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So I'm trying to use XP_CMDSHELL to set up my drive for using a backup. I already have the drive mapped, but per, I figured I'd need to mount the drive using net use.

But when I do, I get System error 53, 'The network path was not found.'

EXEC XP_CMDSHELL 'net use S: \\sql-backup'

I know this unc is accessible from the server because it is mounted as a network share on the sql server.

Any ideas why the unc is unreachable?

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Why don't you just backup straight to the UNC path, use that in your backup command, in place of mapping it? –  Shawn Melton Apr 14 '12 at 3:03
+1 Shawn. There's no reason to use xp_cmdshell for this. Honestly, with all the tools available (CLRs, SSIS, the ability to invoke the command shell via the agent, Powershell...), there's really no legitimate reason to use xp_cmdshell. xp_cmdshell was a good "pre SQL 2005" tool that, for security reasons, most experts now recommend disabling. –  brian Aug 19 '12 at 18:57

2 Answers 2

You have to give it both the server name and a shared folder, i.e., \\Server\SharedFolder.

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An idea would be to check to see if the account identity for the SQL Service has access to that network share.

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