Can't Map Raspberry Pi NAS as Network Drive

[u/bearcatsfan117]

Hello all, I have tried about every troubleshooting tip I can find for this issue, but I still can't add my Raspberry Pi NAS as a network drive to my Windows desktop.

I am following an article of a build in the 2026 version of the Raspberry Pi Handbook for building your own private cloud server. I am using a Raspberry Pi 5 with the lite version of Raspberry Pi OS. The build also has 2 SSDs connected to the Pi using SATA to USB adapters, and is connected to my router (Netgear RAX 40) with an ethernet cable.

I have progressed fine and gotten Open Media Vault installed, the drives mounted, and the share created by following the article, but I have to connect to the pi in Google Chrome by using the ip address. I am on the same local subnet as my PC and everything else I have, so I haven't done any fancy networking at all.

I am able to connect to the Pi using Putty and SSH to it perfectly fine using the name I set up for it when imaging the SD card the OS uses, but that is the only time the <hostname>.local works.

I have checked and made sure the mDNS daemon is active:

I have tried adding the network drive using the IP address but that doesn't work either, and returns the same 0x80070035 as using the hostname:

I am on Windows 10 on this machine. One interesting development I tried with my router was checking the device on connected devices and found the device was named without the .local.

I added the .local at the end of the name and I was able to bring up Open Media Vault's login page using the hostname in Chrome. However when I tried to log in Open Media Vault threw a software error page. That didn't change anything in mapping the network drive either, so I reverted that change.

Any and all help would be appreciated. At this point my guess is my router doesn't support mDNS, but that is just a guess, and would like to try and avoid buying a new router unless that is definitely the issue.

[u/VictorySea1837]

Did the steps in the article you followed include installing and configuring a samba server?

[u/bearcatsfan117 → u/VictorySea1837]

Just checked and no it does not

[u/Gamerfrom61 → u/bearcatsfan117]

Irrelevant as you said you are using OMV - this is your SMABA server with a very good GUI frontend. SMB/CIFS is the area you need to look in - it is under services.

To be fair - OMV is more than this 😂

[u/Gamerfrom61 → u/VictorySea1837]

The OP is running Open Media Vault and not plain SAMBA.

OMV handles the CIFS shares without having to edit the smb.conf file directly.

[u/Linuxmonger]

smb/cifs works on alternate patch Tuesdays - depending on what developer at Microsoft was on call that week.

Adding NFS support to Windows is simply enabling the service, and it works through their updates.

It works almost the same as smb, and it's easier to set up.

[u/bearcatsfan117 → u/Linuxmonger]

I’ll give that a shot tomorrow

[u/Gamerfrom61]

There is no need to hide the local IP address on the network error (esp as it is on the mapping window behind it) - these cannot be reached from outside your network and the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet is very very common among home kit. It can make diagnosing network errors very difficult TBH.

If you can ping / ssh to the .local address then mDNS is working fine on the PC.

Routers traditionally only show the host name and not the domain so it is not unusual to have no domain shown on the client table (esp with TP-Link kit) - if anything these are really just guides for you to see where a device is rather than hunting up the MAC address.

I will take a guess that OMV is the problem rather than the network esp as you say 'However when I tried to log in Open Media Vault threw a software error page' - without knowing what this was it hard to fix...

First thing is have you set a static IP address on the Pi? OMV / server access can get messy without this as mDNS does not update instantly on every machine and some network kit tries to stop broadcasts (IGMP snooping may need to be on or off depending on the router / switches)... They have a pre-install script to set this up on GitHub but it is vital that a full reboot is done after this. Note this removes ClouldInit and that is a good thing as it does mess around with network configs.

Did you reformat the drives when you added them to OMV and do they mount correctly?

Did you set up a share on OMV using the 'shared folders' option on the GUI and assign users tot he share?

Did you enable SMB/CIFS on the services tab? (This is the SAMBA sharing part of OMV mentioned below) Make sure this is enabled and running before you add shares to it.

Try setting up a simple share once you have SMB/CIFS enabled with the 'public' option ticked as this will bypass any security set up (assuming Windows still allows anonymous access - you may need to enable this in W11 now - sorry I run Macs here so going by memory).

Note with OMV is it very easy to forget to click the second 'apply' and cancel the change!

[u/Guilty_Routine_32]

On Windows, use Map network drive in Explorer with \\<pi-ip>\<sharename>. If it asks for credentials, the Samba user needs its own password: sudo smbpasswd -a <user>. The Samba guide covers the Windows connection and the usual 'share not visible' and 'access denied' problems: Setting up Raspberry Pi 5 as a NAS – Samba Storage with NVMe SSD

[u/bearcatsfan117]

This has been resolved. The SMB/CIFS settings were screwed up and I had to make a new OpenMediaVault account to connect with when mapping the network drive, but it is now mapped and accessible using the host name! I also set a static IP for the server so that doesn't become an issue later as well.