Cannot access drives on desktop from laptop and vice versa

I have two computers running Win 7 Ultimate. 1 Desktop and 1 Laptop. I am running through a Netgear wireless router. The desktop is hard wired to the router through an ethernet connection. The laptop has a wireless connection. I also have a color laser printer hardwired to the router through an ethernet connection.


The laptop can see the desktop and can access the printer and some of the hard drives on the desktop. The laptop can detect and access drives G: & H: on the desktop but not drives C: D: E: and Z:. Drives G: & H: are located on an external USB ported drive. The other drives are internally connected to the desktop. When trying to access the unaccessable drives on the desktop I get the following error message.

"Windows cannot access \\DESKTOP\Desktop C:. You do not have permission to access\\DESKTOP\Desktop C. Contact your network administrator to request access."


The desktop shows the laptop icon in the network, but I get the same error message when I try to access the laptop, except LAPTOP is substituted for DESKTOP in the error message above. The error message code is: 0x80070035.


All of the drives have file sharing turned on, and permissions set to everyone. In fact each drive is set up exactly the same, and both computers are set up exactly the same except for the computer name (eg. laptop -- desktop).


Does anyone have any suggestions?


Thanks for any help.
Ed Wood

Are you using workgroups or homegroups? Is the userid you logon with exactly the same on both machines?


I am not an expert at networking but here are some ideas ...

Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center ... Change advanced sharing settings. Scroll down and turn off password protected sharing.

For the most part what is designed to be shared are the public libraries (if you have enabled "turn on sharing so anyone with network can read and write files in the Public folders" in the advanced settings above) and then folders you specifically set up for file sharing.

The desktop you see when logged into the computer is a dynamic system folder; in other words it is actually a different folder depending on who is logged on. To access it's static location it would be at C:\Users\{userid}\Desktop. So go there with Windows Explorer and right-click ... choose properties ... sharing tab. Now is it set to be shared? With everyone? If you cannot get there then it is even protected from you (this is the default because as a system protected folder designed to keep the different users of that computer out of other users files) and you will need to "Take Ownership" to access it.

Dear Trainable Man,

I have already tried that before, without success. What puzzles me is that I can see each of my hard drives on the desktop from the laptop computer, but can only access the hard drives that are external through an usb port. Also, I can see my laptop computer on the network, but cannot access it from the the desktop, even though you can see the laptop.

Strange things are going on, it seems.

Thanks,
Ed

That is why I believe it has to do with permission settings, because you can access external harddrives but not the internal ones on either computer.

You didn't answer my questions. Are you using workgroups or homegroups? Is the userid you logon with exactly the same on both machines?

TrainableMan,

After your response, I began checking both boxes. I then noticed that the Desktop box, which is hardwired to my wireless router shows the connection diagram as being: Desktop --------- Netgroup 4 --------- Internet. It also shows that the network group name as: Netgroup 4 - Home Network.

The Laptop box, which is connected to the wireless router with a wireless connection shows the connection diagram as being: Laptop -------- ATT9090 -------- Internet. It shows the network group as: ATT9090 - Home Network. ATT9090 is the name of the Wireless Router.

There is no option to set up the Laptop computer as a Workgroup, only a Homegroup. Perhaps these settings is the reason I can see the drives on each computer but cannot access them from the other computer.

The user ID is Ed Wood (no password) on the Laptop, and I login as Administrator (no password) on the desktop.

Any Ideas?
Thanks for your help.
Ed Wood

Every member of a HomeGroup is also a member of a Workgroup. Homegroups are Microsoft's new way to network Home computers.

I have never used a Homegroup but this should help ...

You might want to read & watch Microsoft's videos on homegroups from Microsoft. Specifically the "Homegroup from Start to Finish" on setting them up properly and then "Video: sharing files with Homegroup".

If all your computers are W7 then Homegroups are fine but if any are still XP then you have to use Workgroups because XP doesn't have Homegroups. Both computers need to be in the same Homegroup. And I haven't watch the videos but I'm thinking depending on your sharing settings you may have to add Ed Wood as an administrator on your desktop and Administrator as an administrator on your laptop to access the files, but as I said watch the video to see what they suggest.

Thanks TrainableMan, for the help. I have viewed the video, and downloaded the tutorial for setting up file sharing on my homegroup network. I will use the printed tutorial to see if I can solve the problem I am having.

One thing I noticed about the file sharing video is that they are sharing a few files, music, & videos on the homegroup. That's not what my goal is. I want to be able to have complete access to the hard disks of each computer by the other computer on the homegroup network. This was achieveable in older versions, but perhaps not in Windows Vista and Win 7.

Both of my computers on the homegroup network are running Win 7 Ultimate with SP1. According to the video, there should be no problem in setting up and joining the homegroup network.

In Windows Explorer, when I click on Homegroup Icon, I get the message on the screen "Windows detected a homegroup on your network. However, when I try to join the network on the Laptop, using the network password from the Desktop, I get the message: "Windows cannot set up a homegroup on this computer."

If I click on the Network Icon, I can see icons for both the Laptop and the Desktop computers. If I am using the Laptop, and click on the Laptop Icon, I can see the drive, shareddocs folder, users folder, and network printer (connected directly to the router through an ethernet connection, not to the laptop).

If I click on the Desktop Icon from the Laptop, I can see folders for all drives (internal and external), shareddocs folder, users folder, and network printer. If I try to access any of the internal desktop drives I the the error message \\Desktop is not accessable. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. However, I can access the Desktop's external drives without problem.

When I am at the desktop, and in windows Explorer, when I click on the Homegroup Icon, I get the message "No other homegroup computers are currently available", even though the Laptop is running and not in hibernation mode. I can then click on the Network Icon and see an Icon for the Laptop. However when I click on the Laptop Icon an open folder window pops up that reads:\\Laptop is not accessable. You might nott have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. Login failure account currently disabled."

I am at a complete loss at this point of what to do. Any suggestions from anyone would be greatly welcomed.

Thanks for reading through this lengthy post.

Ed Wood

W7 Home Premium cannot create Homegroups, it can only join them, which could explain the message "Windows cannot set up a homegroup on this computer" for many people but you have indicated your computer has Windows Ultimate so this should not be your issue.

It is possible to disable the services required for homegroups (I did that on my computer to help minimize unused services taking time/CPU), if those are not running then you cannot use homegroups. Is there any chance this has been disabled? See HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider mention in the How-To-Geek posting; of course in your case you are checking to make sure it is running.

Well as I touched on before there would definitely be permissions issues with sharing the entire hard drive. Even on a single computer, W7 by default, attempts to block access to system folders and to limit access to User files. The reason for blocking access to system folders is simple; if an unknowing user or a virus change, add or delete files then the system may not work properly or at all. And the reason it limits access to user files is because it is designed to allow multiple users and it attempts to limit access by User B to User A's data and visa versa. Even on the computer you are logged on to, by default, you should not be able to go directly to C:\Users\Administrator or C:\Users\EdWood and access your data folders; they are designed to be accessed from "Libraries" which are dynamic pointers to the C:\User folder and it changes based on what user is logged on and are blocked from direct reference.

It may be especially difficult to share the root directory but if you right-click on folders you can see the sharing tab. You would have to set it up for sharing and set the Permissions properly to allow access for local users and for networked users/guests. Permissions can be difficult to understand/change for the normal user, this used to be the job of network administrators. What I have found easiest is to just Take Ownership of all my folders; this may be overkill but with a script it is relatively easy for anyone. If you have not done so then I suggest you download and install the "Take Ownership" script available HERE. That gets you access to folders on the machine you are logged on to but from a network I don't know.

I guess my question would be, why do you need access to anything but data? To be honest when I first came to W7 I was like "these are my files, I want direct access and no OS is going to stop me" so I took Ownership of everything ... but now, the truth is I access my data via the Libraries 99.9% of the time. So I understand "you want what you want" but my question is "do you really need it? Besides data what would you ever really access?".

This may sound like the old saying, "Tell us what you need and we'll tell you how you can get along without it" but in this case it may well be true. For instance you keep mentioning the Desktop. The desktop is designed for pointers to applications or pointers to data; way too many people actually create folders on the desktop and put data in there. This is not the proper use of the desktop. Move the data to the appropriate Library (Documents, Music, Videos, etc) and then simply put a shortcut on the desktop. One user should never have need to see another users desktop because it should just be pointers to somewhere else.

I don't know what else I can offer about Homegroups; as I've mentioned I'm not a fan, I just use Workgroups and disable Homegroups.

TrainableMan,

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. Since I don' t do music downloads, nor store many pictures and/or videos on my computers, I don't need to share them between computers. I do, however, "surf the net" and from time to time find an application that I want to try out or use. Since I do not have access to the download directory over the network, I have to save the zipped or .exe file to a flash drive then transfer the downloaded file to the other computer in that manner, or go to the other computer and try to find the file on the internet then download it to that computer.

I also have the same wordprocessor(s) on both boxes. I have the MS Office Suite, but my choice of word processors is Corel's WordPerfect Office X5, rather that MS Word 2010. I have used WordPerfect for over 25 years and find it more user friendly than MS Word.

I want access to my separate documents folders I have created for each Office/Corel product, and do not want to put them in a common library folder. Thus my search for a way to access the complete hard drives on each computer.

In the case of the desktop, I suppose that I could create the documents folders on the external drive, and point the programs to that location to save any files I have on my desktop, then I could access that drive from my laptop, but then, if I have done some work on the file on my laptop, I would have to save it back to the external drive folder. That would be ok assuming that I am using the laptop at home, and connected to the network. But if I am not at home, I would not have access to that external drive folder. Oh well, as someone once said, you can't have your cake and eat it too!

Have a great week,
Ed

It sounds like everything you do you would like to be shared, so under Libraries you want to put things under the Public Documents rather than My Documents.

Under Public Documents you can create many different folders. You might start with two high level folders called MSWord and WordPerfect then put your folders of documents under the appropriate heading. This way they are still grouped as you like, they are just two levels deeper ... Public Documents\MSWord\stuff and Public Documents\WordPerfect\stuff

You also might want to add Downloads to your libraries. And since you share everything you want to again use the Public Downloads. I put together a little tutorial on How to add Downloads under Libraries.

As for the Desktop, I would separate documents from program downloads. For documents then you could have another folder Public Documents\FromDesktop and move those there; as for the programs they would be more appropriate in Public Downloads\FromDesktop.


This is more in line with the whole multiple user security, controlling file access, user libraries/shared libraries structure that is build into Vista and W7. You control access by putting what you want to share in "Public" Libraries and what isn't meant to be shared in "My" Libraries.

Coming from XP I was used to having access to everything and I admit is was a change but once I realized the flexibility and usefulness of libraries I was hooked. I moved my "stuff" into the appropriate libraries and now, as I mentioned before, Libraries is all I access 99.9% of the time.