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Jul 5, 2011

Win2K8/Error Code 0x80070002 The system cannot find the file specified via Explorer or The Workstation service has not been started error message when using net use * \\Server\Share

 

This was a cool case that I worked on a few days ago and it gave me opportunity to learn a little more about Windows Server 2008 and SMB Issue.
Customer was not able to access new shares and got error message: 0x80070002 via Explorer or "Workstation Service has not been started" error msg when using net use * \\Server\Share  

Scenario
============
A Windows Server 2008 ENT SP2 couldn't access other servers using the command UNC \\servername\share$ or try using net use * \\servername\share$ to map the server.

The Error Message when type on CMD:
C:\>net use * \\servername\download$ The Workstation service has not been started.
More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2138.

Error Message when use UI to access the server \\servername\c$
"Error Code: 0x80070002 The system cannot find the file specified."

image

    - Checked the Environment
        OS Version and SP: Windows Server 2008 ENT SP2
        Is Virtual (Y/N): Y -VMWare 4.0
        Roles: Terminal Services
          

    - For this scenario my first though was update SMB (KB2508429, KB2511455, KB2447725, KB2470853 - SMB Components and TCPIP)
    - Also used the article  "Information about the TCP Chimney Offload, Receive Side Scaling, and Network Direct Memory Access features in Windows Server 2008" - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951037 
        ○ Disabled TCP Chimney Offload, Disable TCP Chimney Offload on the network adapter, disable RSS, disable NetDMA
    - Collected Network Monitor, but we could not see any significant error.
   
Real Solution
=============

    - Open Regedit "HKEY LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM \CurrentControISet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order"

- The "ProviderOrder" Key has just one value for the "hgfs"

image

 

- Validated with another server having the same configuration  the Key above and the information found were different:

        image

- The Key "ProvideOrder" contains: "vmhgfs,hgfs,RDPNP,LanmanWorkstation"
- Copied the value from this server to Issued Server.
- Tested again the net use command

    C:\>net use * \\serverdc01\netlogon
    Drive Y: is now connected to \\serverdc01\netlogon.

    image
   
- Tested using \\server1\data$\ and its worked

More Information
=================
    1. LanmanWorkstation missing from ProviderOrder in
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order
   
    2. When this error shows up there's no network SMB redirector activity on Network Monitor.
    3. In this scenario net view \\remoteserver works fine and shows all remote shares but net use fails to map it.

9 comments:

  1. This was incredibly helpful! I have been searching for an answer for hours and this did the trick! Thanks!

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  2. Thank you so much! I had searched everywhere without much success and this fixed it. My problem was on Windows 7 and an installation of PGP seems to have erased all the other values, including LanmanWorkstation.

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  3. Had the same issue on a Win2k8R2 server and this fixed the problem. Thanks!

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  4. Thanks, this fixed my Windows 7 issue!

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  5. Thank you! This fixed my problem on Windows 7.

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  6. This one was a real pain but now all fixed thanks to this great solution

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  7. Thanks, this fixed my issue after Malware Bytes cleaned my computer

    ReplyDelete
  8. am facing same issue in windows 2012 server, can you please provide the fix.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks,this fixed my issue on Win10.

    ReplyDelete