[PinkPanther]

NOt sure what causes this problem, but over time I have seen it happen at some time or another on every machine I have and run.

Basically, mapped drives fail to reconnect when the machine boots up, BUT they reconnect fine the minute you open explorer and open the drive; thus, it is not a password issue or a permissions issue. The machine CAN access the mapped drives without problem, but it fails to reconnect them during the boot process.

My only guess is that the order of things as they load is causing a problem; i.e. if the drivers for the NIC load after the attempt to reconnect the drives, obviously this would cause a failure. However, I do not know how to control the boot order of such things, so I have not been able to test my theory.

The systems are all Windows XP Professional.

Thanks for any advice or hints

[PinkPanther]

Thanks for the help.

Unfortunately, the problem persists. It certainly seems like this should have solved it, but alas, no such luck.

[Jeff WCH]

I have what appears to be the same problem as Pink Panther. XP clients on a peer to peer network with a mapped drive to a drive on an XP file server. On startup or reboot I get an error message saying "Network drives could not reconnect". If I go to windows explorer and click on the mapped drive (which is labeled as disconnected) the drive and folder on the file server open right up. But if I try to run the software program that needs info from the file server, I get an error message saying "path not found", until I go to windows explorer and click on the mapped drive. Then it works fine.
The clients and the file server are all Dell Dimensions with XP Professional SP1. They all run Norton Anti Virus 2003 and Zone Alarm 4.5. Windows firewall is turned off. I've made the change AlecStaar suggested in GPEDIT.MSC with no success. I've shut off NAV and ZA and rebooted with no success.
Other possibly useful information. The Windows 98 and Windows 2000 systems work fine. They reconnect automatically after a reboot or shutdown. Also, a third Dell Dimension XP Professional SP1 works fine, so I don't think the problem is at the file server end. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
Jeff

[Jeff WCH]

[Jeff WCH]

WOW, that is an impressive list of settings. Did you come up with that list off the top of your head? It may take a while to research and experiment but I will absolutely keep you posted with findings and results. Thanks for your help.

Jeff

[Jeff WCH]

[praiser]

This is very interesting, I have exactly the same problem... I'm running a backup software on four computers that synchronize files every 5 mins with a server. When I start Windows, I will get an error message from the backup software that the shared drive does not exist. When I click on that drive in the Windows Explorer, it will connect without any problems. From this point, the backup software makes its job good.

Anyone solved the problem yet?

[ontrackcorp]

Hi Guys,

YES! YES! I have the same problem. Any backup or other software can not access mapped network drives on a peer to peer network backup storage server (NAS) in Win XP Pro SP2 after bootup, UNLESS you click on the mapped network drive first via Windows Explorer.

The 2 separate network drives seem to be connected, as they do NOT have a red x through them, but any software (e.g. backup software, any software that has to access data on the network drive) does not see either drive until it is toggled on via Windows Explorer.

I have made sure the connect at startup box is checked is enabled, tried the run:..../persistent switch that someone posted to keep the drives connected, but nothing works. Microsoft does not seem to have a solution on their site that I can find.

This is a VERY COMMON problem. Surely someone has a solution?

Help!

George

[mrx100]

Hi all. Same problem but slightly different. Namely, there's a port LPT1: which is mapped to some remote print server via TCP/IP. In order to map the port I use the following:
net use LPT1: \\printserver\remoteport
The port is mapping easly with no problems no matter which kind of network protocols is used - IP adress ( for instance \\192.168.0.100\remoteport) or NetBIOS like above. Everything works OK...until the system is rebooted. After the reboot when using net use in console I see that the mapped port is not responding (by the way all mapped drives have OK status anyway :D) The question is following. How could I unload the mapped port like LPT1: using console commands? I'm just gonna force this kind of "disconneting" of LPT1: during the shutdown of the system and from the other hand always connect the port using net use when the system is booting up. Looks kinda funny but gonna work I hope if there's a way to dismount the mapped port.

[adamvjackson]

How about a simple logon script:

net use LPT1 \\printserver\port /delete
net use LPT1 \\printserver\port

Run that each logon... Not necessarily clean or perfect, but it should work.

[MadBomber]

I kinda have the same problem but just a little different.

I have a user running XP Pro that when ever she turns the PC on from a cold boot or even a restart for that matter one of her 4 network drives are not connecting. But when she logs off and back on again her missing drive returns.

Not sure if this is happening to anyone else but if you can give me some pointers I'd appreciate it.

[mrx100]

adamvjackson, thanx a lot! I'll definitely try that. Let's hope it's gonna be OK

[adamvjackson]

No problem, and good luck

[mrx100]

Well. Have some "news" about the thing Adamvjackson actually first part of the script must be corrected like this

net use LPT1: /delete say (1)

but the second one

net use LPT1 \\printserver\port say (2)

is OK

Then. The trouble is when I used the batch in a single file during startup it didn't work. But when I had divided it in two that was a success. I run first batch (1) during the startup (as a scheduled task). Second batch (2) is started on logon (same way). May be it's enough to run a single batch just on logon but I didn't try cos was rather sutisfied with the result. Why is it so complicated? We should remember that in case of the port mapping on XP it's a usual thing when the mapped port LPT goes to "disconnected" status after a certain time of inactivity (when there's no printjobs). The same thing happens when you start up the system - the default status of LPT just after the system is loaded is "disconnected". And it's impossible to reconnect LPT making a printjob - it remains notresponding. The only way to solve the problem is to run those two commands on startup and logon and say "refresh" the connection of the mapped port starting it just before you gonna print using mapped LPT if it's in a "disconnected" status (you can monitor that using net use).

[mrx100]

[mrx100]

[Nekyinboots]

Hi,
I have ran into this problem at work. The solution I use is to make a batch file and put it into the startup folder.
The batch file should read something like this.

net use G: /DELETE
net use I: /DELETE
net use J: /DELETE
net use K: /DELETE
net use G: \\"path"\"path"
net use I: \\"path"\"path"
net use J: \\"path"\"path"
net use K: \\"path"\"path"

Replace "path" with your actual drivepaths of course and remove the quotes.
Hopes this helps...

[adamvjackson]

Originally posted by nekyinboots:

Quote:

Hi,
I have ran into this problem at work. The solution I use is to make a batch file and put it into the startup folder.
The batch file should read something like this.

net use G: /DELETE
net use I: /DELETE
net use J: /DELETE
net use K: /DELETE
net use G: \\"path"\"path"
net use I: \\"path"\"path"
net use J: \\"path"\"path"
net use K: \\"path"\"path"

Replace "path" with your actual drivepaths of course and remove the quotes.
Hopes this helps...

If you want to keep just a single file of that (so it is easier to maintain and make changes) you could just use that as a logon script.

[Geni]

One possibility, for those using logon scripts on a domain (it's generally the user's home directory that doesn't map in these instances, and it happens sporadically) - this is a known problem with XP SP1. Try upgrading to SP2, and see if that resolves the issue.

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330519

[rhilim]

Originally posted by madbomber:

Quote:

I kinda have the same problem but just a little different.

I have a user running XP Pro that when ever she turns the PC on from a cold boot or even a restart for that matter one of her 4 network drives are not connecting. But when she logs off and back on again her missing drive returns.

Not sure if this is happening to anyone else but if you can give me some pointers I'd appreciate it.

I am having a problem VERY similar to this. When my client logs in (either from a cold boot or restart) NONE of her network drives are being mapped. When she logs off and back on ALL drives appear as normal.

When logged in from cold boot or restart, I can go the the domain controller NETLOGON share and run the login script and it runs just fine and all drives appear normally.

For the time being I placed a shortcut to the login script in her startup folder but this is not a good solution as this client has a laptop and is not always connected to the network.

Does anyone have a "clean" fix for this issue?

- Windows XP Pro SP2
- XP Firewall is DISABLED via Group Policy
- Client has Local Admin rights to PC

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

Rusty