network drive not showing up

[slobama8014]

so i had an openmediabox nas running before. i was able to put a steam folder in my network drive. so all my games were installed on my nas. well i decided i wanted to upgrade to 10 gb network. well openmediavault didnt play nice with my network card. so i had to switch my nas os to freenas. i got my 10gb network going, i mapped my network drive to drive z. so far so good. but when i go to steam and try to put a steam folder in my z drive, my z drive isnt showing up. windows still detect the z drive so i dont know what went wrong. anyone knows how to fix this?

[shanqs]

If the drive isn't showing up in the add library interface of Steam settings, then it's most likely a permission issue. Hard to tell by info provided but try starting Steam as admin to see if it shows up then.

SMB/CIFS isn't the best protocol to use in your situation, consider using NFS or iSCSI for much better performance. And boost it even further by enabling jumbo frames (MTU 9000) on all devices on that sweet new 10Gb network to get the most out of it, provided you have enough drives in that NAS to pull 1GBps+ and actually have a 10Gb nic in the NAS too, along with a 10Gb switch... but ofc you do otherwise that would be a complete waste of money...

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Obviously is a sharing access permission issue in FreeNAS.

Did you try then going to Z drive in Windows Explorer and try copying a file to the NAS drive? To ensure you have proper Write Ability, not just Read

[slobama8014]

I started steam as an admin but it still wouldn't share. I only have windows 10 home so there isn't any NFS support. I've never done iSCSI before I can maybe look into that. I'm running the connection as a peer to peer network. My nics are old legacy Chelsio t3 that I got from work. I don't expect much speed from them, just a small boost.

I have full permissions of the z drive. All the other programs that I use can detect and read-write the z drive. Unless I'm missing something obvious I feel like it is a problem with steam

[shanqs]

Are you using a standard user account in Windows?

It's definitely a permission issue. Try disconnecting the mapped drive via windows explorer. Then open command prompt as ADMIN and enter:

net use Z: \\Server\Share

Then start Steam as ADMIN and the Z: mapping of the shared folder will be listed in drop down list of Steam -> Settings -> Download -> Steam Library Folders -> Add Library Folder.

This wil confirm the permission issue and then you'll either have to elevate your standard account and then do the mapping or run Steam as admin all the time.

To make persistent:

net use Z: \\Server\Share /persistent:YES

To disconnect:

net use Z: /delete

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Folks don't seem to understand something with Win8/10; there is no more such thing as "I'm the only user, I am the Admin" no that is never true, period. The OS no longer allows this. That is what is exactly what made WinXP a full-blown security risk, because a User can actually be a Full Control Admin.

Whenever you wish to do Admin things, you must right click > Run As Admin. This tells the OS you wish to gain System Level Control, for that single instance only. If the User is a certain level account, yes it is allowed.

So for things like say, Command Prompt, if u have a shortcut to CMD.exe you must right click > Run As Admin, or you do not have full admin privileges. It's that simple to understand really...

Now for your installed apps that are not System Level Folders/Files; like say Steam for example, you can force an Always Run As Admin via the EXE properties, as long as that is set in the EXE by an Admin level user account, not a Limited one.

[shanqs]

Messaggio originale di Bad_Motha:

Folks don't seem to understand something with Win8/10; there is no more such thing as "I'm the only user, I am the Admin" no that is never true, period. The OS no longer allows this. That is what is exactly what made WinXP a full-blown security risk, because a User can actually be a Full Control Admin.

Whenever you wish to do Admin things, you must right click > Run As Admin. This tells the OS you wish to gain System Level Control, for that single instance only. If the User is a certain level account, yes it is allowed.

So for things like say, Command Prompt, if u have a shortcut to CMD.exe you must right click > Run As Admin, or you do not have full admin privileges. It's that simple to understand really...

Now for your installed apps that are not System Level Folders/Files; like say Steam for example, you can force an Always Run As Admin via the EXE properties, as long as that is set in the EXE by an Admin level user account, not a Limited one.

This post helps OP how?

Suggesting that is was a permission problem on the NAS is obviously incorrect. He mapped the shared folder with a different credentialed account than Steam needs in order to see the drive to be able to setup the library... period.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Ok what other accounts? No one said anything about that.

The only reason I suggested could be on the FreeNAS side of things, is just because you able to Map Drive "Z" doesn't mean anything, you should be able to do that anyways, for read perposes. But having write permissions is something completely different. That could be on either end of things here...

One thing folks never do as far as average users go, is properly configure the Windows Network Sharing. It's all pretty much disabled by default, except for things allowed for HomeGroup, which you should disable entirely and not use.

[slobama8014]

using the net use Z: \\Server\Share seemed to work. thank you.

[Jnoh]

For anyone else with this issue - it is a problem with Steam when set to run as administrator.

If you De-select "Run as Administrator" with Steam's .exe, it will see the network drive. This is the reason the "net use" command works - it is the official Microsoft workaround for this exact issue, since Vista.

The issue as explained by Microsoft:
"When network shares are mapped, they are linked to the current logon session for the current process access token. This means that, if a user uses the command prompt (Cmd.exe) together with the filtered access token to map a network share, the network share is not mapped for processes that run with the full administrator access token. "

In Short (based on my research and understanding of what experts have written, not my own expertise) - Windows 10 has no true "Admin" users. UAC creates an Admin token on a per-use basis, and since your network drives were mapped as a non-admin, the admin token created for Steam when run as administrator won't work for the network drive, as it's user token is the non-admin one you get at startup.

Steam needs to take this into account on their end, allowing some functions - like looking at network drives - to use the non-admin token generated at Windows start/log-in, while others - like running the overlay or even starting a game - continue to use the UAC token.


Try setting up a .bat file that is run at startup with the "net use Z: \\Server\Share" in it?