Unable to connect network drives: How to avoid this message? Today we have a wide range of options for connecting to the Internet. We have more and more devices with access to the network and we can even connect between them. For example, we are talking about hard disks, servers, printers… This brings us a series of interesting benefits and helps us to have everything with greater accessibility. However, sometimes problems can arise. The computer may not detect a device that we connect, or the drivers may not be correctly installed, etc. We are going to explain what to do if the message that the network drives could not be connected appears and we do not want it to appear again.
Networked computers are very common
It is very common to have devices that are connected to the network. This is going to allow them to be used from other devices that are connected, whether they are computers, mobiles, tablets, or any other. We have more and more devices of what is known as the Internet of Things. More devices are part of our daily lives.
These devices can be connected both through cable and wireless networks. The operation is similar and the errors that may appear may be equally present. Sometimes a misconfiguration would affect the operation of the equipment. Also a problem with the hardware, the software we use to manage it, or even a malware attack.
In any case, having computers connected to the network is very common nowadays and therefore it is ideal that they work properly. We must make sure that when we connect it will show us the information as it should, it will allow us to interact with other devices and, in short, it will serve the purpose for which it is intended.
But of course, as we have mentioned, sometimes they malfunction and there are problems. These errors can be due to different reasons. Sometimes we would not be able to use them normally. But it can also be the case that the error message it throws is actually useless and we want to prevent it from appearing.
The network drives could not be connected
This is a message that can appear in Windows 10, the most used operating system in desktop computers when we start it and it does not recognize a network drive or for some reason, it cannot connect it again. It is usually some disk, for example, that tries to mount and is not available at that time. This could affect the performance of the computer and even when using some programs that may be installed there. That’s why it launches this alert.
It is very common for example if we have a NAS server installed. We use it as an additional drive to store files and it acts as if it were another hard drive. However, in case it is disconnected or if there is an error, the operating system would throw a message saying that all the network drives could not be connected. This alerts us that there is something wrong so that we can take action.
Normally, the operating system has mapped that drive. Thus, automatically, every time we start it, it will recognize it and it will be available. However, there could be a wide variety of problems that prevent the system from being able to use that drive at any given time. It could even happen that we voluntarily turn it off.
What can we do to prevent this message from appearing? If we go back to the example above, it could be that we do not want the NAS server to be always on. We simply decide to connect it when we are going to use it and the rest of the time we have it turned off. But of course, Windows will try to connect it automatically. If it is turned off it will throw a message indicating that it could not connect all the network drives. Luckily this is easy to remove.
How to avoid the error message on network drives?
Avoiding this annoying message in Windows 10 is very simple. It is possible that we do not want to get this information every time we start the computer and we do not have the NAS server connected, for example.
To do this we are going to use the Windows Registry. We can access it through different methods, but the easiest is to simply press the key combination Windows+R and type regedit. We can also go to Start and type it there and open it. This is the Registry Editor, from where we can carry out some changes in the operating system.
Once we are here, we have to go to the path ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlNetworkProvider. Simply navigate from the left pane until you reach this point.
When we are here we are going to create a new registry value. To do this we click on NetworkProvider with the second mouse button, hit New and DWORD Value (32bits).
The name we have to give to this registry we are creating is RestoreConnection. We do not need to give it any value different from the default (0). If we double click on it we will be able to corroborate that it is well configured, as it appears in the image below.
And there is nothing else to do. We only have to close the Windows Registry and that’s it. If we restart the computer, we will see that this message does not appear anymore. It will no longer indicate that all the network drives could not be connected.
If at some moment we want to revert the situation and that it returns to alert us of it, simply it is necessary to follow the steps again. As we do with any change in the Windows Registry, we would have to go again to the exact route and eliminate that registry that we created.
A dialog box will appear as we can see in the image above and we would only have to accept. Automatically this registry is eliminated and everything returns to the previous state. We will be able to restart the computer and we will see that the changes have taken effect.
In short, if we find annoying the message that Windows shows us when it cannot connect to a network drive, we can avoid it. It is necessary to follow the steps that we have mentioned and to modify the Windows Registry. It is a simple and fast process. In a short time, we will have changed it.
