creating symbolic links on networked drive

Try running command prompt as administrator and with the /D switch instead.

mklink /D "\\networkDrv\users\Me\Force Tester" "\\networkDrv\users\Me\File Store\Lappers\ASL_ABL\Code\Force Tester"

Run mklink /? from command prompt to get more details of the options of this command.

Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

        /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
                symbolic link.
        /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
        /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
        Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
        Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
                refers to.

Access Denied Fix

If you run the mklink /D command as administrator and the Link part of the command is a UNC network path and you get Access Denied error message, then follow the below to potentially resolve this issue.

On there server where (and/or on the Windows client PC you're getting the Access Denied error message when you run the command) the Link part of the command is located, run this command as administrator on the server: fsutil behavior query SymlinkEvaluation
If you see Remote to remote symbolic links are disabled. then run this command: fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2R:1
- You can run this from the location where you're running the MKLINK command and getting access denied whether on the Windows Server itself or the Windows client PC
Now try running your command again and hopefully it works successfully now.

Link Reference: Access is denied on mklink

GambleNerd

Posted 2015-12-24T15:38:40.123

Reputation: 486

denied. I get 'Access is denied." I guess because I'm not an admin for the server. – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T15:47:51.183

Well I am running the console in admin mode – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T15:58:29.667

Ok, I will try that next. Right now, I was able to create the link on the desktop as per your last comment no problems. However, when I went to move the link to the network, it turned into an empty folder with a link to nowhere. So I guess the link got broken in the copying process – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T16:06:10.330

And yes, I do have write permissions, I can create and edit a text file – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T16:06:56.440

Access is denied, that's all I get – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T16:20:23.933

It seems like access is getting denied when the path on the left-hand side (the target) is on the network, but not when the target is local. And again, I'm not an admin on the server, nor do I have access to the physical server – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T16:21:54.660

Well the client PC is Windows 7. I'm not sure what the server PC is running and the guy that would know is out sick. Is there any way I can find out? – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T16:25:20.350

And again, I can't access the server, so that's out of the question, unfortunately – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T16:26:20.393

@audiFanatic I just edited my answer with a access denied fix section to outline the exact steps to take when you're able to for a potential solution. Hopefully all works out for you when you're able to get to it. – GambleNerd – 2015-12-24T16:47:46.610

All right, it was disabled, and not it is enebled. However, I'm still getting access is denied when I try to re-run the command. – audiFanatic – 2015-12-24T18:19:11.483

I'd say run it from the server as well when you're able to and see if perhaps it needs enabled at that level: On there server where (and/or on the Windows client PC you're getting the Access Denied error message when you run the command) the Link part of the command is located – GambleNerd – 2015-12-24T18:22:04.690

creating symbolic links on networked drive

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