INFORMATICS

To map a network drive, type the following command:

net use DRIVE: PATH

DRIVE is the drive letter you want to use and PATH is the full UNC path to the share.

So, for example, if we wanted to map drive letter K to the share \\PC-name\files, we’d use the following command:

net use K: \\PC-name\files

By default, mapped drives are not persistent. If we map drives using the commands we’ve talked about so far, the mapped drives would disappear when you restarted your computer. If you’d rather those mapped drives stick around, you can make them persistent by using the /persistent switch. The switch works as a toggle:

• /persistent:Yes: Makes the connection you’re currently creating persistent. Future connections you make using the command during the same session are also persistent (you don’t need to keep using the switch) until you use the /persistent:No switch to turn it off.
• /persistent:No: Turns off the persistency toggle. Future connections you make are not persistent until you turn the toggle back on.

So, essentially, you could type something like the following command:

net use s: \\tower\movies /user:HTG CrazyFourHorseMen /persistent:Yes

And the drive map would be persistent. All future mapping you create (even if you don’t use the /persistent:Yes switch) will also be persistent until you turn it off using the /persistent:No switch.

If you ever need to delete a mapped network drive, all you have to do is specify the drive letter and add the /delete switch. For example, the following command would delete the drive mapping we assigned to drive S:

net use s: /delete

You can also use the asterisk as a wildcard should you ever want to delete all your mapped drives in one go:

net use * /delete