Windows Server 2003 Network Drive Problem

theheyes · 24 Sep 2008 at 23:04

I flipped a coin as to putting this in the server/enterprise forum so bear with me if it's in the wrong place.

I have a Windows Server 2003 PC at work which is set up with a few drives, Public, Photos etc. I've had a few new installs to do lately and I'm having trouble mapping a particular network drive. The "Public" folder maps fine, no trouble. However the "Photos" folder, which as far as I can tell has exactly the same permissions associated with it, just will not work. When I try to map it, the drive appears in My Computer but just says "Access denied". So, assuming this is a permissions thing, I log in as administrator and try to map the drive. It works.

Now, I obviously can't go around giving everybody administrator accounts. Also there are non-admin accounts already on the network that can access the drive, and I have checked the security tab for the folder and the "Staff" user group is listed as having full read/write permission. I'm new to Windows 2003 so does anyone have a quick list of things to check? As I may be missing something obvious.

P.S. I'm not being lazy, I have looked on the Web before I posted. Unfortunately I haven't come across anything helpful. If anyone has a good link they know of please share.

Thanks everyone.

IAmATeaf · 25 Sep 2008 at 12:30

Bring up the properties for the Share and then then click the Permissions button, by default it should be set to Everyone - Read so change that that to either Everyone - Full or add your group with with the required permissions.

theheyes · 25 Sep 2008 at 19:54

Yep, both the group in question and Everyone have full permissions. It's really weird. I rebooted the server to see if that made a difference (it didn't). Thanks for trying though.

I actually had this problem at home trying to share a drive between a Vista and an XP machine and your solution worked in that case. The strange thing is if I log in as myself (administrator) I can map the drive no problem. It seems to be some standard account issue. I think I may have to get someone with experience in to have a look at it but if anyone else has any ideas in the meantime let me know.

Cheers.

oddjob62 · 25 Sep 2008 at 21:38

You need to set the Share permissions AND the NTFS permissions, have you done that?

theheyes · 25 Sep 2008 at 22:55

I'll check, but as far as I know the server permissions are fine. I didn't set the server up (only been in the job 3 weeks) but the permissions look exactly the same as another folder that maps with no problem. Trying to think like the previous technician, there would be no reason to configure these two folders differently as the distinction between "Public" and "Photos" is purely for organisation; they are for everyone on the network. There are also existing users in the same group on the network who can access the folder fine (these were set up before I arrived though, so if the previous guy jumped though a hoop I don't know of is the million dollar question).

It's just really bizarre having two (seemingly) identical folders, one will map and the other won't. It's a real head scratcher. Thanks for your comment though I will try it tomorrow.

theheyes · 26 Sep 2008 at 12:47

Fixed it, although I don't know why. In the Security tab in the properties window of the drive in question, the User Group of the staff member in question is defined as having full control. On the odd chance it would work I added her username explicitly in the list, and lo and behold now the drive maps without issue.

Thanks for you input guys, it's appreciated.