Vista Network Permissions

[AlbertLionheart]

I have a friend with a really simple network:
Both machines run Vista Home Ultimate, 1 is a laptop and 1 a desktop. They both belong to the same workgroup.
The desktop has a printer attached to it which is shared.
The desktop has an USB external hard drive which is shared.
The laptop can see and print to the printer without problem.
The laptop can see but cannot open or save to the ext HDD - error message says 'do not have permission to access....' desktop settings are set to share files and printers without passwords: it does not matter if the public folders are shared or not, and setting the shared properties for the ext HDD to access for everyone and allowing change files makes no difference either.
Turning off the firewall makes no difference either
Any ideas anyone??

 

[DelJo63]

Connect the USB and make sure it's powered on
login using an admin account
go to your Disk Manager (run->diskmgmt.msc)

you'll see column headings Volume, Layout, Type, File System

What File System is on the USB device?

If it's NTFS, then we need to set some ACL permissions.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Hi jobeard
it is connected - the laptop can 'see' the drive and the files on it, but cannot access anything on it.
The external HDD is formatted NTFS as are both the other machines.

Tell me about ACL permissions!

 

[DelJo63]

Hi jobeard
it is connected - the laptop can 'see' the drive and the files on it, but cannot access anything on it.
The external HDD is formatted NTFS as are both the other machines.

Tell me about ACL permissions!

Was THIS machine the first to attach the device or one of the others?

NTFS has the concept of location\user, where location is the machine name and user
is the logon user profile name.

Two approaches here:

1. (A)open the USB for any/everybody to use as a storage device
2. (B)run separate permissions based upon which machine\user is making the access

The requirements are to understand Taking Ownership of the device and
then adding permissions to control the access.

From the machine that FIRST attached the device, login as an Admin
right-click on the drive letter and pull down to Properties
Click Security Tab; Click the Advance button at the bottom

From here, the question of A vs B above determine the procedure ---

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Thanks Jobeard - I'll get to the machine later tomorrow with any luck and will check the settings.
Never had all this trouble with XP - really don't like Vista because of all this interfering silliness.

 

[DelJo63]

well, it's not Vista per se -- more NTFS related on the external device.

MOST Usb devices are formatted FAT32 and do not show this issue