Homegroup; can't see External USB drive folders

[Ron]

I've got two Win7x64 machines hard wired through a router. I've established
a Homegroup for them. I want to see some folders on an external USB drive
attached to PC-1 on PC-2. So I put pointers to those folders in a library
that I defined on PC-1 (along with a folder from the C drive of PC-1. On
PC-2, under Homegroup in Windows Explorer, I can see the C drive stuff, but
not the external folders. If I try to access the desired directories from
within the Network tree for PC-1, I get the "You do not have permission...."
message, even though I granted PC-2 share permission on that machine.

FWIW, the directories to which I want access were created from a Vista
machine. (It's not been upgraded, just replaced with a new Win7 Home
machine.) At that time, I was able to configure so as to access (on PC-2, a
Win7Prox64 machine) the desired directories, though through a workgroup, not
a Homegroup.

Been going round and round on this. Others have reported the same issue,
but most threads end indecisively. I'd appreciate an explanation of how a
Homegroup differs from a Workgroup (on an all Win7 home network), whether
they can conflict with each other - for example, does granting explicit
permissions automatically remove a folder from Homegroup? - and how to
accomplish what I'd like to do. I've followed all the steps in the help
file, etc. but must be missing some little thing.

Many thanks, Ron

 

[Ed Cryer]

I've got two Win7x64 machines hard wired through a router. I've
established a Homegroup for them. I want to see some folders on an
external USB drive attached to PC-1 on PC-2. So I put pointers to those
folders in a library that I defined on PC-1 (along with a folder from
the C drive of PC-1. On PC-2, under Homegroup in Windows Explorer, I can
see the C drive stuff, but not the external folders. If I try to access
the desired directories from within the Network tree for PC-1, I get the
"You do not have permission...." message, even though I granted PC-2
share permission on that machine.

FWIW, the directories to which I want access were created from a Vista
machine. (It's not been upgraded, just replaced with a new Win7 Home
machine.) At that time, I was able to configure so as to access (on
PC-2, a Win7Prox64 machine) the desired directories, though through a
workgroup, not a Homegroup.

Been going round and round on this. Others have reported the same issue,
but most threads end indecisively. I'd appreciate an explanation of how
a Homegroup differs from a Workgroup (on an all Win7 home network),
whether they can conflict with each other - for example, does granting
explicit permissions automatically remove a folder from Homegroup? - and
how to accomplish what I'd like to do. I've followed all the steps in
the help file, etc. but must be missing some little thing.

Many thanks, Ron

Try this solution;
http://tinyurl.com/6ao34n9
and if you get nowhere with it, let us know what happened, especially if
there was any change.

Ed

 

[Ron]

Try this solution;
http://tinyurl.com/6ao34n9
and if you get nowhere with it, let us know what happened, especially if
there was any change.

Ed

Thank you for the response. I had seen that link. I've got password
protected sharing turned off at the moment, so that link's trick is not
directly applicable (or is it?). (And it doesn't answer another question I
have: when I turn password protection back on, will a null password suffice
to make that trick work? BTW, the "trick" is stated in the advanced sharing
settings of the Network and Sharing facility, but even there, there's
silence as to whether a null password - ie. none for the same user on each
machine - will suffice. (Each of our two computers has a single user.)) At
any rate, all I want is to make the homegroup work as advertised between two
Win7 computers. It may be that you just can't share external usb drive
folders via the Homegroup, but I've yet to see this stated definitively
anywhere.

I've made progress due to one (or more?) of the following. I found that the
network name on PC-1 didn't match that on PC-2. Fixed that, and I removed
the root directory of the USB drive on PC-1 as one of the "folders" I was
trying to share. (I did see somewhere a note that trying to share an entire
drive is problematical.) I also specifically granted read/write sharing
privilege - ie. using Share With=>Specific people - for my user name on PC-2
to the folders in the PC-1 library I'd created . I thought that shouldn't
be necessary for a Homegroup. And that library on the PC-2 Homegroup tree
*still* does not show those usb directories. However, they are accessible
now under the Network (not Homegroup) tree of PC-2's windows explorer.

So it looks like I'll be able to accomplish the access I want, though I
still don't understand why the Homegroup feature does not seem to work as
simply as advertised. If anyone has actually succeeded in having a folder
from an external usb drive on one Win7 computer show up *in the Homegroup
tree* of another, I'd appreciate hearing how they did it.

For future searchers, I've found the following link to be helpful for
insight into security and sharing fundamentals:

http://www.howtogeek.com/72718/how-to-understand-those-confusing-windows-7-fileshare-permissions/

Thanks, Ron

 

[Ron]

..... If anyone has actually succeeded in having a folder from an

external usb drive on one Win7 computer show up *in the Homegroup tree* of
another, I'd appreciate hearing how they did it.

Well, gotta swallow my request, 'cause now I've got it working as expected.
I had changed PC-2's name recently, and only now managed to expunge the old
name from the network and sharing interface, apparently with ipconfig
/flushdns then ipconfig /registerdns, and rebooting. Not sure if that has
anything to do with problem. Main thing is I just went through the simple
"share with homegroup" routine on the library I had created on PC-1,
rebooted, and this time the PC-2 homegroup does contain the external usb
folders. Don't know whether some bug/setting cleared itself or I was the
bug, but my advice to future searchers with homegroup problems: create a new
library with everything you want to share, and just use the "share with"
control in the tool bar on the entire library.

One small thing: in the Computer Management interface, PC-1 doesn't have
the "Local Users and Groups" entry, whereas PC-2 does. Perhaps this is a
difference between Win7 Home vs. Pro?

-Ron

 

[Ed Cryer]

Well, gotta swallow my request, 'cause now I've got it working as
expected. I had changed PC-2's name recently, and only now managed to
expunge the old name from the network and sharing interface, apparently
with ipconfig /flushdns then ipconfig /registerdns, and rebooting. Not
sure if that has anything to do with problem. Main thing is I just went
through the simple "share with homegroup" routine on the library I had
created on PC-1, rebooted, and this time the PC-2 homegroup does contain
the external usb folders. Don't know whether some bug/setting cleared
itself or I was the bug, but my advice to future searchers with
homegroup problems: create a new library with everything you want to
share, and just use the "share with" control in the tool bar on the
entire library.

One small thing: in the Computer Management interface, PC-1 doesn't have
the "Local Users and Groups" entry, whereas PC-2 does. Perhaps this is a
difference between Win7 Home vs. Pro?

-Ron

I recently networked my Win7 Acer desktop with a new Internet Pure
Contour radio. It all worked first time, just as advertised on the can.
And every single mp3 file on my destop (of which I have well over 100GB
worth) is playable, as well as streaming from all the zillions of Net
radio stations.

I now have the following network;
1. Destop Win7 modem-router.
2. Desktop XP wireless.
3. Occasional desktop XP wireless.
4. iPad wireless through iTunes.
5. Net radio wireless (a wireless wireless).

There are other wireless gadgets in my house; doorbell; boiler
thermostat; mains sockets on/off; lots of TV, DVD players and radio
remotes; as well as detectable sources from neighbours' computer routers.

It all works. I've overcome my initial disbelief and nervousness about
interference, which was caused a few years ago by my next-door
neighbour's car key-fob on my doorbell making it play a tune that I
couldn't find in its repertoire, and which has gone since she left her
husband and took the cat and youngest son with her.

Ed