We can map network drives on our computer. It is very useful and many users take it into account. This allows us to have a storage medium where we can create backup copies, store files that we can easily open from the computer, as if it were a hard drive belonging to that computer. Basically it acts as one more unit of that computer, but it is physically in another device, although we can access it normally. However, sometimes users have problems and the network drive is continuously disconnected. We will explain how we can avoid it.
How to prevent the network drive from disconnecting
This problem can be annoying. We can see that the network drive keeps disconnecting in Windows 10. It is a common problem that appears when restarting the computer, for example. We have the possibility to carry out some simple actions to avoid it. It must be taken into account that it is the most used operating system on desktop computers, so many users may be affected by this issue and we must take measures to avoid it.
Configure the network card
If the network card is not correctly configured, it may happen that when the computer is restarted, the network drives are automatically disconnected. This is common, but can be easily solved by simply changing some parameters. As we always say, we must keep network devices correctly configured and updated to avoid problems that affect performance and also security.
To do this we have to go to Start, look for Device Manager, click on Network adapters, select the one that interests us and click with the second mouse button to enter Properties. Once here you have to click on Power Management and make sure that the option “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save energy” is not activated.
We have to apply the changes and then restart the computer for them to take effect. This way you will not turn off the network card to save power.
Disable offline files
Another option we have to prevent the network drive from continuously disconnecting is to disable offline files . Windows allows users to keep files offline on network drives. However, this could have technical problems and cause this error that we want to solve.
This time we are going to go to Start again, enter the Control Panel and look for Synchronization Center.
Later we have to give the last of the options that appear to us. Manage files offline. We have to make sure that it is disabled.
Reset network credentials
One cause that could also be behind network drives getting disconnected is something wrong with network credentials. What we are going to do in this case is reset them. In this way they will restart and we can avoid certain problems, including this one that we deal with in this article.
To do this we have to go to Start, write Credential Manager and open it. Two options will appear and we have to select Windows Credentials . We have to select the credentials of that network drive and we give it to delete.
Once this is done we have to restart the system and when we start it we go back to the Windows Credentials, but this time we give Add a Windows credential. We follow the following steps and complete it. This way we will have successfully reset the credentials and we will be able to check if it has really served so that this error does not appear in the system.
Reset the network
Another alternative that we can consider to correct problems such as network drives being disconnected is to reset the network. Sometimes there could be some kind of failure if we have installed a VPN, for example. We can solve this in a simple way.
To restore the network in Windows 10 we have to go to Start, we go to Settings, we go to Network and Internet, we click on Status and once inside we have to go to the bottom. There we will see the Network Reset button. We have to access and hit Reset now. The computer will restart.
The act of resetting the network in Windows can be very useful to solve faults of this type that can appear on occasions. This could happen if, for example, we have configured something recently and some kind of problem has been generated. It could lead to the devices connected to the network and the programs that we also have connected, having problems to function properly. Hence, we can take into account this option that is available in Windows 10 and that we can carry out in a simple and fast way.
Disable fast system startup
Quick Start is useful to speed up the system startup process. This causes the operating system to interrupt certain network related operations and cause this error where network drives go offline in Windows. It is one of the problems that can appear if we enable this option.
We can easily disable it. To do this we have to go to Start, look for Power Plan and open it. We click on the option to Choose the behavior of the start / stop buttons. There we have to uncheck the option Activate fast start. It appears as we can see in the image below.
When we have unchecked this option we simply have to accept and restart the computer. From that moment on, it will start normally, without this option being enabled. We can see if the problem is fixed and the network drive does not disconnect.
In short, these are some steps that we can carry out to avoid the problem of the network drive disconnecting in Windows 10. As we have seen, there are different alternatives that we can perform in a simple way if we see that this problem appears in our equipment and we cannot use it normally.
