Way too many network drives (HELP) 3

[AndyHo]

Had a machine crash (I suspect someone put their foot on a cable) as it booted. Reult was it created a set of network drives from G to Z and pointed them all at one folder on the server. When you try and get rid of them (and they appear for all users of the machine) it says "the network connection could not be found" and you can not get rid of them. Tried a few of the usual tricks but to no avail. Any ideas about removing them???????????????/

 

[teckystuff]

did you try the following from a command prompt:
net use G: /delete
etc, etc

 

[AndyHo]

Net use says that there are no network drives connected. But in "my compter" they are on every drive except A,B,C,D and are apparenty disconected. It won't delete them because it says they aren't there!!!!!!!!!!!

Andy

 

[wolluf]

What if you try to map another folder to one of these drive letters - will it let you - and if it does, and you then disconnect it, has it got rid of spurious one too?

 

[linney]

A couple of old posts with solutions offered to deleting mapped drives.

Deleting mapped drives
thread779-1038521

XP will not some mapped drives.
thread779-1098730

 

[AndyHo]

I've looked at the Microsoft site and tried to find them in regedit. No progress there. It won't let you use the drives for anything else. I'm literally stuck with about 23 useless network drives???

I checked the other posts but the registry details don't match.

HELP

Andy

 

[teckystuff]

Have you done the usual check for Malware and Viruses?

What folder are they all pointing too? Is there anything special in the folder. Try rename or delete this folder and try and remove the mappings again.

 

[linney]

Some general things to try.

Try Disk Cleanup to remove any Temp Files etc.

See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Mapped Drives.

Try Safe Mode (Do you have this problem in Safe Mode?).

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

If they don't work you could try repairing windows by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

 

[AndyHo]

Finally solved it. Not sure which action actually removed the drives but a System Restore initially failed to run (after the restart) BUT after running Adaware it worked and all is now well.

Thanks for all your help.

Andy

 

[teckystuff]

Glad you got it sorted