Can I mount a share to a folder and NOT a drive letter?

I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions too.

I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how to
mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do. Instead I
want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that even possible?
I have searched online and others have asked this only to be told how to
map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.

Thanks,
John

--
John Mayson <>
Austin, Texas, USA

I think the featureis called folder redirection and requiresa server.

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..
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"John Mayson" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions too.
>
> I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how to
> mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do. Instead I
> want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that even possible?
> I have searched online and others have asked this only to be told how to
> map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.
>
> Thanks,
> John
>
> --
> John Mayson <>
> Austin, Texas, USA

On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:41:39 -0600, John Mayson wrote:

> I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions too.
>
> I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how
> to mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do.
> Instead I want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that
> even possible? I have searched online and others have asked this only to
> be told how to map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.
>
> Thanks,
> John

On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.

ray wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:41:39 -0600, John Mayson wrote:
>
>> I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions too.
>>
>> I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how
>> to mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do.
>> Instead I want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that
>> even possible? I have searched online and others have asked this only to
>> be told how to map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> John
>
> On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.

So can you on Windows with NTFS. But the OP wants to mount a network
share to a folder, not the same thing as mounting a disk to a folder.

John

On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:00:26 -0400, John John - MVP wrote:

> ray wrote:
>> On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:41:39 -0600, John Mayson wrote:
>>
>>> I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions
>>> too.
>>>
>>> I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how
>>> to mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do.
>>> Instead I want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that
>>> even possible? I have searched online and others have asked this only
>>> to be told how to map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> John
>>
>> On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.
>
> So can you on Windows with NTFS. But the OP wants to mount a network
> share to a folder, not the same thing as mounting a disk to a folder.
>
> John

Ah yes - can do that too - obviously.

ray wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:00:26 -0400, John John - MVP wrote:
>
>> ray wrote:
>>> On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:41:39 -0600, John Mayson wrote:
>>>
>>>> I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions
>>>> too.
>>>>
>>>> I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how
>>>> to mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do.
>>>> Instead I want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that
>>>> even possible? I have searched online and others have asked this only
>>>> to be told how to map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> John
>>> On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.
>> So can you on Windows with NTFS. But the OP wants to mount a network
>> share to a folder, not the same thing as mounting a disk to a folder.
>>
>> John
>
> Ah yes - can do that too - obviously.

Well, good for you.

John

On Fri, 12 Mar 2010, ray wrote:

> On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.

Exactly! And I do. :-) But I'm finding myself wanting to do that with
Windows 7. Looks like I can't get there from here.

John

--
John Mayson <>
Austin, Texas, USA

"John Mayson" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Fri, 12 Mar 2010, ray wrote:
>
>> On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.
>
> Exactly! And I do. :-) But I'm finding myself wanting to do that with
> Windows 7. Looks like I can't get there from here.

You want to mount what to a folder, a network share or a local drive?

On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:41:39 -0600, John Mayson <>
wrote:

>I am running Windows 7, but this would pertain to earlier versions too.
>
>I have access to a share, I'll call it \\SERVER\Documents. I know how to
>mount that to a drive letter. That is not what I want to do. Instead I
>want to map it to my C:\Users\username\Documents. Is that even possible?
>I have searched online and others have asked this only to be told how to
>map to a drive letter. That's NOT what I want.
>

If you don't have an actual objection to mapping the drive, you could
map \\SERVER\Documents to a letter (e.g. "F:"), then do this:

c:\users\username> mklink /d documents F:\

You would need to make sure \documents does not exist in \username,
which probably means removing the existing documents folder.

Also, I don't know how windows will react to documents being on a
network drive. I see two possible issues: one is windows looking for
documents at some point in startup/login, since it's a moderately
special folder. If windows goes looking for it before the connection
is mapped as part of your login, it might have issues or actually try
to create it.

The second is a speed issue: when an application's File ->Open or
->Save or _>Insert (etc) type operation is engaged, many of them
default to username\documents. Based on my experience doing similar
things in Vista, I'd expect some relatively serious delays. Vista does
not seem to handle network access very well in general and
specifically when doing tricks like this. Win7 might be better.

So, you might have to pilot it a bit. Other folders might not be as
critical, but "documents" is a little different.

On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:14:44 -0600, John Mayson wrote:

> On Fri, 12 Mar 2010, ray wrote:
>
>> On a Linux system, you can mount a disk to any folder you want.
>
> Exactly! And I do. :-) But I'm finding myself wanting to do that with
> Windows 7. Looks like I can't get there from here.
>
> John

I can do it.

Create an empty folder somewhere (but not on the drive you want to mount).
You'll use it at the end.

Get to Disk Management any way you like. I usually click on the start orb,
right click on Computer, & choose Manage (which is slow to appear). Then I
choose Disk Management in there.

Right click on the drive in question, and then choose "Change Drive Letters
and Paths". Click Add and it should be obvious from there.

--
Gene E. Bloch letters0x40blochg0x2Ecom