Windows 7 to Windows 7 drive sharing problem

My desktop and laptop are both running Windows 7 Professional.

The HDD on the desktop is partitioned into drives C: and D:

I have had the D: drive shared for some time and when I set up the laptop it saw the shared D: drive immediately.

I now would like to share the desktop C: drive. So I set up a share name (DesktopC), and set full permissions exactly the same as the D: drive.

I've rebooted both PCs.

But when on the laptop I click on Desktop I get the message

Windows cannot access \\system-name\DesktopC
You do not have permissions to access ....

Any thought on what I've done wrong or missed out?

Or is sharing the C: drive a NO NO?

I suspect you will find that the permissions on the drive (not the share) are the explanation. You could change them, but it's probably not a good idea. Why not just share the folder(s) that you wish to access?

Microsoft do not recommend it, but Windows does not stop you from doing it. The reasons Microsoft don't recommend it are pretty obvious but as we're all experts we'll look past that as we know what we're doing and the security ramifications, right?

Like AEP says, changing the NTFS permissions is probably not a good idea....

Try \\computername\c$

This will only work under specific circumstances but give it a try.

Also try something you CAN access using your existing share name such as \\computer-name\DesktopC\Users\YourAccountorPublic

If you can access this but not the levels higher up, it more or less confirms its the NTFS permission.

Are you sure both accounts on the computers match fully AND they are both admins, AND you have homegroup nonsense turned off?

Edited by Pipexer (Sun 03-Mar-13 23:04:23)

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

My desktop and laptop are both running Windows 7 Professional.

The HDD on the desktop is partitioned into drives C: and D:

I have had the D: drive shared for some time and when I set up the laptop it saw the shared D: drive immediately.

I now would like to share the desktop C: drive. So I set up a share name (DesktopC), and set full permissions exactly the same as the D: drive.

I've rebooted both PCs.

But when on the laptop I click on Desktop I get the message

Windows cannot access \\system-name\DesktopC
You do not have permissions to access ....

Any thought on what I've done wrong or missed out?

Or is sharing the C: drive a NO NO?

Had exactly the same problem with an old nas enclosure disk. Kept getting the same error as you when trying to access \\landsk1\ with all my windows 7 pc's. Eventually found a fix. I had to enter the location and username and password within credential manager. This can be found in control panel. In credential manager go to "Add a windows credential" . Type in the location - in my case this was \\landsk1\. Then enter the username and password. I can now access my shared drive by a shortcut pointing to this or by mapping the location.
Hope the above helps