I do not know on how it happened ( I am also not able to reproduce the situation ),
but I had the problem with two NT4-servers:


When browsing via the Network-Neighborhood from the server itself or from connected
systems, trying to access a share results into the error-message:
..... is not accessible
The device is not ready
(in this example : ROOTNTFS ), while other shares can be accessed without a problem.

Check on the NT-server in the Control-Panel in the "Server" applet. In the "Server"-applet, select (click on) "Shares" to display the list of Shares defined on this server and which user is currently accessing it. In my example, the share "ROOTNTFS" is defined for the directory F:\ROOTNTFS. That was a big surprise for me, because on my system the F:-drive is the CD-ROM:

how could this happen for this example ? I have no idea.......

This could happen, if you share a directory on a removable media
( floppy disk, CD-ROM, ZIP-drive, JAZZ-drive or similar devices ) ,
then either no media is inserted ("empty drive") or the wrong media
(not having the specific directory)

How can this be fixed ?

The usual method to undo a share-definition is to select the disk-drive or directory and to display its properties (Right-click) for "Sharing" and to place the radio-button onto "Not Shared" (see also Sharing ) But how can you access the properties of something, which does not exist ????

The solution:
the NT command-prompt windows and the very powerful NET-command:


I did not find this solution by reading a manual or Help-file, but by asking NET to
display all its options (first just typing: " NET ?" ) and then more specifically for the
special command, in this case: "NET SHARE ? "(which prints a short version of help,
NET SHARE HELP would print much more detailed information) and there was the solution:
NET SHARE <sharename> /DELETE

That took care about my problem and removed this share-definition from the
Network Neighborhood.