Drives

In NetWare, the user can assign each of the letters of the alphabet (from A to Z) to a drive. NetWare recognizes 26 drives. The NetWare drives are not physical drives, but logical drives. Each of the alphabets is a pointer that points to a particular directory in the file structure.

Local Drive

By default, NetWare assigns alphabets A to E to local workstation drives, i.e. floppy disk drives and hard disk drives. Thus, NetWare assumes that a workstation can have a total of 5 floppy disks drives and hard disk drives. These drives are called local drives since they are local to the workstation.

Network Drives

Drives F to J are assigned as the network drives. Drive F is the first network drive. That is why in NetWare installations, after you give the IPX and NETx commands, you change to the F drive.

In a typical NetWare setup, a file server may contain several volumes, and each volume may contain several directories and subdirectories. Each user may need to access directories and subdirectories in two or even three volumes. There would be three or four directories or subdirectories that a user would need to access frequently. For example, if you need to switch from

NUT\SYS:USERS\JOHN
to
NIIT\SYS:PUBLIC\FOXPRO

You can use a pointer that would point to a given directory in a given volume. Therefore, in the example given above, the user would need to use a pointer that points to the directory NIIT/SYS:PUBLIC/FOXPRO. This can be done with the help of MAP command. To point to the above directory, you need to give the command

MAP G: = SYS:PUBLIC\FOXPRO

Now, no matter which directory you are working in, you just need to give the command G: and you would be in the directory SYS:PUBLIC/FOXPRO. Note that you need not specify the server name. You have mapped the directory SYS:PUBLIC\FOXPRO onto drive G. You can similarly map other directories that you use frequently on drives H, I and J.

A drive here is a logical indicator that points to a particular directory.

Search Drives

A mapped search drive allows you to execute program files even if these files are in a directory other than the one in which the user is currently working. When a directory containing one or more executable program files is search-mapped on to a given drive, then these programs can be executed from any directory. If there is a program file called FOX.EXE that resides in the subdirectory FOXPRO in the directory PUBLIC in the volume SYS, you would need to search-map the directory SYS:PUBLIC\FOXPRO onto a search drive. NetWare looks for the program file FOX.EXE (which is in SYS:PUBLIC\FOXPRO) in the current directory and, in case it does not find it there, it would look for the file in all the search drives that have been mapped till the file FOX.EXE is found. In NetWare, the 16 alphabets from K to Z are designated as search drives. Thus, theoretically, you can assign search drives to search for program files in as many as 16 directories.

If you want to search map the file FOX.EXE in FOXPRO on to a search drive, you need to give the MAP command

MAP SEARCH1: = SYS:PUBLIC\FOXPRO

Now the command FOX can be given to execute the file from your current directory. NetWare assigns search drives, in reverse order of alphabets, i.e. drive Z is search mapped first, then drive Y, and so on.

Again, search drives are not drives in the DOS sense. They are pointers that help you point to a directory that contains program files so that you can access these files quickly.

It is not necessary that drives H to Z need to be used only for mapping search drives. They can be used for mapping network drives too, in case you run out of drives for mapping network directories. In case you have mapped all these drives, you can assign K, L, M and so on, to map directories.

Note: As soon as the user logs out, NetWare erases the mappings.

Displaying Mapped Drives

You may have mapped several network drives to directories, and may have search-mapped several search drives. To know how and where the drives have been mapped, the command MAP can be given at the command prompt. This will display the screen as follows:

Drive A: maps to a local disk
Drive B: maps to a local disk
Drive C: maps to a local disk
Drive D: maps to a local disk
Drive E: maps to a local disk
Drive F:= NIIT\SYS:\LOGIN
Drive G:= NIIT\SYS:\PUBLIC\WINDOWS
SEARCH1:=Z:.[NIIT\SYS:\PUBLIC\FOXPRO]

Drive G has been mapped on to PUBLICWVINDOWS in SYS volume. Only one search drive (Z) has been mapped.

Inserting and Deleting Drive

Assume that the MAP command displays the following information on drives:

Drive A: maps to a local disk
DriveB: maps to a local disk
DriveC: maps to a local disk
Drive F:=NIIT\SYS:\USER8
Drive G:=NIIT\SYS:\PUBLIC\WINDOWS
SEARCH1:=Z:.[NIIT\SYS:\PUBLIC]
SEARCH2:=Y:.[NIIT\SYS:\PUBLIC\WP]
SEARCH3:=X:.[NIIT\SYS:\ACCREC]

If you would like to change the search drive mappings, you can use the INS option with the MAP command. For instance, search drive 3 currently points to the subdirectory \ACCREC. If it is to refer to the subdirectory \PUBLIC\FOXPRO, the command

MAP INS SEARCH3:=NIIT\SYS:PUBLIC\FOXPRO

will ensure that it does.

The option INS maps the next available search drive to \PUBLIC\FOXPRO, in this case search drive W:. The command further converts X: to search drive 4 and assigns W: to search drive 3. The MAP command would now display the following

Drive A: maps to a local disk
DriveB: maps to a local disk
DriveC: maps to a local disk
Drive F:=NIIT\SYS:\USER8
Drive E: =NIIT\SYS: \PUBLIC\WINDOWS
SEARCH1: =Z:.[NIIT\SYS:\PUBLIC]
SEARCH2: =Y:.[NIIT\SYS:\PUBLIC\WP]
SEARCH3:=W:.[NIIT\SYS:\PUBLIC\FOXPRO]
SEARCH4: =X:. [NIITXSYS: \ACCREC]

To delete a network drive or search path, the DEL or REM option can be used.

For instance, if you issue the command

MAP DEL SEARCH4:
or
MAP REM SEARCH4:

search drive 4 will be removed and the message

'Mapping for X: has been deleted'

will be displayed.