Basically mapping drives is assigning a letter to a disk or drive. Mapping drive usually means connecting to a server share, network share with documents or anything else you may need. A server share in fact is a shared folder on any computer in the network which is being shared. When you Map a Drive, it means that you want access shared folder on your computer, which is done by mapping it a letter: X,Y,Z etc.
Note: network mapped drives are available only if the computer host computer is on-line.
How to Map a Network Drive In Windows XP:
1. Open "My Computer" > in the menu bar click on "Tools" and choose "Map Network Drive...":
2. In the opened window select the letter for mapped drive from the drop-down list and and specify shared folder on the network using UNC path (Universal Name Convention or
Uniform Naming Convention)sinto the folder. First use "\\" two slaches and then the computer name - "\\sharedPC" - or computer IP-address - "\\192.168.1.10" - and then another "\" followed by the shared fodler name - \\sharedPC\sharedfolder or \\192.168.1.10\sharedfolder.
Check the "Reconnect at logon" check-box to connect mapped drive at every logon, i.e. to make the connection permanent, even if the computer is restared.
If you are not sure about shared folder name - you can browse it using "Browse" button.
After adding mapped drive it appears in "My Computer" and can be accessed as a common drive:
