Share the root drive "C"

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Guest

Can anyone give me instructions on how to make the whole of the C:\ drive
sharable on the local LAN. Its not as easy or simple as in XP.

Regards

Nevio
 
Nevio said:
Can anyone give me instructions on how to make the whole of the C:\ drive
sharable on the local LAN. Its not as easy or simple as in XP.

Regards

Nevio
Click to expand...

It isn't as easy because it isn't good security practice to do this
under any operating system. If you want to do it anyway, read this by
Michael Bell (MS):

When you share out the root of a drive in Vista, the UI only allows this
through the advanced sharing option. When the advanced sharing option
is used it only sets the share permissions. The actual permissions on a
file share are a combination of Folder and Share permissions. In Vista
the everyone group doesn't have permissions so when you connect without
a password, you can see the folders but not access them, or possibly
connect to the share but fail to open it.

1. Open Computer
2. Right click on the shared drive and select properties from the
context menu
3. Select the Security Tab in the displayed properties sheet.

If you are connecting to the computer with no password then you are
connecting with the guest account. In order to access the files on the
drive, the everyone group needs to have access set here.


Malke
 
Many thanks,

I also found, on the net, a very detailed set of instructions with pictures
which were very easy to follow; problem solved.

Nevio
 
I'm having difficulty with that myself, trying to run our backup from another
machine of my new Vista box and can't get access. Can you provide the link
for that info? Thanks...
 
Donna,

You are actually raising several issues. For backup, depending on what you
are doing you may need an agent to allow access to open files. On the other
hand, if open file access is not an issue, then access to drive shares from
the network is a different issue. Vista has more security features than
previous operating systems, so it can potentially be more complex, due to
the number of variables involved.

Far and away the simplest scenario, is if Vista is joined to a domain,
typically in a business setting. This typically involves having user
accounts and passwords in effect. If this is the case, then sharing any part
of the Vista hard disk is quite simple. Right-click the folder (or root) to
be shared. Select Share. Choose Advanced Sharing, then select "Share this
Folder". Select Permissions then Add. Select Advanced then Find Now. Select
the Group or user account which is to have access. Then select OK. Select OK
again. There should now be a list of users and/or groups which have
permission to access the share. Choose which permissions to allow for the
various users and groups. The important thing to do, is to remove Everyone.
If Everyone remains, it will not work as expected. Now click OK, OK and
Close. At this point the share should be accessable.

The important thing to note is that the user accounts must have passwords in
addition to removing Everyone. The process above has worked perfectly, and
repeatably in a domain environment. I have never tried it in a workgroup
setting so cannot comment for that scenario. If there are no passwords for
the accounts, then from what I know there may be trouble.

Sharing the root can be dangerous (security wise). This is is why a domain
works well, if the groups and user accounts are carefully chosen.

Best of luck,
John Baker
 
John:

I am having the same problem as Donna. Actually I was successfully sharing
the root drive (C:) of my Vista machine up until about 2 weeks ago when the
share stopped working. I don't know the exact date but here is how I know it
stopped working about that time. I have a script (batch file) that runs on an
XP machine that backs up all my networked computers onto an external hard
drive. It is a simple script that uses "xcopy" to back up each networked
machine and copies only new or changed files. It has worked for years with
all my other machines which are running XP or NT. And it had worked with the
new Vista machine since I bought it earlier this year.

However, I discovered that the backup of my Vista drive C had stopped. I
tried to click on the share (from my XP machine) and get "Access denied"
errors. I had changed nothing on the Vista machine nor the XP machine. I am
guessing that an MS patch on the Vista machine somehow changed the way
sharing of drive C on Vista works. I know it is not a good idea to share the
root drive, but my simple backup scheme requires it.

I tried your suggestions but I got stumped when I got to the part about
"Select
the Group or user account which is to have access". I want my XP machine to
have access, but do not see how to specify that. Any help would be
appreciated.

Ron Scott
 
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