My home network consists of a 3 computers XP PRO, Vista Ultimate and a dual boot system of win2k Primary and XP secondary. The win2k will not share a drive with another system or allow another system to share the win2k drives. (All ping OK) The obvious cause would most likely be the network. Yet the dual booted XP (same hardware) allows drives to be shared and has access to the 2 other systems. Something has got stuffed up in the win2k system. A repair install MIGHT fix but there are 7 years of upgrades and hot fixes together with over 700 installed applications across 6 drives totalling 540gb. Even with my 40 (forty) years experience in computers some things can even have me confused, it is also why I like computers YOU NEVER STOP LEARNING. Has anyone seen this sort of problem before or have any suggestions?

Obviously you need at least one common protocol. I don't have 40 years experience with computers but I will say getting shares to work in 2000 has always been a challenge for me. The word share is the key for me. You need to share objects and allow someone access to those objects. In WinXP this is more seemless than in 2000. Don't know if my incite is of any help at all.

Thanks for your comments OTheHill I do understand that win2k is different but it was working 6 months ago. It is a weird problem that I hoped that someone had come across before. Since win2k was released I have installed around 400 win2k systems and taught my staff and clients how to safely share drives in win2k. With the experience I have I feel embarassed that I cannot fix my own system. However thanks again for your incite.

Well it is humble of you to admit being befuddled considering your experience. There are at least a couple of regulars here that I think may have input into your problem. I guess you will need to wait for one of them to come around. This site has members around to globe so responses are sometimes slow in coming.

What process are you following when setting up the shares and assigning permissions? Life's more painless for the brainless.

To add to Jennifer's question, is there a software firewall installed? Can the w2k box access shares on the vista and xp boxes? When you look at the drive locally via explorer are there share icons showing? Imagine the power of knowing how to internet search http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teachin...

Thanks for your comments Jannifer and wanderer. The win2k settings are for anyone, no limit of the number of users and as I use an admin account on all systems there should be no problems. I have turned the firewalls off on all systems makes no difference. As I said this is a wierd one. My suspicion is one of the win2k files used for communications has been corrupted because pings work in all directions. Now if Microsoft supplied a list of win2k files associated with sharing I could check each one. A suggestion for others when you are using unrestricted sharing (moving files from one system to another) PULL THE PLUG ON THE INTERNET. Only plug it back in when your firewalls are up and running (my middle name is CHICKEN, I don't take chances). It is not the end of the world at least I can dual boot to the XP system and transfer files through there. XP comes up very quickly, win2k is can take a while. Once again my thanks to Jennifer and wanderer hopefully one day I may be able to help you on a problem, although I hope you don't get any. Regards.