Can anyone tell me if you have seen this:I have a Dell 610 and a Dell 630, I upgraded my 630 with Windows 7 and left the 610 with XP.After the upgrade, I can no longer access my USB HDD in the XP laptop. I can access everything through the 630 (Win 7) laptop.Any suggestions?

What is it formatted to? ntfs? Someone could correct me if I am wrong, but wasnt there a newer version of ntfs released with vista/7?

NTFS.

In the Advanced sharing settings page of Network and sharing center, you need to have it set as Work/Home profile. Make sure computers are the same workgroup for now (you can change it later)Enable network discoveryTurn on file and print sharingTurn off password protected sharingTurn on Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers The other settings such as encryption I have set as use 128 bit encryption, you may need lower.

Hi DRosales, I would like to confirm the following questions first: 1. How did you access the USB HDD in the XP laptop, connect it to the Windows XP laptop directly or via network sharing? 2. What is the error message? If it cannot be accessed directly by Windows XP, I would like to suggest you copy out the data to Windows 7 to avoid data loss, reconnect to Windows XP and format it. Can both Windows XP and Windows 7 access it? If it cannot be accessed via network sharing, you may try the troubleshooting suggestions Bubbapcguy provided. In addition, I would like to suggest you update the BIOS and the chipset drivers for both laptops from Dell website. Regards, Arthur Li - MSFT

Thanks for your response.My setup is as follows:have a Dell D/Port station, which works with the Dell 610/630.the USB drive is connected to the docking station.All I did was to swap out laptopsafter I installed Win 7, I was unable to access the USB HDD.the message was "ACCESS DENIED"I was not sharing.

Hi DRosales, I would like to suggest you perform the following steps to change the permission of your external hard drive. 1. Click Start and Computer. 2. Right click on the external hard drive and click Properties. 3. Switch to Security tab. 4. Click Edit and Add. 5. Type Everyone, click Check Names and click OK. 6. Highlight Everyone and Allow Full control. 7. Uncheck the box under Deny for all groups or user names. 8. Click OK to check the issue. What’s the result? Regards, Arthur Li - MSFT

I will give it a try and will let you know.Thanks.