William Stanek - Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage, Security, & Networking Pocket Consultant

To delete a shadow copy, follow these steps:

1.Open Computer Management. If necessary, connect to a remote computer.

2.In the console tree, expand Storage. Press and hold or right-click Disk Management, point to All Tasks, and then tap or click Configure Shadow Copies.

3.On the Shadow Copies tab, select the volume with which you want to work in the Select A Volume list.

4.Individual shadow copies of the currently selected volume are listed by date and time in the Shadow Copies Of Selected Volume panel. Select the shadow copy you want to delete, and then tap or click Delete Now. Tap or click Yes to confirm the action.

If you no longer want to maintain shadow copies of a volume, you can disable the Shadow Copy feature. Disabling this feature turns off the scheduling of automated point-in-time backups and removes any existing shadow copies.

To disable shadow copies of a volume, follow these steps:

1.Open Computer Management. If necessary, connect to a remote computer.

2.In the console tree, expand Storage. Press and hold or right-click Disk Management, point to All Tasks, and then tap or click Configure Shadow Copies.

3.On the Shadow Copies tab, select the volume with which you want to work in the Select A Volume list, and then tap or click Disable.

4.When prompted, confirm the action by tapping or clicking Yes. Tap or click OK to close the Shadow Copies dialog box.

Users can connect to a network drive and to shared resources available on the network. This connection is shown as a network drive that users can access like any other drive on their systems.

NOTE When users connect to network drives, they’re subject not only to the permissions set for the shared resources, but also to Windows Server 2012 R2 file and folder permissions. Differences in these permission sets are usually the reason users might not be able to access a particular file or subfolder within the network drive.

In Windows Server 2012 R2, you connect to a network drive by mapping to it using NET USE and New-PsDrive. The syntax for NET USE is the following:

net use DeviceName \\ ComputerName \ ShareName

DeviceName specifies the drive letter or an asterisk (*) to use the next available drive letter, and \\ ComputerName \ ShareName is the UNC path to the share, such as either of the following:

net use g: \\ROMEO\DOCS

or

net use * \\ROMEO\DOCS

NOTE To ensure that the mapped drive is available each time the user logs on, make the mapping persistent by adding the /Persistent: Yes option.

The syntax for New-PsDrive is:

New-PsDrive -Name DriveLetter -Root \\ServerName\ShareName -PsProvider FileSystem

DriveLetter is the drive letter to use and ServerName is the DNS name or IP address of the server hosting the share and ShareName is the name of the share, such as:

New-PsDrive -Name g -Root \\CorpServer21\CorpData -PsProvider FileSystem

NOTE To ensure that the mapped drive is available each time the user logs on, add the -Persist parameter.

If the client computer is running Windows 8.1, you can map network drives by completing the following steps:

1.When you open File Explorer, the This PC node should be opened by default. If you have an open Explorer window and This PC is not the selected node, select the leftmost option button in the address list, and then select This PC.

2.Next, tap or click the Map Network Drive button in the Computer panel, and then tap or click Map Network Drive.

3.Use the Drive list to select a free drive letter to use, and then tap or click the Browse button to the right of the Folder list. In the Browse For Folder dialog box, expand the network folders until you can select the name of the workgroup or the domain with which you want to work.

4.When you expand the name of a computer in a workgroup or a domain, you’ll get a list of shared folders. Select the shared folder with which you want to work, and then tap or click OK.

5.Select Reconnect At Logon if you want Windows to connect to the shared folder automatically at the start of each session.

6.Tap or click Finish. If the currently logged-on user doesn’t have appropriate access permissions for the share, select Connect Using Different Credentials, and then tap or click Finish. After you tap or click Finish, you can enter the user name and password of the account with which you want to connect to the shared folder. Enter the user name in Domain\UserName format, such as Cpandl\Williams. Before tapping or clicking OK, select Remember My Credentials if you want the credentials to be saved. Otherwise, you’ll need to provide credentials in the future.

In Windows Server 2012 R2, you disconnect a network drive using NET USE and Remove-PsDrive. The syntax for NET USE is:

net use DeviceName /delete

DeviceName specifies the network drive to remove, such as:

net use g: /delete

The syntax for Remove-PsDrive is:

Remove-PsDrive -Name DriveLetter

DriveLetter is the network drive to remove, such as:

Remove-PsDrive -Name g

NOTE If the network drive has open connections, you can force remove the network drive using -Force parameter.

In File Explorer, you can disconnect a network drive by following these steps:

1.When you open File Explorer, the This PC node should be opened by default. If you have an open Explorer window and This PC is not the selected node, select the leftmost option button in the address list, and then select This PC.

2.Under Network Location, press and hold or right-click the network drive icon, and then tap or click Disconnect.

Although the standard approach to sharing files requires a computer that is joined and connected to a domain, synced sharing does not. With sync shares, users can use an Internet or corporate network connection to sync data to their devices from folders located on enterprise servers. You implement synced sharing by using Work Folders.

Work Folders is a feature that you can add to servers running Windows Server 2012 R2 or later. Work Folders use a client-server architecture. A Work Folders client is natively integrated into Windows 8.1, and clients for Windows 7, Apple iPad, and other devices are becoming available as well.

You deploy Work Folders in the enterprise by performing these procedures:

1.Add the Work Folders role to servers that you want to host sync shares.

2.Use Group Policy to enable discovery of Work Folders.

3.Create sync shares on your sync servers and optionally, enable SMB access to sync shares.

4.Configure clients to access Work Folders.