Microsoft KB Archive/47805

“Error Reading Drive …” with Word 5.00 on a Novell Network

PSS ID Number: Q47805 Article last modified on 11-02-1994

5.00

MS-DOS

= SUMMARY =

On a Novell network, the message “Error reading drive or directory” can be received if Word is not started with a /N parameter (i.e., WORD/N) the first time it is run on a workstation.

This will always occur if the user startup directory is located on a different network volume than the volume that contains the Word 5.00 program files, and you have not used the /N switch when starting Word.

A common example exists where the Novell server contains multiple hard disks. Each disk, by defualt, represents a volume. If your Word Program files are located on the default volume, “SYS:”, and your startup directory is on a different volume, e.g. “SYS1:”, if you do not start Word with WORD/N when you will receive this error message attempt to enumerate with F1 when performing a Transfer Load.

The /N parameter is stored in the MW.INI file in each user’s startup directory, and need not be invoked again unless the MW.INI file is erased.

The /N switch causes Word 5.00 to change the way it makes certain calls to DOS to avoid a conflict with the Novell environment. As a result, it enables Word 5.00 to properly save and load files to and from a network server’s physical and logical drives.

KBCategory: kbother kbnetwork kberrmsg KBSubcategory: Additional reference words: ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1994.