Access Hard Drive Data from the Network Drive and Integrate Both Drives
These days it can be quite difficult to find a medium or large scale business that doesn’t rely on the Internet. With the advancement of computers and networking, businesses are increasingly adopting new technologies to manage their data more efficiently.
Modern ways of organizing shared resources allow businesses to improve productivity and save storage costs. A network drive is one such concept. Read on as we’ll walk you through the concept of a network drive, how it is beneficial to businesses and how to map one.
What is a Network Drive?
A network drive is a shortcut created to a shared folder on a remote server. You can access the network drive similar to any other drive/ partition on your computer. As long as both the computers are connected to the Internet and set up to a network drive, you can easily access your files. A network drive enables you to access the resources on a remote computer without physically operating it.
What does Mapping a Network Drive mean?
When you map a network drive, you’re assigning a drive letter (such as F:) to your network drive. As you map your network drive, it looks similar to other local drives on your computer. You can open the drive, browse through its folders, and even open, edit, copy, move or delete the files. Just like any other folder on your computer, you can get the location of the folders on your network drive (such as F:\Document 1).
Are Network Drives beneficial? Where are they commonly used?
Think of a workplace such as a call center. Hundreds of employees are working in the company. Each employee has access to a computer and a phone. They answer inbound and outbound phone calls from the customers. How would all the employees be able to assist their customers when the required data is stored on a single computer? How would the employees be able to track customer’s complaints or verify their information?
The solution is simple: The IT Department of the company has mapped all the computers to a single source- a computer with gigantic storage acting as a server. This means that all the employees get access to the same information in real-time with just an Internet connection. No need to transfer the data to hundreds of machines or maintain it on a regular basis. Every time an employee needs to look for specific data to assist the customer, they will open files stored on the network drive. It’s that simple!
Similarly, network drives are also increasingly used in hospitals to provide central access to vital information. They aid in a smooth transfer of critical information between different departments such as admissions, imaging, emergency rooms, financial department, management, etc.
Businesses also use network drives to facilitate employees to work from the comfort of their homes. An employee can access data available on office computers without physically visiting the workplace.
Disadvantages of Using Network Drives
Each technology has its pros and cons. Network drives also have their own limitations and drawbacks. It is important to understand them before switching to this technique.
Reliability on Internet Connection: A network drive is connected through the Internet. It cannot independently function without the availability of an active Internet connection. The moment you lose your Internet connectivity, you cannot access your files.
Viruses, Security Issues & Data Thefts: Your network drive acts as central storage for multiple devices and users. Security issues on any of the connected devices can put the network drive and other connected computers at risk. If the host machine connected to a network drive is infected with ransomware, viruses or trojans, the hackers could steal or wipe out all the data from your network drive.
Data Loss: Loss of Internet connectivity while editing a document or an image could abruptly close the file and discard any changes you’ve made. At worse, the unexpected network loss could corrupt the file contents and make it unreadable.
Even if one of the users connected to your network drive accidentally deletes any file, that file gets deleted for good for all the other users!
Map a Network Drive
Mapping a network drive is easy. All you need to do is open the Map Network Drive wizard in Windows, specify a drive letter and path to your network folder. You’re done.
- Make sure the host computer and the computer you want to use as a network drive are turned on and connected to the Internet.
- On the host computer, double-click This PC.
- Click on the Computer tab on the Ribbon interface and then click Map Network Drive.
- Now select Map network drive from the drop-down menu and select a drive letter of your choice.
- Specify the full path to the folder on your target computer. You can also click Browse and select the folder on your target computer.
- Select the checkbox for Reconnect at sign-in.
- Click on Finish.
Get UNC Path of an Already Mapped Network Drive
If you ever need to get the UNC path of a network drive that you’ve already mapped, follow the steps given below:
- Type CMD in the Search box in the taskbar.
- Right-click on CMD and select Run as administrator.
- Type the following command and press Enter:
- net use
- After executing the above command, Windows will display the path to your network drive folders. (See below results)
New connections will be remembered.
Status Local Remote Network
———————————————————————————————
OK F: \\server1\cust_data Microsoft Windows Network
OK G: \\server2\services Microsoft Windows Network
The command completed successfully.
Bonus Tip: Clean Duplicate Files on Network Drive & Improve Your Organization’s Productivity & Efficiency
If you’re using a network drive for several months or years, you’ll face the problem of duplication. As multiple devices and users are simultaneously accessing the same shared folder, duplication of data is inevitable. Duplicate data can lead to disorganization. You’ll spend more time searching, organizing your files and it can adversely affect your productivity. It is recommended to scan and delete duplicate files at least once a week.
Make sure your network drive is already mapped. For the purpose of the example, we’ll assume you want to scan the shared folder F:\New folder.
Download Clone Files Checker and install it on your computer. Once the program is installed, launch it.
Now click the Add button on the left. Select the destination folder you want to scan for duplicates. (F:\New folder in our example). Click OK.
Select All Files and hit Start Search.
After the duplicate scan is finished, review the duplicates items list. Use the checkboxes to select or deselect your files. You can also use the Select Duplicates button to select hundreds of items in a single click.
Click on Select Action and choose whether you want to delete your duplicate files or move them to another folder.
Raza Ali Kazmi works as an editor and technology content writer at Sorcim Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. He loves to pen down articles on a wide array of technology related topics and has also been diligently testing software solutions on Windows & Mac platforms.