Windows 7: Can't network 2 machines

I have 2 machines MACHINE1 and MACHINE2 running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and am trying to map to the D: drive from MACHINE1 machine on to MACHINE2. I enter \\MACHINE1\D$ as the drive address but then it tells me access is denied. The account name and password is the same on both machines (no domain here) and I have tried specifying MACHINE1\Qu0ll as the user name but it still won't let me map the drive.

Curiously I can see the D: drive when I double click on MACHINE1 in Network but I cannot write to it without "Access denied" messages again.

I would have thought this was fairly simple so what am I doing wrong? Is it some kind of firewall issue?

Hello,

Verify that Netbios is enabled on both computers.
Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP « TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

Create Identical User Names and Passwords.

What happens if you try accessing MACHINE 1 this way instead of \\MACHINE1\D$, replace the D$ with a C$

Do a test, share the C Drive from Machine 1 and give full access permission for now.
Then form Machine 2, click on Start and type \\MACHINE 1\C press enter after.

Also, pls. see if Disabling the Password Protected Sharing helps.
http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-7/disable-password-protected-sharing/

Please report back with the results.

does that solution let you pool the resources of two machines, so if he/she had dual cores in each machine the networked processor would act like a quadcore?

Setup a new share for the D: drive, don't try to use D$ as that's an Administrative share and not accessible without making a registry change. I set up one for each drive and name them so they are easy to remember:

Dell_C
Dell_D
HP_C
etc.

then dir \\dellcomputer\dell_c shows me the root of the C: drive on the Dell computer.

For info see here: Administrative share - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, scroll down to How to enable in Windows Vista and Windows 7

Thanks guys, the problem (as pointed out) was that I was trying to access the administrative share instead of my own share. I have now enabled full control on a manually created share and all is well.

Thanks again, this is a good forum!

That's awesome news.
You're Welcome.