Drive mapping is how
Microsoft Windows associates a local drive letter (A through Z) with a
shared storage area to another computer (often referred as a File Server) over a
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics ...
. After a drive has been
mapped, a
software application
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
on a
client
Client(s) or The Client may refer to:
* Client (business)
* Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer
* Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuabl ...
's computer can read and write
files from the shared storage area by accessing that drive, just as if that drive represented a local physical
hard disk drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magne ...
.
Drive mapping
Mapped drives are hard drives (even if located on a virtual or cloud computing system, or network drives) which are always represented by names, letter(s), or number(s) and they are often followed by additional strings of data,
directory tree branches, or alternate level(s) separated by a "\" symbol. Drive mapping is used to locate directories, files or objects, and programs or apps, and is needed by end users, administrators, and various other operators or groups.
Mapped drives are usually assigned a letter of the alphabet after the first few taken, such as A:\, B:\ (both of which were historically removable flexible magnetic media drives), C:\ (usually the first or only installed hard disk), and D:\ (which was often an optical drive unit). Then, with the drive and/or directory (letters, symbols, numbers, names) mapped, they can be entered into the necessary address bar/location(s) and displayed as in the following:
Example 1:
C:\level\next level\following level
or
C:\BOI60471CL\Shared Documents\Multi-Media Dept
The preceding location may reach something like a company's multi-media department's database, which logically is represented with the entire string "C:\BDB60471CL\Shared Documents\Multi-Media Dept".
Mapping a drive can be complicated for a complex system. Network mapped drives (on
LANs or
WANs
WANS (1280 AM) is a southern gospel radio station located in Anderson, South Carolina, United States. The station is licensed by the FCC to broadcast with 5 kW. during the daytime and 1 kW. directional at night.
Station history
WANS 12 ...
) are available only when the host computer (File Server) is also available (i.e.
online
In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...
): it is a requirement for use of drives on a
host. All data on various mapped drives will have certain permissions set (most newer systems) and the user will need the particular security authorizations to access it.
Drive mapping over
LAN usually uses the
SMB protocol on Windows or
NFS protocol on
UNIX
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...
/
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
(however UNIX/Linux do not map devices to drive letters as
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
and Windows do). Drive mapping over the Internet usually uses the
WebDAV
WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which allows user agents to collaboratively author contents ''directly'' in an HTTP web server by providing facilities for con ...
protocol. WebDAV Drive mapping is supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
See also
*
Mount (computing)
Mounting is a process by which a computer's operating system makes files and directories on a storage device (such as hard drive, CD-ROM, or network share) available for users to access via the computer's file system.
In general, the process o ...
*
Drive letter assignment
In computer data storage, drive letter assignment is the process of assigning alphabetical identifiers to volumes. Unlike the concept of UNIX mount points, where volumes are named and located arbitrarily in a single hierarchical namespace, dri ...
*
SUBST
In computing, SUBST is a command on the DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows and ReactOS operating systems used for substituting paths on physical and logical drives as virtual drives.
Overview
In MS-DOS, the SUBST command was added with the rel ...
– a command on the DOS, IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows operating systems used for substituting paths on physical and logical drives as virtual drives
*
Disk formatting
Disk formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solid-state drive, floppy disk, memory card or USB flash drive for initial use. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more ne ...
References
Windows architecture
Computer peripherals
Network file systems
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