Windows 7: Win7 wont share drive with WinXp

I'm currently having issues sharing a full hard drive from my windows 7 machine to my windows XP machine.

No matter what I try, when I try and open this drive on my XP machine I get the errorI have set up the sharing rules in Windows 7, turned off the firewall and set the permissions to be read/write for administrators and everyone, which is the same permissions the default shared "users" folder which is accessible.

Any help greatly appreciated, really need to fix this today before going on holiday tomorrow.

Fixed courtesy of a friend, in group policy I disabled Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only.

I would not recommend enabling the use of blank passwords. This means anyone on the net could "hack" into your computer without even having to guess a password. It's not much of an issue if your computer is on a trusted network, but even then I still wouldn't recommend it.

The secure way to fix this problem is to use the same username and password on each computer. Or, if you absolutely do not want to use a password, add the "Everyone" group to the security and sharing sections of the folder you wish to share (it is not enough for the "Everyone" group to be in sharing permissions. It must be under the security tab also).

I have this exact problem. Except changing the group policy did not fix it for me. I have 2 Windows 7 machines and the only accessible folders are the public ones. Password protected sharing is disabled. I can see the shares, but get access denied from XP, Vista and 7 machines. Everyone is included in the user list, with full access.

Complete drives are shared by default.

meaning C local is shared as C$
D as D$

etc...

Try mapping like that and you'll be surprised.

i.e.

\\192.168.0.75\C$

Go to command prompt and type the following, hit enter to see for yourself all the default shares:

net share

There's your problem.

You do not need to use same user/pass on machines, although that helps Windows to not ask you for a password for access. When mapping, you can choose to map with a different account user/pass (meaning you should put remote account) and you can save it to always remember.

As stated above, don't run machines without a password. The net use command will root you. In a script or manual use.

Use netplwiz at start menu search box to allow Windows to boot automatically to desktop while using a password, if you must.

So turning OFF password protected sharing does not actually allow anonymous access of shares? Is that not the entire point of that feature?

But even with password protected sharing on, I'm never ever prompted to supply credentials when logging on, it just gives me the access denied message.

4. Now, you MUST follow this step or the folders will not be shared despite previous steps followed!!!
Because Password Protected Sharing turned off, the security permissions have to be changed on the folder(s)
to allow Everyone access. Right-click the shared folder > Properties > Security Tab > Edit > Add and type
“Everyone” (not the quotes) into the box and select OK. Tick the boxes next to the permissions you want to
allow (e.g. Read or Write, etc.) then Apply > OK. Some messages may appear: “An error occurred while
applying…” This is not unusual and can be ignored by clicking Continue.

Words cannot express how much I love you right now.

Setting the local permissions to allow everyone was a great idea.

Well I'm married, so just give me a rep and i'll be happy.