Can I mount a share to a folder and NOT a drive letter?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Mayson
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J

John Mayson

I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions too.

I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how to
mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do. Instead I
want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that even possible?
I have searched online and others have asked this only to be told how to
map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.

Thanks,
John
 
I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions too.

I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how
to mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do.
Instead I want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that
even possible? I have searched online and others have asked this only to
be told how to map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.

Thanks,
John
Click to expand...

On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.
 
ray said:
On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.
Click to expand...

So can you on Windows with NTFS. But the OP wants to mount a network
share to a folder, not the same thing as mounting a disk to a folder.

John
 
So can you on Windows with NTFS. But the OP wants to mount a network
share to a folder, not the same thing as mounting a disk to a folder.

John
Click to expand...

Ah yes - can do that too - obviously.
 
On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.
Click to expand...

Exactly! And I do. :-) But I'm finding myself wanting to do that with
Windows 7. Looks like I can't get there from here.

John
 
John Mayson said:
Exactly! And I do. :-) But I'm finding myself wanting to do that with
Windows 7. Looks like I can't get there from here.
Click to expand...

You want to mount what to a folder, a network share or a local drive?
 
I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions too.

I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how to
mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do. Instead I
want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that even possible?
I have searched online and others have asked this only to be told how to
map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.
Click to expand...

If you don't have an actual objection to mapping the drive, you could
map \\SERVER\Documents to a letter (e.g. "F:"), then do this:

c:\users\username> mklink /d documents F:\

You would need to make sure \documents does not exist in \username,
which probably means removing the existing documents folder.

Also, I don't know how windows will react to documents being on a
network drive. I see two possible issues: one is windows looking for
documents at some point in startup/login, since it's a moderately
special folder. If windows goes looking for it before the connection
is mapped as part of your login, it might have issues or actually try
to create it.

The second is a speed issue: when an application's File ->Open or
->Save or _>Insert (etc) type operation is engaged, many of them
default to username\documents. Based on my experience doing similar
things in Vista, I'd expect some relatively serious delays. Vista does
not seem to handle network access very well in general and
specifically when doing tricks like this. Win7 might be better.

So, you might have to pilot it a bit. Other folders might not be as
critical, but "documents" is a little different.
 
Exactly! And I do. :-) But I'm finding myself wanting to do that with
Windows 7. Looks like I can't get there from here.

John
Click to expand...

I can do it.

Create an empty folder somewhere (but not on the drive you want to mount).
You'll use it at the end.

Get to Disk Management any way you like. I usually click on the start orb,
right click on Computer, & choose Manage (which is slow to appear). Then I
choose Disk Management in there.

Right click on the drive in question, and then choose "Change Drive Letters
and Paths". Click Add and it should be obvious from there.
 
John,

Have you attempted to create a map (so you do "mount" it to a
designated letter and then add the location to your documents library.
Libraries are a new feature that was added in Windows 7.
Click to expand...

Are you addressing me? I'm a bit unsure.

No, I haven't attempted to map it to a drive letter. I don't see any
particular reason to do that, since I can address it more than adequately
through the mount point, and besides, when I want a letter, I simply
*assign* a letter directly, instead of a mount point.

I haven't bothered making the mount point a favorite, mainly because I
never kept one around long enough to make it necessary.

Frankly, I think the drive letter approach is pretty stupid, even after
using it since the mid to late 1970's. Named drives and named mount points,
as in *nix and OS X, seem more rational to me. In my experience,
identifying drives by letters causes more problems than it solves.
Should you require additional assistance and guidance, Microsoft does
have an official Windows 7 Support Forum located here
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/w7itpro/ . It
is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support
teams.
Click to expand...

If you ask me, most forums are pretty clumsy to use.
 
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