Is it possible to make a network drive show up as a folder?

Question

I'm using an online backup solution that does not work with networked drives or mapped drives. Is it possible to make a network drive show up as a "regular" folder? What possible impacts could this have?

Edit: The backup solution will backup files located here:

c:\SharedFolder

but not via net use command, such as:

F:\

I'm interested in do doing this in Windows Vista (and pretty soon in Windows 7).

Answer 1

Microsoft added Symlink support in Windows Vista, which should work here. You'll need to use the mklink command line tool to do this:

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

/D - Creates a directory symbolic link. Default to file symbolic link.
/H - Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
/J - Creates a Directory Junction.
Link - Specifies the new symbolic link name.
Target - Specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link refers to.

In your case, it'd work like this (assuming Z: is your mapped drive):

C:\> mklink /D C:\SharedFolder Z:

Then you should be able to point your backup software to C:\SharedFolder.

Answer 2

You could try creating a symbolic link

Answer 3

Does it not work because it is a network drive, or because it doesn't have a drive letter/path?

If it's the second, just map the network drive to a drive letter.