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In Win XP, I can very easily map a network drive to the root of my NAS server. I browse to it in Explorer (\192.168.1.70), choose "Map Network Drive", choose the drive letter, done.

In Vista, this does not seem possible. I have to go "Map Network Drive" from 'Computer', then enter the address, but it will only let me map to specific shares (sub-folders off of the server root) and NOT to the server root share.

Since my NAS has built-in shares (music, photo, video, etc.) then I would have to have drive letters for all of these, which I absolutely don't want.

Can anyone tell me - how come I can easily map to the server root from XP, but not in Vista? Is there something fundamentally different in the networking across the two OS's? Or do I just need to do things a different way?

Hope someone can help.

Thanks,

AT

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Please don't use signatures or taglines in your posts. superuser.com/faq – Hello71 Jul 28 '10 at 21:44
As far as I'm aware, Vista makes it illegal to access a share without a full path (host + share). – Randolph West Jul 29 '10 at 2:02
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3 Answers

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\\hostname is not actually a valid "share". You need something after the host in order to map it.

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Add a new share to the server (i.e.: root) that contains all the other shares as subfolders/links. Then you'll be able to map a drive letter to it.

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HI, Sure, I understand that would kind of work but: a) this would mess up my built-in share structure (movie, photo, video) that the NAS software requires b) this still doesn't explain how come it's possible in XP and not in Vista – Andy T Jul 28 '10 at 21:39
Have you tried \\host\c$ – mattcodes Jan 16 '11 at 12:08
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Using a File Manager may help?

Servant Salamander (shareware) has a "Change Directory" command (Shift+F7) that allows you to enter something like: \\NAS which does take me to the root of the NAS. (I cannot confirm that this works on W7 at this time, cause the NAS is on an XP system, though it does work on XP & I seem to recall it working on W7.)

(Additionally Salamander can see the Windows Network links so something like \\NAS\MUSIC or \\NAS\VIDEO are available.)

(I named my Buffalo NAS, "NAS".)

"Altap Salamander" http://www.altap.cz/salam_en/index.html

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