I've just got a new PC with Windows 7 on it. All my important documents are stored on a separate hard driev on here named E: drive. When I tried to access them from my laptop computer, the computer will "see" all the folders and files but they're all "read only" and I can edit them. I also can't seem to copy any files onto the drive as I get the "You need permission to perform this action" error. How can I fix this?

Thanks for your reply - which computer do I do this from?

Are you in a network with both computers? Then you should be on the computer hosting the files and when you add a user you can add the username that you use on your laptop. With "Check Names" button it should navigate correctly automatically. Try that and tell the result.

Thanks for your help. Yes, both computers are networked and are both in the MSHOME workgroup. Although I can see the laptop computer when I go to "Network" (My network places), when I go to the Security tab and click "Add", the "Locations" button only shows the computer on which I am trying to share the files and no others.

It could be so simply it's on the Share tabs, when you share a folder/files you can check if others in your network can modify the files. Right-click on the folder containing the files, go to the "Sharing" Tab then click on "Share...". To not mess with too much you can choose "Everyone" in the dropdown menu and press "Add" now it should appear in the list, click on "Everyone" and under "Permission Level" choose "Read/Write". Try that and see how it goes.

Thanks for that. Unfortunately the "Share...." button you mention is greyed out. Is there any reason for that?

Yes, I'm trying to share the whole E:\ I can't share it properly using Advanced Sharing as by clicking "Everyone" in the list it only gives permissions to the users on this computer, and not on the remote computer that is trying to connect and has different usernames.

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superb. it's working. thanks

Thank you very much for the advice. I ended up having to change the permissions on each individual subfolder, but it was worth it to be able to do as I needed...finally. After much frustration, your answer saved the rest of my day :) Thank You Again!

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