Mount a drive in a folder
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You can use Disk Management to mount (make a drive accessible) in a folder rather than a drive letter. It looks like just another folder. You can mount drives only in empty folders on basic or dynamic NTFS volumes.
Note
You must be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators group to mount a drive or remove a mount point.
Mount a drive in an empty folder
You can mount a drive in an empty folder using Disk Management or the command line.
Before you start
Create an empty folder. You need to create a new empty folder and store it on an NTFS or ReFS drive.
Review the terms. To help you navigate the steps, here are terms used throughout this article.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| list volume | Displays a list of basic and dynamic volumes on all disks. |
| select volume | Selects the specified volume, where volumenumber is the volume number, and gives it focus. If you don't specify a volume, the select command lists the current volume with focus. You can specify the volume by number, drive letter, or mount point folder path. On a basic disk, selecting a volume also gives the corresponding partition focus. |
| assign | Assigns a drive letter or mount point folder path to the volume with focus. If you don't specify a drive letter or mount point folder path, the next available drive letter is assigned. If the drive letter or mount point folder path is already in use, an error generates. Using the assign command, you can change the drive letter associated with a removable drive. You can't assign drive letters to boot volumes, or volumes that contain the paging file. Also, you can't assign a drive letter to an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partition, EFI system partition, or any GPT partition other than a basic data partition. |
| mount= path | Specifies an empty, existing NTFS folder where the mounted drive resides. |
Mount a drive as a folder with Disk Management
In the search box on the taskbar, enter Computer Management, and select Disk Management.
Choose the partition or volume that has the folder you want to mount the drive.
Go to Action > All Tasks > Change Drive Letter and Paths, then choose Add.
Select Mount in the following empty NTFS folder option.
Select the Browse button to locate the folder.
After you select the folder, choose select OK.
Select OK in the Change Drive Letter and Paths dialog box to finish.
Mount a drive as a folder with the command line
Open a command prompt and type
diskpart.At the DISKPART prompt, type
list volume, and select Enter. Make note of the volume number of the drive you want to mount to the folder.At the DISKPART prompt, type
select volume <volumenumber>, and select Enter. Make sure to specify the volume number in the command.
For example:select volume 5At the DISKPART prompt, type
assign [mount=<path>], and select Enter. Make sure to specify the full path in the command.
For example:assign mount="C:\Users\Smith\Desktop\Demo Drive"Close command prompt.
Remove a mount point
To remove the mount point so that the drive is no longer accessible through a folder, do the following steps.
Open Disk Management. In the search box on the taskbar, enter Computer Management, and select Disk Management
Choose the drive mounted to the folder, then choose Change Drive Letters and Paths.
Go to Action > All Tasks > Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Select the folder from the list, and then choose Remove.
Additional considerations
- If you're administering a local or remote computer, you can browse NTFS folders on that computer.
- Mount point folder paths are available only on empty folders on basic or dynamic NTFS volumes.
- To modify a mount point folder path, remove it, and then create a new folder path using the new location. You can't modify the mount point folder path directly.
- When assigning a mount point folder path to a drive, use Event Viewer to check the system log for any Cluster service errors or warnings indicating mount point folder path failures. These errors display as ClusSvc in the Source column and Physical Disk Resource in the Category column.
- You can also create a mounted drive using the mountvol command.