Windows 7 - Mapped Drive Not Connecting at Startup

I searched the forums, but didn't find a match to this problem.

On startup, I get the message shown below. If I open Explorer the network drive is shown with a red "X" through it. If I click the network drive, it connects and displays the contents without an issue. If I run any application that needs files on that drive before clicking it in Explorer, it will say the resource is unavailable.

What appears to be happening is Windows tries to reconnect to the drive before the network connection is reestablished. I believe this to be the case because the network icon in the system tray is still showing the animation for establishing the network connection when the message pop's up. There is no issue with authentication or password's, etc., as the drive connects as soon as I click on it.

My question is, does anybody know of a way to set the mapped drive reconnection farther back in the boot sequence or add a longer wait state to it so it doesn't time out before the network connection is reestablished.?

I don't think this is an issue here. Mapped network shares often get disconnected for a variety of reasons, the destination machine might have been restarted, connections to that machine might have been resetted due to limit exceed, network interruptions, you logged off etc. Once disconnected, i don't know if the system can reconnect until you initiated it by clicking on it manually.

Actually it is an issue. This doesn't occur on my XP machines or on my Mac running OS/X. I'm not talking about it getting disconnected; I'm talking about not connecting to the share when the Win 7 machine boots.

As I said before, it looks like a timing issue, with Windows trying to connect to the share before the network connection has been established.

I don't see manually double clicking to re-activate mapping of share as an issue. As i said there is a reason for Windows not be able to re-connect. Maybe if you can give an example of your network share you think Windows 7 should be able to connected at all times, once pc restarted, then we can discuss further. Some disconnection types, i'm 100% sure cannot be re-established without user initiation.

Vista does the same thing. I think the issue is related to authentication. What OS are you connecting to, and does it require a password? You could write script, or I could write it for you, and put it in the start up folder of the user. If you decide to write it, make sure to put the persistent switch in it. Also make sure to put the username and password in the script as well. Another thing you could do, create a user account that matches the one that is assigned to the computer you are mapping to. Use the same password as well. Let me know if you need further help.
Here is an example of the script
net use Z: \\computeryouwantomapto\folderyouwanttoconnecto /user:nameofpersonwithrightstothefolder [theirpassword] /perisistent:yes

I have the same problem, I an HP media server which I have all are company files on, also startup files. Well when I want to run ADT2006 the profile files are on the server and with the network has a red X on it and the program will not run, it go into default setup. I need a way to keep the link between the mapped drive and windows 7 to always be open with out always clicking on the drive to open it.

Possible cure for this problem at TechNet. Look to Bottom of page, this fix sets up a delay so that the mapped drives aren't accessed until you click on them. I don't have this problem so I can't test it out on Win 7 but it's the only fix I found for the problem.

Help! Howto delay maping drive until network is up?

To faxedhead below, you just reposted the link that was on the bottom of the page which I already posted.

You can download the utility here . If you are the one who wrote this utility then hats off to you.

This is a truely annoying and longstanding issue that is still a problem in Windows 7. I have written a small executable that solves the problem for me by allowing you to specify a timeout up until which the program will keep trying to map the drive until it is successful. I have taken this approach after some fairly extensive research.

You can download the utility here.

Microsoft fix in Vista Forum. Works with Windows 7 also. Click on text below. Not sure why the link didn't show but it will still take you there.

After you turn on User Account Control in Windows Vista, programs may be unable to access some network locations

After reboot if you still see the warning, disconnect your mapped drives and then re-map. Do another reboot and that should fix it.

Thank you so much, this has soloved the biggest problem I have run across with vista and Windows 7. This is going to help so many more people I know with the same problem.

Thanks again