In today’s era, businesses must get what they are looking for right when a customer calls them over a telephone. A little delay of just a few minutes can cost businesses to lose new potential customers. With the onset of new file sharing and networking technologies, folder mapping has allowed organizational needs to be handled more efficiently than the traditional ways. Folder mapping gives businesses access to the information without having physical access to the computer that hosts it. It completely eliminates the need of an external device (such as, a USB stick) to transfer data between different computers.
Mapping refers to the process of creating a shortcut to a particular drive or folder hosted on another machine. It allows the user to access the resources shared on a local network, website or an FTP with an Internet connection. If you’re looking for tips to folder mapping and how to map it yourself, look no further and continue reading this article.
How to Map a Network Folder in Windows
Luckily, mapping a folder in Windows is easy. In order to map a network folder to a local drive, the folder needs to be shared and you must have permission to access it.
To do this, double-click ‘This PC’ icon on your Desktop. Then, click the ‘Map Network Drive’ icon on the toolbar to open the Map Network Drive dialog box.
Now, in the drop-down list, select an unused drive letter for the Network Folder. In the folder text box, enter the pathname pointing to the Shared Network. Alternatively, you can also click the
‘Browse’ button and locate your desired network folder.
Tick the ‘Reconnect at Logon’ box to ensure your computer auto connects to the mapped folder every time you start your computer.
Click ‘Finish’ to create a network drive.
Windows will automatically open it in Windows Explorer. Once it is opened, you will be easily able to access your files in the mapped network folder.
Benefits of Drive Mapping
Ease of Access
The first major benefit of drive mapping is the ease of access. Drive Mapping allows a user to quickly access the mapped drive by visiting the network drive in the ‘My Computer’. The mapped drive is listed amongst other local drives and allows access to shared files within seconds.
Consistency
Another major benefit of drive mapping is consistency. What this means is that it allows the user to access the remote drive whenever he wants, without having to reconnect it each time the computer is turned on. However, if you were to access the mapped drive of the parent computer, which is turned off, it will simply display an error but will not remove the drive itself.
Important Considerations
In case you do not happen to find the folder while browsing, it does mean that the folder does not exist. It might also be that the folder is hidden. Hidden folders typically have a ‘$’ sign at the end.
In addition to that, another reason for not being able to find the server might be related to you not having the permission to access the server file. In such cases, you will need to contact your system administrator.