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Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

zedingrove
Grafter
Posts: 293
Registered: ‎18-06-2012

Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

OK have taken out old hdd from old laptop, using an external SATA case set-up plugged into new laptop, selected share drive, and hey no problems. Can view, open or copy files from all folders bar one... "MY DOCUMENTS!" I can open the folder but that is all. Have gone through all the security protocols, permissions, users and so on, but nada... The folder is not password protected, neither are the sub folders within, place mouse over a folder within states folder is empty, try and open and box opens telling me I do not have the right permissions, click on change go through all protocols, external drive changes all the permissions, then get an error message to tell me I do not have right permission for said folder (My Documents).
Can't put it back in old laptop as it has died, new laptop requires me to take off entire bottom casing, and with my record of dismantling laptops am not going there!!!
Whats so important in folder? About 25 gigs of data....
What am I missing here????
Big Thanks in advance  Cheesy
8 REPLIES 8
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

There is no need to "share" your external hard drive unless you intend it to be a resource available to multiple computers on your network.  If you just want to read the contents on one computer then it is wholly unnecessary.
I routinely connect other hard drives to my Windows 7 computer in order to transfer or rescue data.  The norm is that the Users/Documents and Settings folder contents can be viewed but the individual user accounts can only be viewed after a change of permissions.
In Windows 7 "My Documents" is a type of link called a "junction" that maps to your Documents folder (I think) for backward compatibility with old software.  I once wrecked my Windows 7 user account by by trying to change file permissions on another hard drive using a low-level "DOS" command.  When the command got to the 'My Documents' folder it took this as a junction and started modifying my own files.  I had to create a new User Account to get my computer working properly again.
If all you really want to do is to view and move the contents of the folder then temporarily turning off User Account Control will probably permit this.  I can tell you how to do this if you don't know how.   
zedingrove
Grafter
Posts: 293
Registered: ‎18-06-2012

Re: Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

That would be the one with the slider in it?
Will give it a try.... Thanks
GrahamC
Grafter
Posts: 257
Registered: ‎19-07-2009

Re: Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

Open up Windows Explorer and navigate to:
<ext drive>:\Users\<username>\Documents
If you still cannot access the folder you will need to take ownership via the folder properties / security options.
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

Quote from: GrahamC
If you still cannot access the folder ...

...and you don't get a pop-up windows that says "You don't currently have permission to access this folder.  Click continue to permanently get access to this folder" (which is what would normally happen) then...
Quote from: GrahamC
... you will need to take ownership via the folder properties / security options.
GrahamC
Grafter
Posts: 257
Registered: ‎19-07-2009

Re: Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

Quote from: ReedRichards
Click continue to permanently get access to this folder" (which is what would normally happen) then...

I was taking that as a given, although if the OP has already disabled UAC the response would not be as expected.

zedingrove
Grafter
Posts: 293
Registered: ‎18-06-2012

Re: Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

Actually Guys it is not all that simple, it is not just a simple task of getting permission as you will see in a tutorial I am about to put up!
Crazy
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

What GrahamC is suggesting you might need to do is no AT ALL simple.  But fortunately it is rarely necessary.  It certainly is necessary in a small minority of instances and I have never known what has gone wring to make that so.
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Win7 & Sharing an External Drive What Am I doing Wrong?

Why not install Linux?

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."