I had been using "NET USE j: \\SAMESERVER\C$\SQL\SQL_Data\J /persistent:yes", even to the point of running through a scheduled task in a batch script, as the service account. The service account is not logged onto the machine at any time.

I was hoping the trace flag would work, but appears to not. Good information to note. Maybe playing with the trace flag at levels above session may give me a better start.

I had been running USE [master]

GO

DBCC TraceON (1807)

GO

ALTER DATABASE [DATABASE] ADD FILE

( NAME = N'TESTING',

FILENAME = N'J:\TESTING_Archive.ndf' ,

SIZE = 3072000KB ,

FILEGROWTH = 10%) TO FILEGROUP [TestAnother]

GO

I had been getting the error of Msg 5133, Level 16, State 1, Line 2

Directory lookup for the file "J:\LIFT_Data_Archive.ndf" failed with the operating system error 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).

Msg 5009, Level 16, State 8, Line 2

One or more files listed in the statement could not be found or could not be initialized.