Losing Mapped Drives

First off, let me apologize for the lack on information in this post. I
tried to get more detailed information regarding the servers in question,
but the person who administers those servers has been out for the last two
weeks, and I have not been able to get the information from other sources.
That being said...

I have a user who is running Windows XP Pro with SP2. She has two drive
letters (U: and V that have been mapped manually through Windows Explorer
and are each mapped to the root directories of Windows servers.
Unfortunately, I do not know if those are Windows 2000 or 2003 servers. The
mapped drives will be accessible to her immediately after they've been
mapped, but eventually those mapped drives will become unavailable. The
user only attempts to access those drives every few days, so she can't say
if the drives remain available for a couple of days at a time, or if they
get lost with each reboot (she has promised to pay attention to this, but
thus far has not been able to provide me with this information). I have
made sure that the "reconnect at next login" box is checked when the drives
are mapped, and that our login scripts are not mapping to resources on the
same drive letters. We are currently trying the drive mappings on different
drive letters to eliminate the possibility that those mappings are being
overwritten somehow. If that does not resolve the problem, then the only
other thing that I can think of is that the Windows server is resetting or
timing out the connection for some reason.

What server-side settings could account for these drive mappings being lost?

--Tom

I have noticed that same behavior when the client computer has a alternate
DNS server set that is not a DNS server for the AD domain the computer
belongs to. Usually it's the ISP's DNS server listed as secondary.

If you have only one DNS server set up for the AD domain list it as
preferred and alternate.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE

"Thomas M." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> First off, let me apologize for the lack on information in this post. I
> tried to get more detailed information regarding the servers in question,
> but the person who administers those servers has been out for the last two
> weeks, and I have not been able to get the information from other sources.
> That being said...
>
> I have a user who is running Windows XP Pro with SP2. She has two drive
> letters (U: and V that have been mapped manually through Windows
> Explorer and are each mapped to the root directories of Windows servers.
> Unfortunately, I do not know if those are Windows 2000 or 2003 servers.
> The mapped drives will be accessible to her immediately after they've been
> mapped, but eventually those mapped drives will become unavailable. The
> user only attempts to access those drives every few days, so she can't say
> if the drives remain available for a couple of days at a time, or if they
> get lost with each reboot (she has promised to pay attention to this, but
> thus far has not been able to provide me with this information). I have
> made sure that the "reconnect at next login" box is checked when the
> drives are mapped, and that our login scripts are not mapping to resources
> on the same drive letters. We are currently trying the drive mappings on
> different drive letters to eliminate the possibility that those mappings
> are being overwritten somehow. If that does not resolve the problem, then
> the only other thing that I can think of is that the Windows server is
> resetting or timing out the connection for some reason.
>
> What server-side settings could account for these drive mappings being
> lost?
>
> --Tom
>

> If you have only one DNS server set up for the AD domain list it as
> preferred and alternate.

I don't understand the benefit of this action.

That is to say I completely agree that you should never be using the ISP DNS
in the clients config, but why list the same AD DNS server twice?

--
Manny Borges
MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
MCT, Certified Cheese Master

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who do understand binary
and those who don't.
"Danny Sanders" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have noticed that same behavior when the client computer has a alternate
>DNS server set that is not a DNS server for the AD domain the computer
>belongs to. Usually it's the ISP's DNS server listed as secondary.
>
> If you have only one DNS server set up for the AD domain list it as
> preferred and alternate.
>
> hth
> DDS W 2k MVP MCSE
>
> "Thomas M." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> First off, let me apologize for the lack on information in this post. I
>> tried to get more detailed information regarding the servers in question,
>> but the person who administers those servers has been out for the last
>> two weeks, and I have not been able to get the information from other
>> sources. That being said...
>>
>> I have a user who is running Windows XP Pro with SP2. She has two drive
>> letters (U: and V that have been mapped manually through Windows
>> Explorer and are each mapped to the root directories of Windows servers.
>> Unfortunately, I do not know if those are Windows 2000 or 2003 servers.
>> The mapped drives will be accessible to her immediately after they've
>> been mapped, but eventually those mapped drives will become unavailable.
>> The user only attempts to access those drives every few days, so she
>> can't say if the drives remain available for a couple of days at a time,
>> or if they get lost with each reboot (she has promised to pay attention
>> to this, but thus far has not been able to provide me with this
>> information). I have made sure that the "reconnect at next login" box is
>> checked when the drives are mapped, and that our login scripts are not
>> mapping to resources on the same drive letters. We are currently trying
>> the drive mappings on different drive letters to eliminate the
>> possibility that those mappings are being overwritten somehow. If that
>> does not resolve the problem, then the only other thing that I can think
>> of is that the Windows server is resetting or timing out the connection
>> for some reason.
>>
>> What server-side settings could account for these drive mappings being
>> lost?
>>
>> --Tom
>>
>
>

Try setting the following on her machine
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Network\Persistent Connections]
"SaveConnections"="yes"

"Manny Borges" wrote:

> > If you have only one DNS server set up for the AD domain list it as
> > preferred and alternate.
>
> I don't understand the benefit of this action.
>
> That is to say I completely agree that you should never be using the ISP DNS
> in the clients config, but why list the same AD DNS server twice?
>
> --
> Manny Borges
> MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
> MCT, Certified Cheese Master
>
> There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who do understand binary
> and those who don't.
> "Danny Sanders" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I have noticed that same behavior when the client computer has a alternate
> >DNS server set that is not a DNS server for the AD domain the computer
> >belongs to. Usually it's the ISP's DNS server listed as secondary.
> >
> > If you have only one DNS server set up for the AD domain list it as
> > preferred and alternate.
> >
> > hth
> > DDS W 2k MVP MCSE
> >
> > "Thomas M." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> First off, let me apologize for the lack on information in this post. I
> >> tried to get more detailed information regarding the servers in question,
> >> but the person who administers those servers has been out for the last
> >> two weeks, and I have not been able to get the information from other
> >> sources. That being said...
> >>
> >> I have a user who is running Windows XP Pro with SP2. She has two drive
> >> letters (U: and V that have been mapped manually through Windows
> >> Explorer and are each mapped to the root directories of Windows servers.
> >> Unfortunately, I do not know if those are Windows 2000 or 2003 servers.
> >> The mapped drives will be accessible to her immediately after they've
> >> been mapped, but eventually those mapped drives will become unavailable.
> >> The user only attempts to access those drives every few days, so she
> >> can't say if the drives remain available for a couple of days at a time,
> >> or if they get lost with each reboot (she has promised to pay attention
> >> to this, but thus far has not been able to provide me with this
> >> information). I have made sure that the "reconnect at next login" box is
> >> checked when the drives are mapped, and that our login scripts are not
> >> mapping to resources on the same drive letters. We are currently trying
> >> the drive mappings on different drive letters to eliminate the
> >> possibility that those mappings are being overwritten somehow. If that
> >> does not resolve the problem, then the only other thing that I can think
> >> of is that the Windows server is resetting or timing out the connection
> >> for some reason.
> >>
> >> What server-side settings could account for these drive mappings being
> >> lost?
> >>
> >> --Tom
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
>

I'd like to thank each of you who replied to this message, and to apologize
for taking so long to follow up on this thread. I was out for a week after
I posted the original message and the issue had been resolved by the time I
got back, so I moved on to other problems and forgot that I had posted this
question.

Anyway, the solution was insanely simple. The user was getting the "drive
disconnected" notification and she took that to mean that the drives were
not accessible. Apparently, she never tried to simply click on the drives
to see if she could access them. It would have been nice if the user had
admitted this to me *before* I posted the message here. I should have
checked this personally, but each time I asked her she told me that she
could not access the drives. She neglected to mention that she didn't even
try.

--Tom

"Thomas M." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> First off, let me apologize for the lack on information in this post. I
> tried to get more detailed information regarding the servers in question,
> but the person who administers those servers has been out for the last two
> weeks, and I have not been able to get the information from other sources.
> That being said...
>
> I have a user who is running Windows XP Pro with SP2. She has two drive
> letters (U: and V that have been mapped manually through Windows
> Explorer and are each mapped to the root directories of Windows servers.
> Unfortunately, I do not know if those are Windows 2000 or 2003 servers.
> The mapped drives will be accessible to her immediately after they've been
> mapped, but eventually those mapped drives will become unavailable. The
> user only attempts to access those drives every few days, so she can't say
> if the drives remain available for a couple of days at a time, or if they
> get lost with each reboot (she has promised to pay attention to this, but
> thus far has not been able to provide me with this information). I have
> made sure that the "reconnect at next login" box is checked when the
> drives are mapped, and that our login scripts are not mapping to resources
> on the same drive letters. We are currently trying the drive mappings on
> different drive letters to eliminate the possibility that those mappings
> are being overwritten somehow. If that does not resolve the problem, then
> the only other thing that I can think of is that the Windows server is
> resetting or timing out the connection for some reason.
>
> What server-side settings could account for these drive mappings being
> lost?
>
> --Tom
>

LOL

I wish I had never had a situation like that before.

--
Manny Borges
MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
MCT, Certified Cheese Master

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who do understand binary
and those who don't.
"Thomas M." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'd like to thank each of you who replied to this message, and to
> apologize for taking so long to follow up on this thread. I was out for a
> week after I posted the original message and the issue had been resolved
> by the time I got back, so I moved on to other problems and forgot that I
> had posted this question.
>
> Anyway, the solution was insanely simple. The user was getting the "drive
> disconnected" notification and she took that to mean that the drives were
> not accessible. Apparently, she never tried to simply click on the drives
> to see if she could access them. It would have been nice if the user had
> admitted this to me *before* I posted the message here. I should have
> checked this personally, but each time I asked her she told me that she
> could not access the drives. She neglected to mention that she didn't
> even try.
>
> --Tom
>
> "Thomas M." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> First off, let me apologize for the lack on information in this post. I
>> tried to get more detailed information regarding the servers in question,
>> but the person who administers those servers has been out for the last
>> two weeks, and I have not been able to get the information from other
>> sources. That being said...
>>
>> I have a user who is running Windows XP Pro with SP2. She has two drive
>> letters (U: and V that have been mapped manually through Windows
>> Explorer and are each mapped to the root directories of Windows servers.
>> Unfortunately, I do not know if those are Windows 2000 or 2003 servers.
>> The mapped drives will be accessible to her immediately after they've
>> been mapped, but eventually those mapped drives will become unavailable.
>> The user only attempts to access those drives every few days, so she
>> can't say if the drives remain available for a couple of days at a time,
>> or if they get lost with each reboot (she has promised to pay attention
>> to this, but thus far has not been able to provide me with this
>> information). I have made sure that the "reconnect at next login" box is
>> checked when the drives are mapped, and that our login scripts are not
>> mapping to resources on the same drive letters. We are currently trying
>> the drive mappings on different drive letters to eliminate the
>> possibility that those mappings are being overwritten somehow. If that
>> does not resolve the problem, then the only other thing that I can think
>> of is that the Windows server is resetting or timing out the connection
>> for some reason.
>>
>> What server-side settings could account for these drive mappings being
>> lost?
>>
>> --Tom
>>
>
>