Cannot add "-persist" to New-PSDrive - getting error "network resource type is not correct"

Question

As the title says, if I try to add -persist to the cmdlt, it returns an error:

New-PSDrive : The network resource type is not correct At line:1 char:1 + New-PSDrive -Name P -Root <redacted> ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (P:PSDriveInfo) [New-PSDrive], Win32Exception + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CouldNotMapNetworkDrive,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewPSDriveCommand

For reference, this is an administrator session in PowerShell, but I get the exact same responses if I do this in a regular user session:

PS> $PSVersionTable.psversion

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
5      1      16299  666

From the start: I validate that the drive letter I want to use is available (P, in this case)

PS> get-psdrive

Name           Used (GB)     Free (GB) Provider      Root                                               CurrentLocation
----           ---------     --------- --------      ----                                               ---------------
Alias                                  Alias
C                  36.80         22.11 FileSystem    C:\                                               windows\system32
Cert                                   Certificate   \
D                                      FileSystem    D:\
Env                                    Environment
Function                               Function
HKCU                                   Registry      HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKLM                                   Registry      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE                  ...ntrol\NetworkProvider\Order
Variable                               Variable
WSMan                                  WSMan

then I try to run: (I have already defined $locale as a variable as, e.g., '\\foo\bar\').

New-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem -Name P -Root $locale -Scope global

Name           Used (GB)     Free (GB) Provider      Root                                               CurrentLocation
----           ---------     --------- --------      ----                                               ---------------
P                                      FileSystem    \\foo\bar\

Happy days. That works. But of course, it's not visible to Windows Explorer, because it's just in this PS session. So, I destroy it (remove-psdrive P) and validate it's gone (get-psdrive), not shown here, then try to create a persistent version (same command, just with -persist):

PS> New-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem -Name P -Root $locale -Scope global -Persist
New-PSDrive : The network resource type is not correct
At line:1 char:1
+ New-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem -Name P -Root $locale -Scope globa ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (P:PSDriveInfo) [New-PSDrive], Win32Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CouldNotMapNetworkDrive,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewPSDriveCommand

And it fails. For context, I'm doing this so I can script using RoboCopy with remote PSDrives (we want to use robocopy because of its built-in reporting, attribute management, and the ability to maintain file structure at the destination, and we want to use PSDrives so we can specificy credentials for the target drives).

Does anyone have any ideas?

Edit: Oh man... I can't believe this.... But just in case someone else finds this, I'm going to leave it. The problem was the trailing \ in my path. I removed that, and it persisted just fine.

Answer 1

Update:

• This problem has been fixed as of (at least) PowerShell 7.0.5 - however, it persists in Windows PowerShell (v5.1) and is unlikely to get fixed there.

• A related problem that still exists as of v7.1 (the latest stable version as of this writing) is that using -Persist also results in misleading error messages under true error conditions:^{Thanks, dgm.}

  • If the target host happens to be unreachable / not to be supporting CIFS, you also get The network resource type is not correct error.
  • If the host is reachable but the target directory doesn't exist, you get The specified network resource or device is no longer available.
  • By contrast, if you do not use -Persist, the error message is more sensible: The specified drive root "\\foo\bar" either does not exist, or it is not a folder. (though it doesn't indicate which of the two error condition applies).

---

[Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core 6.x only] As you've discovered:

Don't specify drive root paths with a trailing \, because doing so causes New-PSDrive to fail with obscure error message New-PSDrive : The network resource type is not correct when -Persist is used:

# Trailing '\': only OK *without* -Persist.
New-PSDrive -root \\foo\bar\ -name N  -PSProvider filesystem

# !! Breaks with -Persist:
New-PSDrive -root \\foo\bar\ -name N  -PSProvider filesystem

# No trailing '\': OK both with and without -Persist
New-PSDrive -root \\foo\bar -name N  -PSProvider filesystem

I've reported this unexpected behavior on GitHub, and a fix has been green-lighted for PowerShell Core, though it's unclear in what future version it will be available (written as of PowerShell Core 6.2.0-preview.1).