Hi,
How do I share an entire drive (like C:) with everyone on my network? If I right click on the drive and go to sharing, and enable it, and then I go to another computer on my network, I can't seem to the shared drive.

Maybe I am looking in the wrong places?

Thanks

You all have to be on the same Workgroup I believe, then, on the other computers goto "My Network Places".

Originally posted by bow-viper1
You all have to be on the same Workgroup I believe, then, on the other computers goto "My Network Places". that works for folders that I shared but it does not seem to work for the drive that I shared :(

Ok, if you can see the folders, you are on the same network. So, to explain further, I need to know what OS's you're running, and I'll tell you what to do from there.

We run win2k pro's on all computers.

Ok, head back to my Network Places, there should be something that says either:

"Computers Near Me"
or
"Windows Network" (forgot exact name, I don't have a computer with 2k on it at this very moment)
or "Entire Network"

If you don't see one of those, you may need to go up to Folder Options and mess with the settings.

If one of them is there, click on it, There may be another option inside of the one you click, such as the workgroup name, or something along those lines, but click it. And inside of that there should be a list of the computers shared.

If that fails, goto search, and do a search for computers, or computers on this network, w/e it says in 2000, and don't enter any names, just click search, it should list all of them.

Hope that helps :\

It's the default share:
\\MachineName\C$
You will not see that share in the network neighbourhood as it is a system share. Alternatively, you can also make a second share and name it whatever the heck you want. Right click drive -> Properties -> Sharing -> New Share; then follow on screen instructions.

Originally posted by Alfarin
It's the default share:
\\MachineName\C$
You will not see that share in the network neighbourhood as it is a system share. Alternatively, you can also make a second share and name it whatever the heck you want. Right click drive -> Properties -> Sharing -> New Share; then follow on screen instructions. what do you mean by system share?

Originally posted by bow-viper1
Ok, head back to my Network Places, there should be something that says either:

"Computers Near Me"
or
"Windows Network" (forgot exact name, I don't have a computer with 2k on it at this very moment)
or "Entire Network"

If you don't see one of those, you may need to go up to Folder Options and mess with the settings.

If one of them is there, click on it, There may be another option inside of the one you click, such as the workgroup name, or something along those lines, but click it. And inside of that there should be a list of the computers shared.

If that fails, goto search, and do a search for computers, or computers on this network, w/e it says in 2000, and don't enter any names, just click search, it should list all of them.

Hope that helps :\ Yes I'm in there, but it does not show the drive, it shows all the folders that are shared but not the drive itself.

Windows NT based OS (NT, 2000, XP) all have a default system share for each drive/partition which does not display in your network neghbourhood. This is often used by Windows itself and cannot be deleted. You, too, can use this share to access your data on your drives/partitions; however, your user will have to have administrative access.

For the most part, if you're on a personal network (IE: home), you can simply use this share by pointing your browser to //MachineName/C$ or //MachineName/D$ where C and D can be replaced with any physical drive (excluding removable devices). If you are on a more professional network (IE: office, school etc.) you would want to create a secondary share by method outlined above (Right click on drive, properties, sharing, New share) and name it something else. This new share will appear in your network neighbourhood and anyone with sufficient access to the drive will be able to access the contents of the drive.

Good luck :)

Alfarin, thanks for your reply.
What does the dollar sign ($) do in the path of the network drive?

Also, I will need to access a removable drive (External Hard Drive) thru the network and I will connect this External USB Hard Drive to my computer and I will need other people on my network to be able to access it, is that possible?

You can right click on the drive, and if it is set as a share $whatever. Then do the following.

Then check "Do not share"...
Then click "Apply"...
Then click "share as", and for the name choose something...
Then click "Apply" or "ok".

All done. :)

However when you reboot, there is a possibility it will no longer be shared. You can build a bat file that runs at startup, and have it run the commands.

I have done this with both Win2k, and XP and it works. No issues encountered yet (as of 3 years). :)

Heres my little batch file... It does a bit of maintence too and creates 2 network shares. :)


ECHO OFF
CLS
ECHO Removing System Shares...
net share IPC$ /delete
net share C$ /delete
net share D$ /delete
net share E$ /delete
net share F$ /delete
net share G$ /delete
net share H$ /delete
net share ADMIN$ /delete
ECHO Done.
CLS
ECHO Adding HD shares
net share D=D:
net share Network=E:\Network
ECHO Done.
CLS
ECHO Deleting User Temp files...
"C:\Documents\Commands\deltree.exe" /Y "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp"
MKDIR "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp"
ECHO.
ECHO Deleting System Temp files...
"C:\Documents\Commands\deltree.exe" /Y "%SystemRoot%\TEMP"
MKDIR "%SystemRoot%\TEMP"


Enjoy...

Provided with no warranty. If you break your computer, you get to keep all the pieces to fix yourself.

Heh, umm, I don't see 'share as' ;)

Oops...

1. Rick click on the drive you intend to share...
2. Click "Sharing" on the menu...

It should bring up a dialog box that looks like the attached one.

If there is no "Sharing" entry on the context menu... Run this command in a command prompt...

net share "Share_Name"="drive:path"

Substitute the info with your info without quotes.

Edit Gawd, When did I get to 1444 posts. :eek:

I'm still a bit lost, what are you trying to do? Rename the network drive to something other then C$? Or create another shared identity for the same drive instead of the system share?

Originally posted by zerosix
I'm still a bit lost, what are you trying to do? Rename the network drive to something other then C$? Or create another shared identity for the same drive instead of the system share?

I thought you were having trouble sharing a drive. I was providing a way to remove the "system share $C", and allowing you to share it as something else.

When I saw the topic, I thought it would be a news article about fast-food restaurants. :rofl:

Ok what I did was create a new share and named it 'C' and it works fine, I also tried C$ and it worked..

I am a bit confused, what exactly is C$?

(C being the drive I shared from my computer)

Also, if I will get an External USB Hard Drive, will I be able to mount it throughout the network?

Thanks alot.