Windows 7 Missing Network Drives

[jeradw]

Every now and then I will "lose" all of my network drives. Ending explorer.exe and reloading it always fixes the problem. Does it forget about my drives or something?!

I have seen this once before in my life with XP, but since moving to 7, it has been a semi-regular occurrence (once a week or so).

The install was clean, and it appears to be happening on multiple machines here in the office.

Login Script Code:
start /wait net use k: \\[server]\[share] /persistent:no
start /wait net use p: \\[server]\[share] /persistent:no
start /wait net use r: \\[server]\[share] /persistent:no
start /wait net use s: \\[server]\[share] /persistent:no
start /wait net use t: \\[server]\[share] /persistent:no
start /wait net use y: \\[server]\[share] /persistent:no

Like I said, after a while, it seems like Windows will just forget about them and some of them will not show up under "Computer". Any thoughts?

Edit: Build 7100.

 

[jeradw]

here's my computer information.

 

[jeradw]

bump...........

 

[bellferd]

I've got to bump this as well. I've been having this issue on a regular basis . I have about 10 drives mapped with a domain GPO login script. The mapped drives are shares on a W2K3 server.

Here's the interesting thing - if I run Net Use at a command prompt all of the drives are listed. I use "Tiny Res Meter" (which I highly recommend) to monitor free space on the network shares, and that Always shows all the drives, I just can't get them to display in windows explorer.

Just like you, if I kill the explorer.exe process, then manually restart it, everything shows up fine.

Any help? I suspect it has something to do with the login script running before explorer.exe is completely initialized or something...

 

[37Stars]

Are the drives there if you open a DOS box? It sounds like an issue with Explorer.

 

[bellferd]

I'm not sure, I've never tried to see if I could see them with DOS. I will try it the next time I get this error and let you know.

 

[jeradw]

The one time I saw this in XP I was able to navigate to the drives via DOS. I have not verified this with 7 though.

 

[bellferd]

Can access drives in command prompt

Stars,

Good point, I had not yet tried that. I've attached an image that shows the drives that are missing in explorer, but accessable in a command prompt. Additionally, it shows the drives showing up as normal in "net use".

Anyone have ideas for me? I can't give this to my users with this issue.

-bellferd

 

[jeradw]

bump .

 

[bellferd]

Thanks for bumping this - it's driving me nuts.

 

[jbrickman0000]

How about script-created libraries?

Reading a lot of WWW-wide posts, and trying a few things, I noticed that "NET USE" really is not recommended in Windows 7, it is said to require permissions-elevated CMD. But 7 has these libraries, and on a manual setup basis, I am finding that 7 libraries work frankly much better than drive letters ever did, as long as servers have Search 4.0 installed. So my question is: Is there a way to script the verification, creation, and deletion of Windows 7 libraries, using any script engine which will run as a login script?

J.E.B.

 

[jeradw]

I have found another little piece of information that will hopefully help Microsoft get to the bottom of this. It looks like I am having this problem right now on my computer.


4 scenarios:

1. I open up Computer via the Start Orb...I get the following network drives (H, S, T, V, Y)
2. I open up Explorer via the Taskbar (Right click on the Libraries Icon and go to Windows Explorer)...I get the following network drives (
G, H, I, P, R, S, T, V, Y, Z)
3. Opening a command prompt and typing "net use" I see (G, H, I, K, P, Z have a status of OK) (R, S, T, V, Y have a blank status)
4. Opening a command prompt and typing G: or H: or I: etc...allows me set and navigate through the network drives

So...it just seems like the drives are missing from Explorer, but only certain views of explorer.

also, this computer was just built yesterday from the Windows 7 install disc.

Any thoughts?

 

[jeradw]

bump, bump, bump, bump!

 

[jeradw]

Ended up calling Microsoft about this. They are strongly considering this to be the world of Symanetec Endpoint Protection. For reference, we are using version: 11.0.50002.333.

We are still communicating back and forth, but the test machines without SEP seem to be unaffected by this strange problem.

 

[Trouble]

jeradw:
Thanks so much for updating this thread with your information regarding what you seem to have discovered about SEP. Please keep us posted as to whether or not this proves to be the ultimate solution. Have you gotten any feed back from the folks at Symantec?
Any how thanks again, I'm certain that other members will find it helpful as well.

 

[jeradw]

No problem. So far the best work around that we have found (also approved by Symantec) is to remove the Network Threat Protection module via "Programs and Features". I havent lost a drive since we have implemented the 'fix' *crosses fingers*. Hopefully this will be patched in future releases of Endpoint Protection.