Microsoft KB Archive/314449

= HOW TO: Mount a Volume at an NTFS Folder in Windows 2000 =

PSS ID Number: 314449

Article Last Modified on 12/3/2003

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

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This article was previously published under Q314449



IN THIS TASK

 * SUMMARY
 * ** Requirements
 * Mount a Volume
 * Unmount a Volume



SUMMARY
This step-by-step article describes how to mount and unmount a volume at an NTFS folder. A mounted drive is a drive that is mapped to an empty folder on a volume that uses the NTFS file system. Mounted drives function as any other drives, but they are assigned drive paths instead of drive letters. When you view a mounted drive in Windows Explorer, it appears as a drive icon in the path in which it is mounted. Because mounted drives are not subject to the 26-drive-letter limit for local drives and mapped network connections, use mounted drives when you want to gain access to more than 26 drives on your computer. For example, if you have a CD-ROM drive with the drive letter E, and an NTFS volume with the drive letter F, mount the CD-ROM drive as F:\CD-ROM. You can then free the drive letter E, and gain access to your CD-ROM drive directly by using F:\CD-ROM.

You can also use mounted drives when you need additional storage space on a volume. If you map a folder on that volume to another volume with available disk space (for example, two gigabytes), you extend the storage space of the volume by two gigabytes (GB). With mounted drives, you are not limited by the size of the volume in which the folder is created.

Mounted drives make your data more accessible and give you the flexibility to manage data storage based on your work environment and system usage. These are additional examples for which you can use mounted drives:
 * To provide additional disk space for your temporary files, you can make the c:\Temp folder a mounted drive.
 * When space starts to run low on drive C, you can move the My Documents folder to another drive with more available disk space, and then mount it as c:\My Documents.

Use the Disk Management snap-in to mount a drive on a folder on a local volume. The folder in which you mount the drive must be empty, and must be located on a basic or dynamic NTFS volume.

IMPORTANT: Do not mount a volume or volumes on a Windows 2000 cluster server.

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Requirements

 * You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the administrators group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.
 * At least one available NTFS-formatted disk volume must be available on your computer.

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Mount a Volume
To mount a volume at an NTFS folder:
 * 1) Create an empty folder on an NTFS-formatted drive (for example, c:\MyFolder).
 * 2) Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage. You can also start the Computer Management utility from the Administrative Tools folder in Control Panel.
 * 3) In Computer Management, click Disk Management under the Storage node.
 * 4) In the details pane, right-click the volume to be mounted, and then click Change Drive Letter and Path.
 * 5) In the Change Drive Letter and Paths for dialog box, click Add.
 * 6) Click Mount in this NTFS folder (if it is not already selected), and then use one of the following steps:
 * 7) * Type the path to an empty folder on an NTFS volume, and then click OK.
 * 8) * Click Browse, locate the empty NTFS folder, click OK, and then click OK.
 * 9) * If you have not yet created an empty folder, click Browse, click New Folder to create an empty folder on an NTFS volume, type a name for the new folder, click OK, and then click OK.

To mount a volume from the command line, do the following:
 * 1) Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
 * 2) At the command prompt, type mountvol [drive:]pathVolumeGUID, and then press ENTER. For example, mountvol c:\ntfs_dir \\?\Volume{053db088-b6fb-11d4-b080-806d6172696f} , where c:\ntfs_dir is an empty folder on an NTFS volume, and \\?\Volume{053db088-b6fb-11d4-b080-806d6172696f} is the VolumeGUID of the volume you want to mount.

NOTE: For more information about the mountvol command, type mountvol help at the command line, and then press ENTER.

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Unmount a Volume
When you unmount a volume from an NTFS folder, Windows 2000 removes the mounted volume, but leaves the folder in place. To remove a mount point from a volume:
 * 1) In Computer Management, click Disk Management under the Storage node.
 * 2) In the details pane, right-click the NTFS volume to be unmounted, and then click Change Drive Letter and Path.
 * 3) In the Change Drive Letter and Paths for dialog box, click the mount point you want to remove, and then click Remove.
 * 4) Click Yes when you are prompted to remove the drive path.

To unmount the volume from the command line:
 * 1) Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
 * 2) At the command prompt, type mountvol [drive:]path /d, and then press ENTER.

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Keywords: kbenv kbhowto kbHOWTOmaster KB314449

Technology: kbwin2000AdvServ kbwin2000AdvServSearch kbwin2000DataServ kbwin2000DataServSearch kbwin2000Pro kbwin2000ProSearch kbwin2000Search kbwin2000Serv kbwin2000ServSearch kbWinAdvServSearch kbWinDataServSearch

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