Windows PC cannot access network drive

johndon

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I have four hard drives (all Western Digital 'My Cloud') connected to my network. My main (Windows 10 Enterprise) PC can see all four of the drives but, if I try to access two of them, I get the following error:

Windows cannot access \\XXXXXX
Check the spelling of the name
Error code: 0x80070035
The network path was not found

I've googled the problem and tried the solutions offered by pretty much every link on the first page of results.

A few other things to note:

1. The two problem drives were, until a few weeks ago, accessible from the PC - no hardware has been changed on the system at all, the only possible change would have been a Windows Update.
2. My MacBook Pro, on the same network, can access the two drives with no problems.
3. One of the drives holds all my ripped CDs for use with a SONOS multi room music system. The SONOS can still access that drive with no problems and the music plays.
4. I have a media player for ripped Blu Rays and that can also access both drives.
5. The problem is not unique to one user either, I've tried creating a brand new local Windows user with the same result.


I'd appreciate any suggestions...

John
 
If "other" things can access OK, then that's highly indicative that the shares are working OK on the WD, permissions are (probably) OK and you've got an issue with the particular Windows client.

As you say Windows has updated recently and MS are not unknown for turning things off without asking. (It drives me bonkers that the re-enable mousepad "tapping" on my laptop every update and I have to turn it off again.)

You might be suffering some SMB versions issue - there's been a lot of talk about that over the last year. Some devices require SMB version 1 and MS are trying to depreciate it and maybe they've turned it off. I'd start there. If you Google the error message you find info on that. Ignore anything to do with making changes on the WD - clearly that's not where the problem is, it's something "up" with your Windows client.
 
Thanks for that, SMB1 is switched on, its one of the things I did after a Google search for possible solutions.

John
 
Start with having a look at all the updates that have been applied recently. See if you can roll back the OS until access restarts.
 
SMB 1 was switched off by default a couple of years ago I think.

Are you saying that you get an error trying to map more than one drive or you get an error trying to read/write more than one drive ?
 
SMB 1 was switched off by default a couple of years ago I think.

Are you saying that you get an error trying to map more than one drive or you get an error trying to read/write more than one drive ?

Windows, despite 'seeing' those drives wouldn't allow me to do anything with them, not even map them.

Further investigation has, however, allowed me to solve the problem by changing a setting in the Local Group Policy editor so normal service has resumed.

John
 
For completeness - would you care to mention which policy setting did the trick..?

Of course.

In the Group Policy Editor, Computer configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Lanman Workstation and enable the option 'Enable insecure guest logons'.

I appreciate, in a multi user network, this may not be the best solution but as I'm the only user of the network, I'm happy to go with it.
 
Whilst it was sorted, this has developed a bit of a twist - since yesterday, one of the drives that could be accessed last week is now inaccessible via File Explorer with the same 0x80070035 error code.

As before, every other device on the network can still access it but, more oddly this time is that, from the Windows PC, I can FTP to the drive using FileZilla and read/write but File Explorer just cannot access it...
 
as @mickevh says, this sounds like an SMB problem to me. Are these uinits auto updating per chance? Are they all running the same version of firmware/software. Do you know what SMB version they are using. I suppose the easiest way would be to ensure you are running versions 1,2 & 3 on your windows host to be sure.
 
If you can avoid it, don't enable SMB 1. WD My cloud is SMB 3 compatible according to this. You could enable NFS support in Windows (depending on the version) if you are really stuck.

 
SMB 1,2 & 3 are all running on the Windows PC. The drive in question which, as I say is one of the ones that was working last week, has had no firmware updates.

My network storage is due an upgrade anyway so, as I can access the drive using FTP and it is only used for backups, I can manage the issue for now.
 
Do the storage updates and see how it goes.
 
If your storage is working fine for everything else and nothing (firmware or software) has changed on the storage unit, then I would be reluctant to potentially compound the problem investigation by introducing another variable by updating anything on the storage unit.

If the issue is with a particular Windows client device, then it is much more likely that culpability lies with that device and I would focus my attention there. For example, whilst unlikely, it's possible that it's your Windows firewall or anti-virus product that's getting upset. Of maybe even a Master browser issue, though it doesn't sound like that.

If you are planning to update the storage device anyway, then you could hope for the best, but you might be compounding the problem. There's an old joke in the IT business that the definition of "upgrade" is "taking the old bugs out and putting new ones in."
 
This is an interesting one since this worked prior to your changing the GP settings. If the problem isn't SMB related then it may be authentication related. Does it give you an authentication error of any kind?

Windows is a bit weird on how it uses authentication and for the most part its all seamless, but when its goes wrong it can be difficult to troubleshoot.

Generally windows will try and do this using guest or anonymous access so you won't need to log on, but if your using authentication and then switch to anonymous (or vice versa) windows can be confused and deny you access even though technically you have the credentials to do so.
 
I'm happy that the issue is with the Windows PC rather than the WD drive but as jimscreechy has just said, this particular drive was one of the two that was working prior to my changing the Group Policy setting which then allowed access to the initial two problem drives.

I could also, initially, access this drive after changing the setting. I can't find any evidence that any Windows settings have changed (I've been back through everything that was changed last week trying to fix the original problem and none have changed) nor has there been a Windows update.

I don't get an authentication error, just the same network path not found error that I was getting on the other drives.
 
Hmm I assume there is no authentication set on the boxes? One thing you could do is check the windows credentials manager (which you can get to from control panel) to see if you have an entry for the boxes that you used to be able to access but can't any longer. It may be that you had something set up when you first got them and connected but have just forgotten about (since if the details were saved you'd never have had to manually use them again).
 

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