Acces desktop hard drive from laptop

My Name is URL

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
Hi guys, wondering if some bright spark can help me out....

I'm too lazy to walk upstairs to transfer things onto an SD card / USB drive and then onto my laptop, so I would like to access my desktop's HD from my laptop off my wireless network.

Wondering how I would do this (safely)?

I did start following some instructions off a website once on how to do it, but at the point it said "WARNING, selecting this option will make your hard drive visible to the whole internet" or something to that effect made my sh*t my Y-fronts and hit cancel....

Advice appreciated.

Cheers
 
Wookie

Wookie

Official Forum Linker
I'm doing exactly this now (Life on Mars US FTW!), but with wires :) What operating system(s) are you using?

OK, writing this in a hurry while I wait for my pizza to cook. Hopefully it's accurate, but I'm not promising anything... Follow these steps at your own risk...

The way I do it under XP is as follows:
* On the desktop machine, right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
* Select the Computer Name tab.
* Click Change.
* In the Computer Name box, type in something like Desktop. In the Workgroup box, type something like HOME.
* Restart the system if prompted.

On the laptop, do the same, but type in something like Laptop as the computer name. MAKE SURE THE WORKGROUPS ARE THE SAME ON BOTH SYSTEMS. Restart if necessary.

Then on the laptop, click Start > Run and type:
\\Desktop\c$
If it pops up a login box, log in with the same username and password as you use for the desktop machine.

This *should* open an explorer window with the contents of the desktop C: drive displayed. If you want to look at any other drives, change the letter before the $ sign appropriately.

That shares whole drives: you can also share individual folders. I'll write about that if necessary after I've eaten. :)
HTH.
Anybody who wants to comment/correct/mention something I've left out, feel free to do so.
 
db

db

#chaplife
gk141054 said:
When I do the \\Desktop\c$ bit, I get a pop up with:

The network path was not found.
Click to expand...
you might have to share the drive.. right click on your C: drive and go to Sharing and Security, then select Share this folder.. the default share name should be C$ as per wookie's post..

this will only work with xp pro btw, not home.. and you need to turn off simple file sharing, i think (look in the Tools menu under Folder Options of any Explorer window)..
 
My Name is URL

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
Buggar, I have Win XP MCE on desktop and Home on my netbook.

I have actually just turned on simple file sharing and now when I do the \\Desktop\C$ bit it comes up with the login box, but the username is already filled out as Computer\Guest

But there is no Guest account setup on my desktop, only mine and the girlfriends.
 
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