"Restoring Network Connections" error for dns-323 drive

[steverino1997]

Hello – Little back story. I have an older Win 7 HP PC. I had a d-link dns323 external hard drive for added storage and back up on our home networked computers. The last time it worked was about 3-1/2 years ago. At that time we were prepping for a long distance move in which our goods would be in storage for approx 3 months. Well, that 3 months turned into almost 3-1/2 years. Also during the move process a lot of our items went “missing” including the box of cables which I had labeled stating where each end of every cable hooked up to along with some drawings and notes of the hook ups.

Fast forward 3-1/2 years. We have now received everything that we’re going to get. I have hooked up my computer, and almost everything works. The exception is the dns-323 drive. I “believe” the dns-323 was hooked up to our wifi router which provided access to the other computers using the wifi. I don’t think the dns-323 was hooked up to my PC, which only has 1 ethernet port, which was used by a direct cable to the router, which is why I think the drive was hooked up to the router. I did have a different ISP, modem, and router back then than I do now. And if it matters, I’m currently using a Deco X55 mesh system, which I have the dns-323 connected to via a tp-link switch.
The dns-323 starts up OK. The lights cycle and flash during the boot up. When I go to Windows Explorer, the 2 drives show up under the 2 letters that used to be correct. There are red “X” marks through the drive icons. I also get the following error message:

“Restoring Network Connections. An error occurred while reconnecting X: to \\DLINK-XXXXXX\Volume_1 (and \Volume_2)
Microsoft Windows Network: The Network Path was not found.
This connection has not been restored.”

I’ve googled this error message and out of approx 20 sites I clicked on, there’s 20 different recommendations on what to do. That’s when I remembered Sevenforums, which helped me with a few issues years ago. So here are my questions:
1.) Can I get this old dns-323 to work with this old Windows 7 PC? If so, any tips on how?
2.) If the answer above is yes, can I still use this on my newer Windows 11 PC?
3.) If so, will Windows 11 readily read the contents of the drives?
4.) If the answer for Windows 11 is no, but I can get the drives working on the Windows 7, I’m assuming I can buy a newer external hard drive to transfer the contents of the 2 – dns-323 drives on to, and then transfer to the Windows 11 PC?
5.) I also have a “G” drive in the old Windows 7 PC which is set up as a slave. It contains primarily documents, music, photos, etc. It doesn’t have any programs. Can I transfer this drive to the new Windows 11 PC and expect it to work, (as long as I have to correct software to access the files on the drive), or will I have to transfer the contents to a new external drive, and then load on the new PC?

I apologize if these questions regarding Windows 11 shouldn’t be posted here. I just thought I’d try and see if anyone can point me in the proper direction.

 

[samuria]

Question 1 +2 the problem is the files will be owned by the person who created them so they may be locked when you try and read them you would have to take ownership of locked folder with a our free tool. Problem is if you do it on 7 then you may need to repeat for 11.
Getting to the drive via network you may have same problems I would try renaming the HD as often windows doest like - in the name it may take some time for the drive to show up in the network.

A quick fix is often to convert drive from ntfs to fats 32 and it has no security so you can access on any pc How to Convert NTFS to FAT32 Without Losing Data - EaseUS