Disconnected network drives re-connects at login

[scottw182]

I'm trying to disconnect a network drive but it still reconnects when I login. I've right-clicked it and selected "disconnect" as well as used "Disconnect Network Drive" under "Tools" and selected it from the list. How can I disconnect it permanently?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Open a command prompt. Type in net use and find the drive you want to disconnect. Now type in net use <drive> /DELETE /PERSISTENT:NO where the drive is replaced by a full UNC path. i.e \\computer_name\share_name\volume

 

[scottw182]

It says "The system cannot find the file specified" but I'm sure I typed everything correctly. One of the folders in the path has a space in it, could that be what's messing me up?

 

[Hawkeye22]

It says "The system cannot find the file specified" but I'm sure I typed everything correctly. One of the folders in the path has a space in it, could that be what's messing me up?

Yes, I believe so. If it has spaces in it, it will need quoted as in:

"\\computer_name\share_name\volume"

Type it exactly as it appears when you run the net use command except use quotes around it.

 

[scottw182]

"Access is denied."

I have access to the folder I'm mapped to, but not the whole drive.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Find cmd.exe or command.exe, right click it and select "run as" and run it as administrator, then try the net use command. If you do not have administrative access on this machine, you will need your IT guy or admin to do it for you.

 

[scottw182]

Running it as an administrator doesn't bring up the network drives associated with my user name.

 

[Hawkeye22]

No, I meant log into your account, but use the run as command to launch the command prompt. Now you can use the net use command but it will run as an administrator. You can't actually log into the administrator account because network drive mappings are per user as you just found out.

 

[scottw182]

Yes, I'm logged into my account, I right-clicked cmd.exe, selected "run-as", then selected the administrator account and entered the password for it. Once I got to the command screen I tried to run net use again and it's not bringing up any network drives. I assumed that's because it's looking for network drives under the administrator account instead of my account. If not, why am I not seeing them now?

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Doh! You're correct. When you "run as" admin it no longer sees mapped shares. I guess you can only do it if the drive is mapped, not just a directory as you stated. Is this a work machine or home? If it's a work computer, you may have to get your IT guys to remove the mapping for you as it's probably something set in the group policy editor or the local security editor.

 

[scottw182]

It's a work computer, I was just trying to fix it myself without having to bug them. Thanks.