aug 2 '11 at 21:13
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