Windows 7: Homegroup disabled after new 7 install on SSD

Hello,

I have 3 pcs at my house that all ran win 7 and played fine together in a homegroup. Then I went and complicated things by re-installing my "main" desktop OS onto an SSD to get it to run faster. Well, I am quite happy with it, but for the last couple months I have been unable to share info between computers.

My setup is a U-verse internet gateway box thing, a switch, and 3 desktop pcs, main, kids, and the wall (A touchscreen that's wall mounted for playing music,) as well as a wi-fi printer and other wi-fi stuff. The main PC was my original homegroup.

On the main PC, I installed the OS on the SSD and kept my data on a regular 1 gig drive. I moved user accounts, data, temp files, as much as I could off the SSD as I installed win 7 to it. I pretty much went letter by letter following the SSD optimization instructions that I found on posts on this forum. I did standard stuff like turning off the defragging, and that kind of stuff, but I also did some stuff that was proposed in the write up that I was less familiar with....

Now, if I go to main, I cannot see the homegroup password. In fact, it cannot start the homegroup, and I got an error about peer to peer networking not having started. I started down the trail following the error messages, but I am wondering if I am better off doing some kind of repair install.

I am writing this from the kid's computer. If I tell it to show me computers on the network, I see (from the kids computer) the other 3 pcs, the printer, the gateway and my switch, I attached a network map. If I try to join a homegroup, it says that MAIN has already started a homegroup. If I try to join, it wants the password. If I go to main, it now knows nothing about homegroups.

Please advise on what I should try.

TIA,
Richard

If you remove the original Homegroup machine, the one that created the Homegroup, it tends to cause problems with shares disappearing and other problems.

To fix this problem you should leave the Homegroup from all machines, it's best to do this with all the Homegroup machines turned on. After that create a new Homegroup and rejoin from all machines.

The reason for having all the Homegroup machines turned on is so that the credential list for Homegroups will be recreated from scratch.

So, on my kids machine, I searched how to leave a home group. Problem is, when I got to home groups in the control panel, it give no leave homegoup option, rather it tells me that MAIN has created a homegroup, and would I like to join it. If I attempt to join, it fails. Seems like this machine is neither in or out of a homegroup....

I also am unable to create or leave any homegroup from my main computer. If I try to view another computer from MAIN, it asks me for a network password, which I have never set one. Apparently its using the file and printer sharing scheme that preceded homegroups.

Nothing I haven't seen before though I'm not sure how Homegroups gets so messed up.

I personally have very few problems using Homegroups.

Make sure that the date/time settings are set correctly on all machines as this will cause endless problems if not set correctly, even a minute off can cause problems.

Be sure and use different pc names on all machines. Be sure and reboot after making any adjustments.

If you are having problems leaving the Homegroup you need to do this.
The fix seems to be Deleting the file idstore.sst under C:\windows\serviceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\PeerNetworking
You may need to go back into services and enable Peernetworking again after the fix. Don't forget to restart all machines after this adjustment.


Try going through the Homegroup check list in the link below.
Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for Windows 7 HomeGroup Connection Issues

These links should help for everything else.
Homegroup - Create
Homegroup - Add Computer or Join
Homegroup - Leave

All three machines have different names. The wall computer (mauer = wall in german) is on most of the time. they are all constantly connected to the internet via wired connections and I don't intentionally set the time on any of them. I think that it stems from re-installing windows 7 on the MAIN (was homegroup leader) computer. I'll go thru the steps above as soon as my wife gets off that PC.

Thanks, and I'll report back.
Richard

A neighbor down the street who is an IT guy at a large company came down and helped me for a bit. We looked at services that were running and found that there look to be 3 relevant services that would need to be running. All 3 begin with peer to peer networking, IIRC (I am at work now on an XP box.) All 3 were set to start automatically, but only one was running. He had me check the dependencies and found that 1 of them is running but the other 2 are not. One of them depends on another that would not start. the error message when trying to start the failed one was along the lines of the process failed to start becasue the system name was invalid or something like that. We changed the work groups, changed the computer name, changed stuff back, made a new admin profile with a password and set the system to log on using it. Nothing has worked.

I guess that I will be reinstalling windows 7. Would a repair install be prudent, or a clean install instead. I really dread either, as settign up the SSD with that multistep process was indeed a drag. So, do I gamble on trying a repair install ?

I'd have to know which services failed to start before I can track down the problem. The guide I posted a link to lists the required services for Homegroups as.
The services that need to be turned on are listed below:

• DNS Client
• Function Discovery Provider Host
• Function Discovery Resource Publication
• Peer Networking Grouping
• HomeGroup Provider
• HomeGroup Listener
• SSDP Discovery
• UPnP Device Host

I use an SSD drive as well but there is no special set up required for it at all. I can install Windows 7 in about ten minutes.

DNS Client <started and set to automatic>
Function Discovery Provider Host <started and set to manual>
Function Discovery Resource Publication <started and set to automatic>
Peer Networking Grouping <NOT RUNNING and set to automatic>
HomeGroup Provider <started and set to manual>
HomeGroup Listener <started and set to manual>
SSDP Discovery <started and set to manual>
UPnP Device Host <started and set to automatic>

When I try to start the Peer networking Grouping Service on local computer, it fails. I get "Error 1068: The dependency servie or group failed to start."

It lists as dependencies 2 things. Peer name resolution protocol and Peer Networking identity manager

Of these two, Peer Networking identity manager is started and set to automatic.

If I try to start the Peer Name Resoltuin Protocol, I get "Windows could not start the peer name resolution Protocol on local computer. Error 0x806320a1: 0x806320a1

Thanks a lot for taking your time to try and help me out.

Richard

You can try checking this link for more possible solutions. This is a very common problem but the solutions seem to be different depending on other factors.
error 1068 - Windows could not start the Peer Networking Grouping on - Microsoft Answers

THanks a lot. I had deleted that file in the past, tyring to fix this and it didn't do it. BUT, i did notice that a poster to that thread said that he had to delete several files in that directory and that only then, did it solve his problem.

Good to know I am not alone. I appreciate all the help. I'll try this when I get home.

Richard