"Error scanning network" 1001 Unknown Windows OS Error

[haveronjones]

Hi,

 

Retrospect Express 7.5 was bundled with a Western Digital NetCenter NAS drive that I just installed. Installation of the drive and all the software seemed to go fine, and I can access shared folders on the drive through Windows Explorer. But when I try to run a backup, Retrospect seems not to be able to "see" the NetCenter.

 

I tried to search for it through My Network Places, but each time I do, I get the following error message:

 

"Error scanning network, error -1001 (unknown Windows OS error)."

 

I cannot find a solution to this online so am hoping that this forum will come to my rescue!

 

Thanks

 

Tim

[nekr0phage]

Hi Tim,

 

When an error indicates a problem related to the operating system (unknown Windows OS error), you can often find more information in the Windows event viewer. Right-click on My Computer> Manage> Event Viewer and see if there is anything related in the Application or System logs.

[haveronjones]

Thanks for that tip - I will look into it!

 

By a process of trial and error, I discovered a workaround - namely that I had to specify the drive in the UNC text entry box (whatever UNC stands for!)

 

Trouble was that when that text box appears (invoked by hitting the "Advanced" button") there are a couple of back slashes in there. Just typing in z:\ (the assigned drive letter) after those doesn't work; but nor can you type the drive letter in if you delete them first. So, being a bit bloody-minded about the whole thing, I typed in "z:\" after the back slashes; hit the left cursor three times; and then deleted them. Worked like a charm, but I still have no idea why - and neither did the guy at Western Digital!

 

Cheers

 

Tim

[nekr0phage]

Hi Tim,

 

I don't know why that would work either. The Z: designator is basically a mask to hide the ugly UNC path for the drive and give the appearance that the remote volume is locally accessible in Windows. Since Retrospect would be attempting to connect to the drive directly rather than routing through the Windows mount, I wouldn't have expected this to work.

 

However, I'm glad to hear you have a resolution.

 

FYI:

(Universal Naming Convention) A standard for identifying servers, printers and other resources in a network, which originated in the Unix community. A UNC path uses double slashes or backslashes to precede the name of the computer. The path (disk and directories) within the computer are separated with a single slash or backslash, as in the following examples. Note that in the DOS/Windows example, drive letters (c:, d:, etc.) are not used in UNC names.