[REQUEST] Mapping A Network Drive Issue- Win 7

[wfc4life]

Hello friends,

I lost quite a bit of time today trying to get a network drive mapped on my client's Windows 7 machine. I was unsuccessful, and hope someone has a tip that will help me get this resolved (and yes, I'm pushing them to upgrade to Windows 10 across the board).

Here are the network specifics:

• 4 computers (all in a workgroup, called WORKGROUP) - 2 Win 7 and 2 Win 10
• All four computers primarily have user accounts that are local admins
• The Win 10 PCs have no issue seeing each other, and I can create mapped network drives without issue
• The share that I'm trying to map resides on a Windows 10 PC

The Win 7 PC that I'm trying to map the drive on, sees the Win 10 machine, and asks for credentials to access the shares.

• I enter the user name: \\Windows 10 PC Name\Win 10 Local Admin Account Name
• I enter the local admin account password

I get an error message saying there was an error with the credentials. I have verified the user account credentials are correct. Of course, this step isn't required when performing network drive mapping on Windows 10.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

You should be entering a user account from the Windows 10 machine that the share is on.

With a peer to peer network like this, you can either use one account to grant access to the share and use it across all machines, or preferably create a user account for each of the other computers on the Windows 10 computer and grant access to the share.

 

[wfc4life]

Thanks Slaters Kustum Machines! It’s been a long day, and I incorrectly stated I was using Win 7 user credentials. I assure you I didn’t, everything I entered was for the Win 10 user account. I’ve edited my original post to correct my mistake.

I thought of adding new user accounts to match the Win 7 user accounts/PCs on the Win 10 machine, but was hoping there is a way around this. I would hate to have two unused accounts on the Win 10 machine just for this.

You should be entering a user account from the Windows 10 machine that the share is on.

With a peer to peer network like this, you can either use one account to grant access to the share and use it across all machines, or preferably create a user account for each of the other computers on the Windows 10 computer and grant access to the share.

 

[Markverhyden]

I've done the multiple account thing before. Nickel solution to the dime problem.

Edit: there is an issue between OS versions, W7 vs W10, and the security algorithm. Back when Vista came out that required some reg edits. Maybe you need to dumb down the requirements on the W10 machine.

 

[geranium]

You might want to check if it is a SMB version issue. See this thread: https://www.technibble.com/forums/t...onfiguration-in-windows-10.68432/#post-535561

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

These days workgroups can be a pain in the arse. I haven't had to deal with them in years....BUT...when I did in recent years, here's a few things I did.

On the "Server"...enter user accounts exactly matching the accounts on the other workstations
On all rigs, go into network advanced sharing settings, drop encryption to 40/56 bit
On the folder being shared, when you right click and go to props, Sharing tab...go to advanced sharing..and permissions...everyone full
Narrow down permissions on the security tab (at the NTFS level)....to all users of this PC so all user accounts you added are included.

As mentioned above..check SMB levels. Perhaps newer SMB was disabled on some rigs. And with latest Win10 versions, SMB1 is disabled by default...you gotta add it in features.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I've found that Win10 doesn't like to respond with its name consistently while the Windows Firewall is enabled. So before I do anything crazy, I try a UNC of \\<ip address>\share, if that works I just pop a reservation into the router and change the map to use the IP address.

If the IP works and the name doesn't bouncing the server service on the Win10 box that's hosting the share often clears things up. But that only works until the next patch reboot. Even Win10 to Win10 networking does this crap.

And Win7 should be patched fully, if it's not, you're screwed. You also have less than 9 months, so perhaps you shouldn't even fix this and just tell the client if they want this to work, they need to buy an SSD and pay you to Upgrade the platform to Win10. It's not like its hard, the process of image the unit and upgrade the OS takes less time than you've ALREADY spent on this.

 

[wfc4life]

That’s where I’m headed in my thoughts. The PC is being brought online after years in a closet. According to Crystal Disk Info, the hard drive status is caution due to high reallocated bad sectors. Also, Windows Update is not functioning, but the client doesn’t want to spend money to try and fix that since it’s a “part time” computer. Also, their other Win 7 machine had the same update issue, but experienced a “miracle” and started working on its own after 8 months. This may be my leverage to help my client help themselves to upgrade/replace the PC. I just needed verification for myself that I didn’t miss something simple. Thanks!

I've found that Win10 doesn't like to respond with its name consistently while the Windows Firewall is enabled. So before I do anything crazy, I try a UNC of \\<ip address>\share, if that works I just pop a reservation into the router and change the map to use the IP address.

If the IP works and the name doesn't bouncing the server service on the Win10 box that's hosting the share often clears things up. But that only works until the next patch reboot. Even Win10 to Win10 networking does this crap.

And Win7 should be patched fully, if it's not, you're screwed. You also have less than 9 months, so perhaps you shouldn't even fix this and just tell the client if they want this to work, they need to buy an SSD and pay you to Upgrade the platform to Win10. It's not like its hard, the process of image the unit and upgrade the OS takes less time than you've ALREADY spent on this.

 

[wfc4life]

Thanks for the information!

These days workgroups can be a pain in the arse. I haven't had to deal with them in years....BUT...when I did in recent years, here's a few things I did.

On the "Server"...enter user accounts exactly matching the accounts on the other workstations
On all rigs, go into network advanced sharing settings, drop encryption to 40/56 bit
On the folder being shared, when you right click and go to props, Sharing tab...go to advanced sharing..and permissions...everyone full
Narrow down permissions on the security tab (at the NTFS level)....to all users of this PC so all user accounts you added are included.

As mentioned above..check SMB levels. Perhaps newer SMB was disabled on some rigs. And with latest Win10 versions, SMB1 is disabled by default...you gotta add it in features.

 

[Sky-Knight]

That’s where I’m headed in my thoughts. The PC is being brought online after years in a closet. According to Crystal Disk Info, the hard drive status is caution due to high reallocated bad sectors. Also, Windows Update is not functioning, but the client doesn’t want to spend money to try and fix that since it’s a “part time” computer. Also, their other Win 7 machine had the same update issue, but experienced a “miracle” and started working on its own after 8 months. This may be my leverage to help my client help themselves to upgrade/replace the PC. I just needed verification for myself that I didn’t miss something simple. Thanks!

OH goodness yes, that's game over. If Windows 7 isn't patching correctly, the time it takes to fix it is beyond what it takes to upgrade it. The only path forward for that specific machine is an image to SSD, and upgrade to Win10. And I'd only even suggest that if it's a 3rd gen iSeries or younger.

If they're really stubborn you MIGHT be able to kick the thing over into updating again with a servicing stack update: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...r-windows-7-sp1-and-windows-server-2008-r2-sp

But you're going to waist hours getting it current, before you can even try to connect it to the network.

 

[wfc4life]

The processor isn’t an iSeries, and I’m going to recommend replacement. This client is tight with their money, so they may want to upgrade it anyway. I’ll do it if they want to pay, but they won’t be able to say I didn’t warn them that it really won’t meet their needs. Unfortunately, some clients think they know more than we do. I’m not going to pursue updating Win 7 with the hard drive having high bad sectors, and the client won’t pay me to try and resolve the issue anyway. Thanks for the advice!

OH goodness yes, that's game over. If Windows 7 isn't patching correctly, the time it takes to fix it is beyond what it takes to upgrade it. The only path forward for that specific machine is an image to SSD, and upgrade to Win10. And I'd only even suggest that if it's a 3rd gen iSeries or younger.

If they're really stubborn you MIGHT be able to kick the thing over into updating again with a servicing stack update: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...r-windows-7-sp1-and-windows-server-2008-r2-sp

But you're going to waist hours getting it current, before you can even try to connect it to the network.

 

[mikeroq]

According to Crystal Disk Info, the hard drive status is caution due to high reallocated bad sectors.

Any drive that has reallocated sectors in SMART I replace. I tell them their drive is failing and it's time for replacement. These days almost 98% into an SSD. I only quote hard drives for large storage space.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

When a client hands you a really old computer that was put away in a closet years ago because it ran like crap, and you have to spend hours...and hours....struggling to get it updated, and then more hours struggling to get a workgroup networked....if you're being fair to yourself and your time and billing for it, where is the savings to the client who is tight with their budget? They probably would save money if they purchased a new 1200 dollar biz grade computer!

With so many clients...even as business owners...it amazes me how a business owner fails to realize if they had you an excruciatingly slow computer that you have to spend hours upon hours fighting with it to get it to work. Unless they expect you to not charge for all that extra time, they expect you to eat that time and volunteer it. Nope...nip that in the bud! Unless you don't mind volunteering a lot of time.

 

[Sky-Knight]

The processor isn’t an iSeries, and I’m going to recommend replacement. This client is tight with their money, so they may want to upgrade it anyway. I’ll do it if they want to pay, but they won’t be able to say I didn’t warn them that it really won’t meet their needs. Unfortunately, some clients think they know more than we do. I’m not going to pursue updating Win 7 with the hard drive having high bad sectors, and the client won’t pay me to try and resolve the issue anyway. Thanks for the advice!

Beware, officially Intel only supports iSeries on Windows 10. So if the platform is an older Intel platform, the chip set drivers are pretty stable, but the graphics drivers ARE NOT. And while they do work most of the time, who knows when they simply won't anymore. I wouldn't walk that road unless you are in the position to not want to fire the client.

The reason I don't recommend 1st and 2nd gen iSeries is the incomplete EFIs many of those systems come with. You have to do a BIOS update, and figure out if the device is happier with an EFI or Legacy boot, and that takes time. Gen 3 onward, you just EFI the thing and it works.

 

[wfc4life]

Beware, officially Intel only supports iSeries on Windows 10. So if the platform is an older Intel platform, the chip set drivers are pretty stable, but the graphics drivers ARE NOT. And while they do work most of the time, who knows when they simply won't anymore. I wouldn't walk that road unless you are in the position to not want to fire the client.

The reason I don't recommend 1st and 2nd gen iSeries is the incomplete EFIs many of those systems come with. You have to do a BIOS update, and figure out if the device is happier with an EFI or Legacy boot, and that takes time. Gen 3 onward, you just EFI the thing and it works.

Good to know. Thanks for the tip!

 

[wfc4life]

With so many clients...even as business owners...it amazes me how a business owner fails to realize if they had you an excruciatingly slow computer that you have to spend hours upon hours fighting with it to get it to work. Unless they expect you to not charge for all that extra time, they expect you to eat that time and volunteer it. Nope...nip that in the bud! Unless you don't mind volunteering a lot of time.

Thanks for the reminder. I need to cut my losses more. I always want to make sure I'm not missing something. Sometimes you just need to accept the situation for what it is. I'm trying to do better, but backslide on occasion