Windows 7: A good way to share files between XP Domained pc and 7?

My work laptop is running XP, and is on the domain of the company I work for. Unfortunately, if I break it from the work domain, and network it with my 7 Home desktop, I essentially break it, and wind up having to re-image the entire system. This said, I am looking for a way to more easily share files between the two systems.. I would settle even for an external hard drive that both systems could be plugged into.



I am currently trying to organize all the files on my work laptop, which is a big task, and have been pulling them over to the 7 machine which has a bigger monitor, to work with, as I prefer it.. Any advice appreciated..

Right now, I use a jump drive, and pass files back and forth, but it gets tedious.. I am looking for a fixed solution, so I don't always have to be plugging, unplugging, etc..

Anyone? I also will often email a file to myself if it is just one small file, to avoid having to break out the thumb.. Do they make External drives, that more than one machine can be connected to at a time, just not through a network. Somehow, I think that is impossible..

First off - As far as I am aware it should be possible to have your work laptop connect to a workgroup without removing the domain access, (or generally fritzing everything),

What you may have to do is create a local user on the laptop with the same name and password as the user on the desktop. Then if you share the folders you wish to, using advanced sharing, (including setting NTFS access permissions) you should be able to see the laptop files from the desktop.

You will need to set all the normal workgroup requirements, TCP/IP subnet / Workgroup name / sharing on / Discovery On, Etc.

As for the external drive option you should be able to connect each system in turn to the drive thus making the file transfer a two part operation, Copy from laptop to ext. then Copy from Ext. to Desktop.

You may find that you need to take ownership of the drive the first time you connect but adding your local user name to the drive with full permissions should make this a one off operation.

Try TeamViewer. Utterly awesome.

Yeah.. I use teamviewer often.. Won't work in this case.. I connect my work laptop to my companies vpn, and while connected, Team viewer does not function..

I double checked.. In XP, there is no way to be a part of both a workgroup, and a domain.. And from what I recall, last time I disjoined the domain, and joined a work group, after restarting the computer, it worked fine with home network, but rejoining the domain, required me to re-image the laptop..

I think I am stuck with.. The jump drive scenario, until the company upgrades to 7 in about 3 years, and we get to put that always connected theory to the test..