Fix errors when connecting a network hard drive in Windows

Keep in mind that everything related to remote work in current teams is more than the order of the day. In this way we work in the cloud, we use computers from a local network, we print remotely, we use information from hard drives are installed on other computers. It is precisely in these latest devices that we want to focus on these same lines.

Reasons why a network hard drive can cause problems

The first thing to know is that all external devices on your computer use specific network drivers. Drivers are usually assigned at system startup and this makes the computer recognize them. But sometimes there can be certain problems when assigning the remote units to our team.

How could it be otherwise this translates into certain faults not being able to reconnect all network drives to our computer. In the same way, you can give some failures in what refers to the connectivity or architecture of the network itself, something that the administrator of the same is usually in charge of.

At the same time we can find errors that result in a delay in the connection of the unit. This can also occur if a external device It is faulty or disconnected at its original source. Regardless of the problems that we might encounter when trying to work with a network disk drive, there are several solutions to solve these errors.

How to troubleshoot network drives

As we say, if we find some kind of problem or failure when trying use a network-connected hard drive, we have several solutions. At this point we recommend that you try the ones that we will explain below one by one in order to find the one that solves your specific failure. Keep in mind that these errors that we are talking about are much more common than we would like, and they are almost always due to the same thing.

Force network wait in Windows

This may be the case because Windows is trying to map the drives before they are available. Thus, we can force the system to wait for the network in question. For this we have to change the local group policy, something that we do not have available in the Home edition of Windows.

If we have a Pro or Enterprise, we can use the Win + R key combination to open the run box and type the command gpedit.msc. Now the local group policy editor window opens. We click on Computer Configuration and click on Administrative Templates. Then we select System and finally click on Login. In the panel on the right now we find always wait for the network to initialize at the start of the computer. We right-click and select the Edit option, where we enable the functionality. Now we only have to restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Disconnect the network drive

Sometimes disconnect all network drives connected to the equipment, it can be the most effective solution to solve the error we are facing. That is why below we explain how you can do it. The first thing will be to open a File Explorer window, where we right-click on the This computer option. Next, in the contextual menu, click on Disconnect network drive.

After this step we locate the network drive that has the trouble and we right-click on it, to opt for the Disconnect option. It must be said that normally the problematic unit has a red icon in the shape of an X. Now we only have to restart the computer and the network will only map the connected devices.

Reconnect the physical external drive

On several occasions and it is quite common, after thinking about various somewhat complex solutions, we realize that the simplest in the end was the best. And it is that the error that we are talking about now, can be caused by an external device that is disabled at that time. Hence precisely, when trying to connect to it from our computer, the screen failure appears.

Thus, a possible solution may lie in something as simple as physically reconnecting the drive. In this way, when connect unit correctly, that allows the computer to reassign it and the fault disappears.

Disable notifications at Windows startup

Simply turning off Windows notifications can also help fix the error with network drives. this is something we are going to do from the system registry editor. To enter it we have to use the Win + R key combination and type regedit in the Run box.

Once the registry editor window appears on the screen, we have to locate the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/NetworkProvider

Next, in the right pane we double click on the entry called Restore Connection and set its value at zero. In the event that this entry is not available at first we will have to create it manually. We right-click on the right panel and select New / DWORD Value (32 bits).

We give it the mentioned name of Restore Connection and we assign the value zero. Now we only assign the value to ourselves, it remains to restart the computer for the changes to take effect.