How can you unshare a share/drive that no longer exists?

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Executioner
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How can you unshare a share/drive that no longer exists?

Post by Executioner »

Using win 7. I have a share that no longer exists, but it still shows up as a share in another PC on the network. When I double click the icon, it says it's not accessible.

It died.
But the share is still there. However, I can't find any way to remove it. No matter what I do, it says the network path was not found. Well DUH, that's why I want to stop sharing it and delete the share. Isn't this a really stupid, MAJOR missing piece of functionality? If it no longer exists, I want to delete it... but can't delete it because it no longer exists! CATCH-22!!
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Re: How can you unshare a share/drive that no longer exists?

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Is this a share or a mapped drive? If it's a mapped drive then just right click on the mapped drive in file explorer and select "disconnect".

If it's not a mapped drive then where do you see it? In the Networking folder?

Make sure you aren't still actually sharing it on the "server" PC (the one sharing it). If the drive is gone, the server should have removed the share, but who knows sometimes. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Shared Folders -> Shares

Under shares, see if the share is still there and if so, right click and select "Stop Sharing".
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Executioner
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Re: How can you unshare a share/drive that no longer exists?

Post by Executioner »

After some more searching, I found this that worked:
I had a similar problem, 'ghosted' drives and paths continued to show up as "shared" and in the management console, the 'right-click' option to stop sharing them was not available.
Here's how I solved the problem: (Without installing anything.)
Open your computer in explorer so that you see "Network" listed below the libraries, drives and so forth . Click to expand "Network" You should now see the shared folders as subfolders of "Network"

Right click each of the 'ghost' shared folders and hover/select "Share with" --> submenu "Advanced sharing" . You will now see a new tabbed window with a button with a little shield on it that says "Advanced Sharing" Click that button. You will now see a checked box at the top that says "Share this folder" UN-check it. Problem solved. The ghost shared folder disappears.
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