How to map network drives in OS X, and keep them after reboot.

One of the things that has kept me from suggesting our Apple enthusiastic employees get Macs at work is the network drive difficulties. Most employees rely on mapped windows drives. They are easy to map in Leopard, but when you restart the computer they disappear. I figured out a good way to have OSX remap the drives after reboot. Here are the steps:


Map your drive:

1. Click Go on the top bar, then click Connect to Server.
2. Under server address type  smb://ipaddress. then click connect.
3. After authenticating your drive will show up in he left hand pane of finder. Note: you will likely want to set finder to add your password to the keychain, otherwise you will have to authenticate the drive every time you boot.
4. If the drive doesn't show up in the left hand pane click finder on the top bar. Then click preferences. 
• Under the Devices column you will see a an icon that looks like a computer and will say something like "Joes Macbook Pro" Make sure the check box is clicked next to that icon then close out of preferences.
• Now in the left bar of finder you will see under devices your computer name. when you click it you can see all the attached drives on the computer including the drive you just mapped. 

Set the Drive to remap after reboot:

1. Keep a finder window up on the screen so you have access to the drive you just mapped. Click the apple in the top left corner then click System Preferences. Click Users and Groups, then click on your user account. In the right hand pane click Login Items. Here you will see all the applications that open when the computer boots.
2. Drag the mapped drive from finder into the Login Items. It will then be added to the list. 

Now when you reboot your computer it will automatically remap the drive when you login.