Recovering files to a network target

There are often cases where you need to copy the recovered files over the network. On Windows, the network target is usually a network share, named per Windows standards as \\SERVER\SHARE. You can use the IP address instead of the server name, and the path becomes \\1.2.3.4\SHARE.

The process is more complex than it seems. The problem is your desktop is running at the user security level, even if you log in with the administrator account. On the other hand, Klennet Recovery, Klennet ZFS Recovery, or any other recovery software runs at a so-called elevated security level. This is required for direct disk access. Therefore, even if you map your network share to a drive from your desktop, recovery software cannot see it. The drive is mapped in your security context, not in the elevated security context.

How to map the drive into the elevated security context?

1. On the Windows Start menu, find Command Prompt.
2. Right-click it, and pick "Run as Administrator". This produces an elevated instance of the Command Prompt console.
   Important: you need to use "Run as Administrator" even if you are already logged in as Administrator.
3. Into the Command Prompt, type the following command
   net use X: \\SERVER\SHARE /user:USERNAME PASSWORD
   where X: is an unused drive letter to map to, \\SERVER\SHARE is the network path, using either the server name or the IP address, and USERNAME and PASSWORD should be something that the target server accepts. This command will map the drive X: in the elevated security context so that the recovery software can see it.

Troubleshooting

Mapped drives are still not visible

If you did all the above, and you try to save files, and you don't see your mapped drive in the "Save to" selection options, most likely you missed step 2 above, which is to use the "Run as Administrator" menu option. Being simply logged in as an administrator is not enough.

Mapping fails

Sometimes, if you have multiple network connections open, the mapping operation may fail with this error message:

Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again.

or

The network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password. To connect using a different user name and password, first disconnect any existing mappings to this network share.

In this case, a solution, albeit a bit extreme, is to type the following into the elevated Command Prompt.
net use * /delete
While it will certainly resolve the conflict, it will disconnect all current connections and unmap any mapped drives you may have, so keep this in mind.

Recovering to an NFS target

Windows supports mapping NFS (Network File System) shares to drives in a manner similar to SMB ("regular" Windows Shares, discussed above). Thus, NFS is an option if your network target supports it. There are plenty of tutorials available on how you use it. For one good example, look here (archived version). However, the same security considerations apply to the NFS shares. The mapping command

mount -o anon \\1.2.3.4\mnt\pool\dataset\directory X:

must be executed from the elevated command prompt for the drive X: to be visible to the recovery software.

Created Friday, June 14, 2019

Updated 23 Nov 2020

Updated 11 Jan 2023