Problems with mapped drive

Following link should help to understand valid naming convention for file system paths:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win.../naming-a-file

Sorry once again, yes that's not the proper syntax, I was just using that to differentiate between the two separate 'paths' Explorer is capable of using on my Windows 10 box.

From within Explorer I mapped the XP07 box to drive letter 'G:' and in doing so I have to select the drive I wish to connect to which is "\\XP07\..."

And then Explorer can also access a Networked drive on my XP box and the beginning of it's fully qualified path is also "\\XP07\.."

Whether using the mapped drive or the network drive, they both reference the same remote disk which denoted as: "\\XP07\..."

And just to clarify things here, I don't mapped the drive by myself, I let Explorer do it for me and it is successfully mapped. I am able to access it directly from Explorer - read, write, delete. Then only issue is copying. However Explorer allows me to copy when referencing the XP disk from the Network path.

It would really help if you share fully qualified paths for both locations.

I understand what you're doing is mapping to local path that is actually mapped to remote location?
If so you need to specify local machine name not remote one, although I never tried this so I don't know whether this could work, very likely not because you would need to specify drive letter.

ex:

network path: \\SERVER\Share -> G:\RemoteShare
local mapped path: \\LOCAMACHINE\RemoteShare
OR
local mapped path: G:\RemoteShare

However \\SERVER\G:\ does not exist and is not valid path

Whether using the mapped drive or the network drive, they both reference the same remote disk which denoted as: "\\XP07\..."

The question is, why do you need 2 instances of network path?
From what I know if you want multiple simultaneous connections to single path then you need to adjust share properties to allow multiple connections instead of creating multiple mapped drives, this is to be done on XP machine, ex. if limit is 1 then one of the connections simply cannot work.

I don't how you do this on XP but it should be similar to Windows 10:
Computer management -> shared folders -> shares -> maximum allowed

So I've never had drive letter G: assigned to any other device that I know of and I haven't created two access point to the XP07 disk, Windows has done that on it's own.

When offering up the disk on the XP box, I create a shared name, by default Window's 10 can then see is as a Networked disk and displays it in Explorer. And again accessing it from here everything works.

The problem is that to build / install the legacy system we need to have an assigned drive letter so we mapped the disk through Explorer.




Both the red and green references in Windows File Explorer are to the same disk sitting on XP07. The red can't copy files, the green can.

I think the reason why you can't copy is because you're either not authenticated to XP machine or there are some other lacking file system permissions in place.

Read/write/execute does indeed give you the rights you need but does not imply authentication to remote location.
For authentication to pass you need to allow BUILTIN\EVERYONE account to remote share, AUTHENTICATED users does not allow you remote session unless you first authenticate.

I could be wrong on this since you're able to traverse remote share (from mapped G drive?) which requires authentication, and the error description implies that share can't be found rather than security problem but the message is likely misleading because you said it asks you for Admin password which you need to enter for XP machine, so again likely authentication issue.

I recommend you to allow EVERYONE account on remote share in share security properties dialog if it's not already set and see if this works.

if not right click on mapped G drive and verify path syntax is correctly set.

Anyway since you can access network location from the "green" in screenshot why bother with G: drive? trough network location you're authenticated and it works just fine so why not use just that?

The reason for needing to access the disk with a drive letter is because the legacy code on XP can't handle using a drive designation of "\\XP07\..."

It's very old code and only allows for a single letter designation in all of it's referenced paths and while it's configurable in some places, hard coded in others, it would be a monumental task to update the code so it could accept a longer string in place of a single character.

I've been looking into rights and authorized access, file permissions and everything else I can think of, but what's got me puzzled is that it all works with the un-mapped reference making me believe that the issue has nothing to with permissions.

I'm taking a closer look into Try3's post above to see if that's causing the problem. At this point is sounds the most plausible since Explorer works with the un-mapped but not the mapped.

I'm going to un-map the drive and re-mapped with the letter 'Z' as I can almost be certain no other disk has ever been assigned that letter.

- - - Updated - - -

And no such luck, un-mapped 'G:' and re-mapped the drive with the letter 'Z:' still can't copy files.

let us know once you collect/confirm the 4 so far recommended actions:

1. search event viewer for clues
2. allow BUILTIN\EVERYONE on remote share ( Account = Everyone )
3. Adjust maximum allowed share connection
4. Adjust drive letter etc. as explained in link posted by @Try3

In any case unless you authenticate to remote host I think you can't do anything regardless of share permissions.

I think scripting host is one process and Windows explorer is another process, according to your description, Windows explorer is authenticated with XP Admin password which works, but what about scripting host? or what ever process is trying to access remote share. (and under which account does it run?)

Event viewer can answer/confirm this issue because again I'm not sure but that's the first thing I would be after.