Question: Mapping a Drive Letter Time Required: 10 minutes Objective: Map a drive letter by using different methods. Required Tools and Equipment: Net-XX Description: In this project, you create a shared folder, and then map a drive letter to it. You wouldn't normally map a drive letter to a share on your own computer, but this project shows you how to perform the process without using a second computer.

1. Log on to your computer as Net Admin.

2. Click Start, File Explorer. Click This PC in the left pane, and then click Local Disk (C:).

3. Create a folder named My Share. Right-click My Share, point to Share with, and click Specific people. You see that Net Admin is listed with the permission level Owner. You can add users who can access the share in this dialog box, but because only Net Admin will access it, click Share. You're notified that the folder is shared, and you see the path listed as \\Net-XX\MyShare. Click Done.

4. Click in the Search text box on the taskbar, type \\localhost, and press Enter. The \\localhost refers to your own computer, so a window opens showing available shares, including My Share. Normally, you wouldn't map a drive to a folder on your own computer, and you would replace "localhost" with the name of a server hosting the share. You're using localhost just for practice. Right-click My Share and click Map network drive.

5. You can choose the drive letter to map to this share. Click the Drive list arrow and click X:. Click to clear the Reconnect at sign-in check box. If you leave this option selected, the drive is mapped to the share each time you log on. Notice that you can also choose to connect to the share with different credentials (username and password). Click Finish.

6. A File Explorer window opens, showing the share's contents. Close all windows. Click Start, File Explorer. You see the drive letter and share name listed under This PC. Right-click My Share (\\localhost) (X:) and click Disconnect to delete the drive mapping. (You might need to press F5 to refresh the File Explorer window to see that the drive mapping has been deleted.)

7. Open a command prompt window. To map a drive letter from the command line, type net use x: \\localhost\MyShare and press Enter. You should see the message "The command completed successfully." To display current connections to shared resources, type net use and press Enter.

8. Click in the File Explorer window. The X drive letter is listed under This PC again.

9. At the command prompt, type net use /? and press Enter to see a list of options for the net use command. You can use the /persistent option to make a drive mapping reconnect each time you log on. You can also connect with a different set of credentials. Type net use x: /delete and press Enter to delete the drive mapping, and close the command prompt window.

10. To create a batch file for mapping a drive, open Notepad, and type the following two lines: net use x: /delete net use x: \\localhost\Myshare

11. The first command deletes any existing drive mappings for the X drive. Click File, Save As from the menu. In the left pane of the Save As dialog box, click Desktop. Click the Save as type list arrow, and click All Files. In the File name text box, type mapX.bat and click Save. Close Notepad.

12. On your desktop, double-click mapX. In File Explorer, verify that the X drive mapping has been created. Right-click Myshare (\\localhost) (X:) and click Disconnect.

13. Write the command to map drive letter G to a share named Accounting on a server named Finance:

14. Batch files can come in handy if you need to connect to another computer periodically but don't want a permanent drive mapping. They're especially useful if you often need to enter a long command because they save you the time of having to remember and enter the command each time you need it. Close all open windows, and leave Windows running for the next project.