Troubleshooting the Drive Maps Preference Extension in Group Policy: Adding a Share Name with Trailing Slash '\ Returns Error Code 0x80070035

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This topic looks at why Drive Maps preference extension does not process when the share name contains a trailing slash '\.

Scenario:

The share name is entered in the location text box of the New Drive Properties when creating a Drive Maps preference item with a trailing slash '\, for example, if creating a mapped drive to the NETLOGON share for a domain controller, CONTOSO-DC

\CONTOSO-DC\NETLOGON\

Note the trailing slash.

In this case, the Drive Maps preference extension will fail to map the drive with an error code of 0x80070035.

Solution:

The error code, 0x80070035, resolves to 'network path cannot be found.'

The Group Policy Drive Maps preference extension calls the same APIs as the 'net use' commands.  And if you try to map a drive from the command line with this same share name, you will see the error message.

The reason why it works in the Mapped drive UI and does not work for the Drive Maps preference extension is that the Mapped drive UI removes the trailing slash before calling the APIs for mapping the drive.

Troubleshooting:

If you receive a 'network path cannot be found' error after the Drive Maps preference extension processes, try:

  1. Verify there is not trailing slash '\ at the end of the share name entered in the location text box of the New Drive Properties for the failing Drive Maps preference item.
  2. If there is no trailing slash '\ on the end of the share name then verify the share can be mapped from the command prompt:
    1. Open the command prompt
    2. From the command prompt type 'net use * \computername\sharename' where \computername\sharename represents the share entered in the Drive Maps preference item
  3. If you have verified the share can be mapped on your computer, but it is still failing on some clients, then verify the share can be mapped from the client computer in question:
    1. Remote to the client with the failing Drive Maps preference extension processing
    2. Open the command prompt
    3. From the command prompt type 'net use * \computername\sharename' where \computername\sharename represents the share entered in the Drive Maps preference item.

See Also

Unrelated to the trailing '\ slash problem, Drive Maps preference extension may fail to map the drive when the client computer is running Vista and the user is a local admin. The issue arises due to User Account Control (UAC). This issue has been fixed on later versions of Windows. For more information, see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winserverGP/thread/ccea02b7-341f-4867-913d-4fa934430f9a.

Return to the Group Policy troubleshooting portal on the wiki,
see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2200.wiki-troubleshooting-portal.aspx#Group_Policy