Windows 7 computer cannot access shared files from Windows Vista

bishopls

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Jan 18, 2012
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I've been working with I.T. for years, and when I went to a client's last night to share a drive over the network so they can install a program on a second workstation and use the database on the original machine.

Anyway, sharing this drive shouldn't have taken me more than five minutes. However, I'm encountering problems I've never seen before. The Win7 PC sees the Vista PC on the network, but not any of the shared drives. And when I try to explore the Vista PC from the Win7 PC, I get an errors: ""Your computer appears to be correctly configured, but the device or resource (Vista PC) is not responding."

Both PCs are on the same network, obviously, AV software and Windows firewall disabled on both, Homegroup off on Win 7 machine, both machines on same workgroup "WORKGROUP," set with static local IPs/DNS, etc., and both able to access network resources and the internet. One thing I HAVE noticed, however, is that when exploring the network on the Vista PC, I can't see anything (including the Win7 machine,) except the Vista PC itself and the router.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what's wrong? I've tried pretty much everything I can think of. Even the SFC on the Vista PC didn't find any issues. I've checked the services, and all that should be running are set to Auto, and are started and running. I've looked for hours online, trying every possible option I can find, to no avail. I'm completely stumped! Never in my years in IT have I encountered this.

I'll be returning to the client's offices this Saturday afternoon (Jan. 21, 2012,) to continue working towards a solution.
 

Combat Wombat

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Aug 4, 2011
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Hi, and Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

Pretty basic issue really, could be a number of things. Here are a few things:

>Check that both Hdd's are in a MBR format (although it's more than likely that they both are) If they aren't you have a problem...

>Turn of UAC on both units... if UAC is rapped up it wont allow any network sharing (HDD Wise)

>Check that both Pc's are a registered product of windows

>Change the group to a Home group , and a home group is more flexible

> Go into the Tcp/ip for both units and make sure the IPV/4 is set to auto detect

>Check that both units have at least SP1 installed.

>Try pinging each other from the network (if you get no packets back its a network related issue)

>Make sure chipset drivers are installed correctly on both units.

... The list goes on... but it's most likely one of them