Can't mount a networked path, says that it is already mounted

[jnelsoninjax]

With my desktop out of commission, I am having to use a laptop as my bridge between my CCTV system and the external HDD where I try to keep a backup of all the recorded videos. However, I had the network path of the CCTV system mounted to my desktop, and was using Syncback to copy the files. But now when I try to mount the location to the laptop, I get  a message that says something about the path is already mounted, and when I try PushD via the command line I get the message The specified network path is no available, and I can not access it via Explorer, I can use Remote Connection to access the system, but I can not copy any files across the network. What would the simplest solution be to this problem?

[Steven P. Administrators]

Open Network and Sharing and then Network and Sharing Center (Windows 10) this will let you set preferences if your computer will be discoverable.

 

You can also achieve the same by opening file explorer and then on the left pane, click on Network.. it should ask you if you want to the computer to be discoverable on the local network, because that is disabled by default.

 

In addition, if you are using a laptop, it is likely you are on WiFi, is that on the same LAN as the CCTV system?

 

Finally, not knowing what system the CCTV is running, you should be able to access the share using the path \\devicename\sharename? That even bypasses locally mounted share of the same path to a drive letter (on the same system).

 

But I would check the network sharing permissions on the Windows laptop first.

[jnelsoninjax]

On 03/09/2022 at 15:34, Steven P. said:

Open Network and Sharing and then Network and Sharing Center (Windows 10) this will let you set preferences if your computer will be discoverable.

 

You can also achieve the same by opening file explorer and then on the left pane, click on Network.. it should ask you if you want to the computer to be discoverable on the local network, because that is disabled by default.

 

In addition, if you are using a laptop, it is likely you are on WiFi, is that on the same LAN as the CCTV system?

 

Finally, not knowing what system the CCTV is running, you should be able to access the share using the path \\devicename\sharename? That even bypasses locally mounted share of the same path to a drive letter (on the same system).

 

But I would check the network sharing permissions on the Windows laptop first.

I am not on WiFi, I am connected via Ethernet, the CCTV system is Win 10, I have network discovery turned on, but explorer still refuses to connect to the CCTV system, but I can connect to it via Remote connection, which is odd because I was able to access the system before. I have tried to access it via explorer using \\192.168.1.27 which is the CCTV system and it does respond via ping.

[Steven P. Administrators]

It definitely feels like a security thing, like maybe port blocking or something. Did you try looking up that 0x80004005 error code?

 

 

Well when I type the LAN IP I can't connect either, even when I use the correct credentials, see above).

 

 

 

 But when I type the name of the server, (which is a Synology NAS) I can connect with no problems (also requires user/pass access, which is saved in my account).

[adrynalyne]

Even if it doesn't respond to ping, it should give a request timed out. Does it?

 

 

[theefool]

On the CCTV, is there a firewall?  Perhaps it is only allowing connections based on IP address.

 

Or, from the CCTV can you connect to your laptop?

 

I believe smb uses port 445, so you can ping that from powershell on your laptop:

 

test-netconnection -computername 192.168.1.27 -port 445

Edited September 3, 2022 by theefool

[jnelsoninjax]

On 03/09/2022 at 16:06, adrynalyne said:

Even if it doesn't respond to ping, it should give a request timed out. Does it?

 

 

It does respond to ping

 

On 03/09/2022 at 16:32, theefool said:

On the CCTV, is there a firewall?  Perhaps it is only allowing connections based on IP address.

 

Or, from the CCTV can you connect to your laptop?

Just Windows default firewall, and no I can not access the laptop from the CCTV system (I have tried via IP and computer name), network discovery is enabled on both systems, and the CCTV and the Laptop can access the NAS, but can not access each other.

[Chromate]

Mounted networked driver mounted 'As Administrator' are not seen by standard user and vice-versa.

Start file explorer as sdmin, I'd bet your drive is already mounted.

[theefool]

On 03/09/2022 at 16:46, K2CrO4 said:

Mounted networked driver mounted 'As Administrator' are not seen by standard user and vice-versa.

Start file explorer as sdmin, I'd bet your drive is already mounted.

Or elevated cmd prompt, and run:

 

net use

 

This shows all connections from the admin perspective

 

Or normal cmd prompt running same command.

[theefool]

If you ran the test-connection and that failed, you could try (temporarily) turning off the firewall on the cctv and try your connection again.

[jnelsoninjax]

On 03/09/2022 at 16:46, K2CrO4 said:

Mounted networked driver mounted 'As Administrator' are not seen by standard user and vice-versa.

Start file explorer as sdmin, I'd bet your drive is already mounted.

It is running as admin, there is a mounted volume pointing to my desktop

On 03/09/2022 at 16:48, theefool said:

Or elevated cmd prompt, and run:

 

net use

 

This shows all connections from the admin perspective

 

Or normal cmd prompt running same command.

[+BudMan MVC]

Are you using local accounts or MS accounts on these machines?

 

Simple trick for 20 +some years that still works today.. Since the first version of windows really is if machine 1 is logged in with billy and password.. Is create an account on machine 2 billy and password.. Now your machine 1 should have easy and no issue access to anything you share on machine 2 as long as you give billy on machine 2 access.

 

Where you run into problems is setup accounts on windows with no passwords, etc.

 

And understanding that there are share permissions and ntfs permissions, etc.  Accessing the share is share permissions, access to the files even after you have accessed the shares would depend on your ntfs permissions.

 

If you do not get prompted to auth when you access \\IPaddress then your sharing is not setup correctly.  Firewall or security software.  I never get prompted to access any shares because my account on pc 1 is the same username and password as the account on pc2.

 

 

[theefool]

Another item, but probably not set is the advanced firewall rule "File and Printer Sharing (SMB-In)" and setting the scope to only allowing certain remote IPs.

 

From your screenshot, there looks to be connections, but curiously, from cmd prompt:

 

net use \\192.168.1.27\cctv /delete

net use \\192.168.1.27\cctv

 

does it ask for a username/password?

[theefool]

More info based on what Budman said. 

 

If you use the default share permission (which is read), and allow write ntfs permission, you can't write to the shared folder, cause the most restrictive permission is from the share.  If you change the share permission to change, then you gain the access to write (as long as the ntfs permission is set to allow this).

[jnelsoninjax]

So apparently I simply needed to reboot the laptop and suddenly it started working. I am guessing that making a change on the CCTV system to sharing and then rebooting the laptop, it started to work.

[+BudMan MVC]

Most likely related to the reboot killed off previous connection by a different account.  Only 1 account can be authed to a share from the same IP at any given time.

 

edit: this can most of the time be seen when you auth via elevated prompt, and then the normal desktop account doesn't see them.  So if something running as elevated, ie admin had authed, then your normal desktop account wouldn't be able to see that connected share or even auth.

 

Do a google for say "windows multiple accounts same IP file sharing" and you will see many a discussion on it.  I think there is some registry change you can make to allow for seeing, but have never played with it - since I always auth to shares as the desktop account.

 

here is some info

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/616191/multiple-connections-to-a-server-or-shard-resource.html

 

notice if I look under my desktop account at shares that are connected with net use, and then same command via an elevated prompt

 

 

Keep in mind that the machine sharing, might still have a connection from IP X for user A, even if the client side machine shows no connection.   So if the machine tries to auto auth as its specific account this could show up with like the error you were seeing generic network sort of error.  Windows is not always the best at what error its thrown being the exact reason there was a problem.  Quite often they are just generic and can be misleading in figuring out the exact problem.