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How to Map a Network Drive on Windows 10 and 11

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If you've lost access to one of your network drive spaces, including your departmental share drive (S:) or your NCSU home (B:) drive, or if you're looking to map these drives for the first time, follow the instructions below.

These instructions are for Windows 10 and 11.  If you need to map a network drive on a Mac, please see these instructions.

1. Connect to the VPN

In order to map to a network drive, you must first connect to the NC State VPN.

2. Determine a Drive Path

The drive path is the address of the directory to which you are attempting to connect.  You will need this drive path in Step 5 of the next section.

For a Personal (B:) Drive: You will use \\ncsudrive.ncsu.edu\home\

For a Departmental Share (S:) Drive: You will use \\ncsudrive.ncsu.edu\oitmd\clients\DEPTSHARE\ where DEPTSHARE is replaced with the name of your share.  Your share name must be capitalized! Please see this list for help determining your department's share name.

3. Connect to the Network Drive

  1. Open File Explorer on your computer.
  2. Navigate to This PC
  3. Select Map Network Drive for your version of Windows.

    Windows 10
    Image of File Explorer application, directing users where to click to map a network drive

    Windows 11


  4. In the prompt that appears, choose a drive letter.  
    • B: is typically used for personal drives and S: is typically used for departmental drives, although the drive letter choice is arbitrary.
  5. Under the drive letter, type the drive path you determined in the previous section of these instructions.
    • If connecting to a departmental share drive, your share name must be capitalized!
  6. Select both Reconnect at sign-in and Connect using different credentials
  7. Select Finish

    An image which highlights the specific areas of the Map Network Drive prompt which need to be edited so that a user can connect to their drive.

  8. When prompted for a username, type wolftech\Unity ID where Unity ID is replaced with your personal Unity ID.
  9. Enter your password.
  10. Select OK.
  11. Your network drive will then be listed underneath This PC.