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Network path unreachable or already in use after Windows update

ignistech
ignistech Computer Science

Sometimes Windows updates can create problems in mapping network drives. It also happens that, irrespective of the update, at the time of writing, I have noticed that if I immediately start the google drive stream version before the computer manages to carry out the drive mapping initialisation, the paths to these drives become unavailable. Read the entire article thoroughly before doing anything.

  1. Make sure that the network drive that is unavailable is active, connected, working, that there are no blockages or limitations in the flow of data to and from this drive (firewall or proxy), and that all necessary services are active.
  2. Close and disable automatic application start-up with windows of all non-Microsoft programmes that mount drives such as google drive and the like.
  3. Locate the network drive letters with the red x on them by clicking on the windows ‘this pc’ icon.
  4. Make sure that all programmes are closed and that you have saved your work, because in the following steps the computer will reboot.
  5. From the CMD command line, opened with administrator privileges, let's assume that the letter Z is the letter you identified earlier and that you will need to replace it with the letter corresponding to the non-working remote drive. Before entering the first command, make sure you know how to remount the drive and that you have all the necessary network information to do so. Then write the following sequence of commands.
    • net use Z: /delete
    • netsh winsock reset
    • netsh int ip reset
    • netsh advfirewall reset
    • netsh winhttp>reset proxy
    • ipconfig /release
    • ipconfig /renew
    • ipconfig /flushdns
    • shutdown -r
  6. At this point, a window will appear informing you that the pc will be restarted in 30 seconds.
  7. Once the pc has rebooted within ‘this pc’ you will no longer find the drive and will have to add it again.

There are many ways around this problem, but I have outlined the method I have applied and which I think is the simplest and most effective. Let me know in the comments what you think.

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