File Sharing on External USB Drive

I'm able to share files among four PCs on a wireless network. However,
although I have shared folders on an external USB hard drive connected to
the main desktop, the other three computers cannot acces the drive. All
receive a message that they may not have permission to access the drive,
which they do. The three desktops run Windows XP Pro (SP2) and the laptop
runs XP Home (SP2). One caveat is that at one time months ago, before
installing SP2, I did share the external drive successfully with the other
users but now I cannot now that I'm attempting to do it again. Any thoughts
are appreciated as I've searched for info on solving this but haven't found
anything that has hepled.

Hi,

The permissions error message you receive could be because you are using
different passwords on each computer.

Can you provide some more details on how you are trying to access the
drive (are you trying to map the drive via Explorer or are you using the
'net use' command? ) and the exact text of the error message you receive.

You might also want to check out this link for some basic How-To info on
sharing folders:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

Thanks
Chris Gual [MSFT]
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Peter A. Stavrakoglou" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:LAhFd.4735$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm able to share files among four PCs on a wireless network. However,
> although I have shared folders on an external USB hard drive connected to
> the main desktop, the other three computers cannot acces the drive. All
> receive a message that they may not have permission to access the drive,
> which they do. The three desktops run Windows XP Pro (SP2) and the laptop
> runs XP Home (SP2). One caveat is that at one time months ago, before
> installing SP2, I did share the external drive successfully with the other
> users but now I cannot now that I'm attempting to do it again. Any
> thoughts are appreciated as I've searched for info on solving this but
> haven't found anything that has hepled.
>

"Chris Gual [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:u2HD7WQ%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> The permissions error message you receive could be because you are
> using different passwords on each computer.

I appreciate your fast response.

None of the computers use any passwords - could this be the problem? I know
that I cannot use "Remote Desktop" to any of the other XP Pro computers
unless I add a password for each, perhaps I need to do this for each
computer. I'll give that a try.

> Can you provide some more details on how you are trying to access the
> drive (are you trying to map the drive via Explorer or are you using the
> 'net use' command? ) and the exact text of the error message you receive.

I'm trying to access the drive by both mapping and simply using Windows
Explorer to find it under "My Network Places\Entire
Network\Workgroup\Main\Files. Note that "Main" is the name for the desktop
that has the drive attached and "Files" is the name of the shared folder.

The error message reads "\\Main\Files is not accessible. You might not have
permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this
server to find out if you have access permissions. Not enough server
storage is available to process the command."

I found some info regarding increasing the IRPStack size for LanmanServer
which I did on the "Main" desktop which the USB drive is connected to.
Actually, I had to create the registry entry and value. The drive itself is
80 gigs with about 50% freespace.

> You might also want to check out this link for some basic How-To info
> on sharing folders:
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040
>
> Thanks
> Chris Gual [MSFT]
> --
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.

Hi Peter,

Looking at the full error message, it looks like the it might be the
IRPStackSize problem.

There is a article about this in the knowledge base:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;177078

You might want to check the Event Viewer on your 'Main' computer to see
if the following event is in the log:

Event ID : 2011
Source : Srv
Description: The Server's configuration parameter "IRPStackSize" is too
small for the server to use a local device. Please
increase the value of this parameter

You can start the Event Viewer by clicking 'Start Menu -> Run' and then
typing 'eventvwr'. Once the Event Viewer starts, click on the 'System' icon
on the left hand pane. You can get details on event by double clicking on
any of the events in the right hand pane.

The Event Viewer is described in more depth in the following article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;308427

If this doesn't fix your problem, let me know!

Thanks,
Chris Gual [MSFT]
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


"Peter A. Stavrakoglou" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:QxkFd.4776$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Chris Gual [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:u2HD7WQ%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> The permissions error message you receive could be because you are
>> using different passwords on each computer.
>
> I appreciate your fast response.
>
> None of the computers use any passwords - could this be the problem? I
> know that I cannot use "Remote Desktop" to any of the other XP Pro
> computers unless I add a password for each, perhaps I need to do this for
> each computer. I'll give that a try.
>
>> Can you provide some more details on how you are trying to access the
>> drive (are you trying to map the drive via Explorer or are you using the
>> 'net use' command? ) and the exact text of the error message you receive.
>
> I'm trying to access the drive by both mapping and simply using Windows
> Explorer to find it under "My Network Places\Entire
> Network\Workgroup\Main\Files. Note that "Main" is the name for the
> desktop that has the drive attached and "Files" is the name of the shared
> folder.
>
> The error message reads "\\Main\Files is not accessible. You might not
> have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator
> of this server to find out if you have access permissions. Not enough
> server storage is available to process the command."
>
> I found some info regarding increasing the IRPStack size for LanmanServer
> which I did on the "Main" desktop which the USB drive is connected to.
> Actually, I had to create the registry entry and value. The drive itself
> is 80 gigs with about 50% freespace.
>
>> You might also want to check out this link for some basic How-To info
>> on sharing folders:
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040
>>
>> Thanks
>> Chris Gual [MSFT]
>> --
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>
>
>

"Peter A. Stavrakoglou" wrote:
> None of the computers use any passwords - could this be the problem? I know
> that I cannot use "Remote Desktop" to any of the other XP Pro computers
> unless I add a password for each, perhaps I need to do this for each
> computer. I'll give that a try.

Yes this is most likely reason. As you already know, accounts with
blank password can't be acessed from network.
You can also enable guest account, if all shares are read-only.

--PA

"Chris Gual [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:OW0mVob%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi Peter,
>
> Looking at the full error message, it looks like the it might be the
> IRPStackSize problem.
>
> There is a article about this in the knowledge base:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;177078
>
> You might want to check the Event Viewer on your 'Main' computer to see
> if the following event is in the log:
>
> Event ID : 2011
> Source : Srv
> Description: The Server's configuration parameter "IRPStackSize" is too
> small for the server to use a local device. Please
> increase the value of this parameter
>
> You can start the Event Viewer by clicking 'Start Menu -> Run' and then
> typing 'eventvwr'. Once the Event Viewer starts, click on the 'System'
> icon on the left hand pane. You can get details on event by double
> clicking on any of the events in the right hand pane.
>
> The Event Viewer is described in more depth in the following article:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;308427
>
> If this doesn't fix your problem, let me know!
>
> Thanks,
> Chris Gual [MSFT]

Many thanks Chris, problem solved! Prior to posting in this newsgroup. I
had found a site that mentioned this registry problem, with a notation to
add the value if it doesn't exist, just like the knowledge base article you
linked noted, and assign a value of 15 which I did. That did not work.
However the knowledge base article mentions to increase the value if
needed - which the site I used did not mention. I increased the value by
three to 18, no luck. I then increased it to 21 and I can now access the
external drive from the other three computers in the house. Thanks again.

"Pavel A." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1181B184-2E98-4F07-8060-(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Peter A. Stavrakoglou" wrote:
>> None of the computers use any passwords - could this be the problem? I
>> know
>> that I cannot use "Remote Desktop" to any of the other XP Pro computers
>> unless I add a password for each, perhaps I need to do this for each
>> computer. I'll give that a try.
>
> Yes this is most likely reason. As you already know, accounts with
> blank password can't be acessed from network.
> You can also enable guest account, if all shares are read-only.
>
> --PA

It was an IRPStackSize problem in the registry. While I cannot make a
Remote Desktop connection to a system that has no password I can access
shared folders on those computers and I am. Now that I have corrected the
IRPStackSize problem, the three other users in the house can access the
external hard drive connected to my ("Main") PC. In any event, I appreciate
your taking time to read my post and respond.