Sharing Drives

[btfsplk]

I have a wired LAN with two computers and a router. I've been sharing two printers, an internet connection and an external USB hard drive. For months, everything worked fine. Suddenly, I can't get access to the hard drive except by the computer it is connected to. Moving the drive physically to the other computer enables that computer, but then the first computer can't see it. Both computers run XP and Network Magic, and have the Windows firewalls enabled. They also both run two spyware programs and a virus program. I'm told to suspect that one of these is blocking access, but the setups all say everything is fine. The hosting computer (whichever) says the drive root is shared, and that the Windows firewall is set up to allow sharing within the LAN. Network Trouble Shooters also say everything is fine. Any ideas?

 

[edfair]

For the duration take the firewalls off. You might want to disconnect the internet while you are troubleshooting.

Then try an IP reset on both computers.

Not familiar with network magic and how it affects things but you might want to kill it, then reinstall after things are back to normal with sharing.

You may be a victim of MS updates. They update things that make their OS different but the updating has a serious downside of breaking other stuff.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[btfsplk]

Thanks, edfair. In going through your suggestions, I found the problem in Network Magic, my network controller. There was a file that had to be converted. Now everything is OK. Your input was big help!