I'm running Vista Home Premium on both my laptop and my desktop, both connected to a NETGEAR router, the desktop via ethernet cable and the laptop via wireless. I have connected them both to the NETGEAR network, made it private, enabled all file and printer sharing options, disabled password protect for file sharing (on both computers) and designated it to share the root directory (c:) on my desktop. It was set to allow "guests" to have full control. I've tried claiming ownership of the directory, making sure the wireless protection was set to the proper thing on both ends, with the proper password. In short, I've followed every blessed direction provided by both Microsoft and every website I've found, most of which provided little extra information than the Windows Help for file sharing.

I am able to access the Public folder of each computer, but not the root directory I set to share. I've tried it with several folders inside the C: drive, as well. None of them work. I am only able to share Public folders. I know the network is functional as I can access said public folder, but I really need to access the root directory. Any time I try, I get this message:

Windows cannot access \\DESKTOP\c
Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose.
Error code: 0x80070005
Access is denied.

I click Diagnose, and I get this:

"c" is available, but the user account you are logged on with was denied access.

It goes on to explain that I might have tried accessing a folder with a user name and password different than that which I logged onto my computer with. Except I have the password protect option disabled. It was my understanding that that made user names and passwords unnecessary. Now, the only thing I can figure is disabling password protect is a bunch of bunk, and I need to create a user on my laptop that is exactly that of my desktop. Which is a pain, but doable. Will this help? Or is access to a root directory totally impossible, despite being told by Microsoft that it is?

Regards,
Brianna

Sounds like the computer is trying to protect you from yourself.

Why do you want "guests" to have full controll of your root?

The share for C is C$ so \\COMPUTERNAME\C$ (Which can only be accessed by local admins of the machine you are connectinng to).

If you created your own share for the root then you must take into consideration file system permissions.

I think "password protect" just assigns a password to that share. I've never used it since it's better to just use share/file system permissions to restrict access instead of having yet another password to remember.