Batch - Move File to Network Drive without being logged in

Question

I have the following script which is setup as a task to automatically move a file to a mapped network drive. The problem is that this only works when a user is logged in and has an active Windows session open. However, if the user is logged off these backups wont happen as I believe it cannot find the network drive. This is running on a Windows 2003 Server. Is there anyway to alter the script to make sure it can connect to the networked drive while no active sessions are open?

The process I am using is to move the file, then delete the file to clear up hard-drive space, then a .exe is run to empty the recycling bin.

@echo off
move C:\StarshipBackup\*.* Z:\StarshipDataBackup
del C:\StarshipBackup\*.* /F /Q
C:\emptyrecycle.exe

Answer 1

You can mount the drive in the batch file. Add this before your move command:

net use z: \\yourserver\sharename

Of course, you need to make sure that the account the batch file runs under has permission to access the share. If you are doing this by using a Scheduled Task, you can choose the account by selecting the task, then:

• right click Properties
• click on General tab change account under
• "When running the task, use the following user account:"

That's on Windows 7, it might be slightly different on different versions of Windows.