Windows network sharing

[ppppenguin]

I'm setting up a Windows 7 PC and want the D: drive to be fully and freely accessible by other PCs on my network which run earlier versions of Windows.

I know it's regarded as poor security to share a whole drive like this but I'm happy to do it on my own home network. All works fine for XP and W98 machines which share happily. The W7 PC can see all the other machines and access files without trouble. i'm really stuck about getting the XP and 98 PCs to accees the W7 machine.

For example an XP PC can see the D: drive on the W7 PC but if I attempt to access it i get an error message saying permission is denied.

I've tried various things on the W7 PC but I still can't get the D: drive to share. Been into all the advanced sharing options as recommended on several websites. The "share" button in the properties box of the D: drive remains greyed out.

Advice from the gurus much appreciated.

[peter scott]

Hi Jeffrey,

I think you need to have the files you want to have visible to XP in either your Public directory or in Shared Folders.

HTH,

Peter

[ppppenguin]

What I want to do is make the entire D drive visible to all PCs on the network, not just individual files or folders.

[Crackle]

Can the XP machines access the "shared" folders on the win 7 machine.
The XP machines may have to authenticate on the win7 PC to access files. I think the win 7 PC should have a network ID which you need to use on the XP ones in order to access files.

Mike

[ppppenguin]

Seems I can't share folders either. I just tried sharing a folder on the W7 PC. An XP machine can see the folder in "My network places" but trying to access it gives an error message saying I don't have permission.

I don't understand: "The XP machines may have to authenticate on the win7 PC to access files. I think the win 7 PC should have a network ID which you need to use on the XP ones in order to access files."

[Crackle]

It was slightly different with me because we all use win 7 on our 4 pc's.
But in order to do anything other than use a shared printer we had to ensure that all PC's were connected to and authenticated on the same network.
I dont know if this will work with your xp machines but take the Win7 pc as the one to provide the network ID and go to control panel, network and sharing, choose homegroup and sharing options, then view or print the homegroup password.
Make sure the xp machines are connecting to the same homegroup as the win 7 pc.
I am not sure where you put this network id on XP but if the xp machines come up with an option to enter it then you know what it is.
Not sure that will help as I have not done it on an xp machine myself. The last Microsoft support training I did was for win 95

I wonder if this helps https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-...-7-and-xp/
Mike

[ppppenguin]

XP doesn't do Homegroup at all and never has done. All the machines are on the same Workgroup.

Still not sure about "Network ID".

I've seen that HowToGeek page and it hasn't helped.