Quickly Map a Network Drive in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

In Windows Server 2008, you connect to a network drive by mapping to it using NET USE and the following syntax:

net use Device \\ComputerName\ShareName


In this example, “Device” is where you specify the drive letter. Or you can use * to specify that you want to use the next available drive letter. And \\ComputerName\ShareName is the UNC path to the share. So, in practice, it looks something like this:

net use g: \\ROMEO\DOCS

Or

net use * \\ROMEO\DOCS


Note that you should add the /Persistent:Yes option to ensure that the mapped drive is available each time the user logs on.

If the client computer is running Windows Vista, one way to map network drives is to follow these steps:

1. While the user is logged on, open any Windows Explorer view on the user’s computer.
2. From the Tools menu, select Map Network Drive. This opens the Map Network Drive page.
3. Using the Drive drop-down list, you can now create a network drive for a shared resource. Select a free drive letter to create a network drive that can be accessed in Windows Explorer.
4. In the Folder text box, type the UNC path to the desired share. For example, to access a share called DOCS on a server called ROMEO, you’d use the path \\ROMEO\DOCS. If you don’t know the share location, click Browse to search for available shares. After selecting the appropriate share, click OK to close the Browse For Folder dialog box.
5. If you want the network drive to be automatically connected in subsequent sessions, select the Reconnect At Logon check box. Otherwise, clear this check box to later establish a connection whenever you double-click the network drive.
6. To connect using a different user name from the logon name, click Different User Name, and then type a user name and password for the connection. Click OK to close the Connect As dialog box.
7. Click Finish to map the network drive.

Source: technet.microsoft.com