Drive Virtualization?

Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
edited January 2010 in Science & Tech
.... or something.

First of all, HEY EVERYONE! :D:D I'm back.... again. Once again with another random question I haven't been able to figure out on my own so once again I come to my back in the day buddies.. the gurus of Icrontic.

I hope all is well and it looks like the site is still rockin, I love to see everything booming every time I come back to visit.

So here is my question: I'm trying to figure out a way to trick windows explorer in to thinking mapped network drives are real physical drives. Can anyone think of any creative ways of making this happen? I figure there might be some sort of virtualization software out there that might be able to make this happen.

Ultimately I'm trying to trick some 3rd party software in to believing that a network drive is actually a local drive as the software doesn't have the functionality of displaying network drives build in to it.

Thanks all!

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    What happens if you mount the remote share as a directory in one of your physical drives?
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Thrax wrote:
    What happens if you mount the remote share as a directory in one of your physical drives?

    Ahh, very crafty - that may work. However I have no idea how to do that with a UNC path/remote share? I know you can do it with a physical drive in Disk Management....
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2009
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    OH NICE FIND! You're a true ninja. I'm going to try it now, it's "Scanning" my file system (not sure why?) :) It says right in the software that it is "transparent to programs"

    this could work.. thanks Thraxy
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    :(:(:(


    The source (host) folder:

    · must be located on a volume formatted with NTFS 5.0 or higher. NTFS 5.0 is supported on computers with Windows 2000, Windows XP and higher. Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 can read from and write to NTFS 5.0 volumes, but the new features in NTFS 5.0 are disabled under Windows NT 4.0.
    · must be an empty folder, if not the creation of a junction point would make its contents unreachable.

    The destination (target) folder:

    · can be a folder on a FAT or NTFS volume
    · should not be located on a network volume or on a removeable disk.
    · Junction points work best when they are mounted on the same volume.
    · If a junction point is mounted such that the target folder and host folder are on different physical disk resources, the resources must be in the same cluster group. The physical disk resource that contains the host folder should be dependent on the physical disk resource that contains the target folder. If the drive that contains the target folder does not come online, the drive that contains the host folder does not start.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    FUUUUUUU.

    Basically everything I'm reading says that what you're trying to do is impossible.
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Poop :-/

    Ah well, it's not the end of the world. Thanks so much though Thrax - you're on the ball within minutes as always.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited July 2009
    Ok I'm maybe missing something.....

    But if you go into dos and just do

    net use j: \\server\share

    That will make a mapped drive to a letter. If it's just looking for a drive letter that's all you should need to do.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    No, that won't work, it has to be a physical drive. Having a drive letter isn't enough.
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    kryyst, yeah windows treats network drives separately from actual physical drives.

    I'm certain that it could be virtualized just like anything else, but I just don't think anyone has actually done it - I doubt there are many cases where this is useful.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Can you tell us a little more about what you're trying to do ultimately? Maybe we can suggest an alternative. :)
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Yea I'm running an online backup using Mozy and they restrict network access to network drives to force you to purchase one license per computer.. which I completely understand and am more than willing to do - however the folder I want to backup is literally less than a megabyte but located on the network.

    Due to simple logistics in the house here that I won't bother boring you with, it needs to stay on that networked PC and not on the box with Mozy running.

    I'm thinking about just running some backup software on the other pc to push that folder daily to the box running mozy and then have mozy back that up... I was just trying to avoid dealing with the research/setup involved in running new software just for that one folder.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    have you tried making a hard / soft link to the network drive after you've mounted it?
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Ah, yeah. I think you're on the right track.

    Use a batch file to copy it over. You can use the standard windows copy, or robocopy. It's in the Win2k3 Resource Kit. http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en

    Syntax would be something like:
    robocopy SourceFolder DestinationFolder /R:2 /W:2 /E
    

    The folders can be network locations. R = retry count. W = wait interval between retries. E = include all subfolders even if they're empty (use /S) if you just want subfolders with content.

    Create a scheduled task with the batch file, and you're good.

    Or you can use Syncback. The free version is more than sufficient. I'll let you fiddle with that. It will be easier and take less time than trying to trick an app into thinking it has a physical drive attached. :)
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited July 2009
    wonder if you layerd it.

    do net share j: \\server\share
    then
    subst a: j:\

    Subst does create a virtual drive.
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    just tried subst, it creates that same network drive that mozy does not display but thanks!

    robocopy sounds like it should work just fine though - I think i'll go that route

    thanks so much everyone!
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    I still haven't figured this out - I'm going with: Impossible


    OK so screw online backups - Does anyone have suggestions for a really nice local/automated backup tool that will backup files regardless of weather they are currently in use?
  • ButtersButters CA Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Mozy Pro allows you to backup shares. But of course its $$.

    Idrive from what I read backs up networked drives, and is free.
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Butters wrote:
    Mozy Pro allows you to backup shares. But of course its $$.

    Idrive from what I read backs up networked drives, and is free.


    Oh crap are you serious? Only the free version doesn't allow network drives?

    I was just using the free version to test if it would work nicely for the backup solution at my new place.

    Thanks for the info, unfortunately I just wasted a lot of effort haha
  • edited January 2010
    Jammin1911 wrote:
    Oh crap are you serious? Only the free version doesn't allow network drives?

    I was just using the free version to test if it would work nicely for the backup solution at my new place.

    Thanks for the info, unfortunately I just wasted a lot of effort haha

    I have mozy pro, but it doesn´t allow access to network drives to.
    Did you get any other way to do this?
  • Jammin1911Jammin1911 Icrontian
    edited January 2010
    eversdn wrote:
    I have mozy pro, but it doesn´t allow access to network drives to.
    Did you get any other way to do this?

    Never figured it out :(
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