I am having trouble with a laptop running Vista so running it in safe mode with networking enabled. The laptop can access the internet via Wi-fi and view shared files on the Windows 7 machine, but the Windows 7 machine can not view files on the Vista machine. File sharing is enabled on the Vista machine. I am trying to scan for viruses across the network as I don't have a good anti virus program that runs under safe mode. The system says the OS volume is corrupted and the system stops and restarts and sometimes resets during a virus scan with Malware Bytes antivirus software. When trying to connect to the Vista machine the machine is detected, but any attempt to connect returns a network error 3. Windows 7 network troubleshooter is unable to resolve the problem. Any ideas on how to remove any viruses from the Vista machine would be appreciated. I feel the best solution if possible would be to scan the laptop from the Wiondows 7 machine over the network if it is possible to get that working. At any rate getting the network error 3 is a bug that should be looked into. Thank you for any help you can provide.web site design http://thewebsiteguys.com

I could be wrong but I do not think file sharing is supported in Safe Mode. I was unable to verify it through MS TechNet site. I did find reference to file sharing not being available in XP running in safe mode.One possible way to connect to the Vista machine from your Win 7 is to use Windows Explorer and connect to the administrative share on the Vista machine. Open Explorer and in the address field enter:\\machinename\c$ and press enter. You might be prompted for a user name and password of a user with administrative rights on the Vista computer.Your main issue is scanning for and removing possible virus on your Vista machine. You say Vista has access to the Internet while in safe mode. I would check out some of the major Anti Virus vendors who have online scanning services. Trend Micro has online scanning at housecall.trendmicro.com. Kapersky is another site www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner. You can search google for others.Another idea would be to download from your Win 7 machine anti-virus software that can be installed on a USB flash drive such as portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable.Have you considered doing a sytem restore on the Vista machine? Assuming there are restore points prior to your suspected infection date.

Hi, If the issue is not resolved after trying Kens suggestions, this issue can related to Netowrk Discovery. What is network discovery?http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/help/0e5f2e0c-9906-4518-b7c7-d3632105dcad1033.mspx Network Discovery requires several services. If one of them is disabled in Safe Mode, it cannot be enabled. Please refer the above website. Arthur Xie - MSFT

You probably will not be able to connect to the Vista Machine while it is in Safe Mode. Safe mode with networking was designed for recovery actions and not necessarily network resilience. Since a pirated, unactivated Vista will operate in Safe Mode, I would believeand understandwhy Microsoft would not allow incoming connections into the Safe Mode Vista box so that dishonest people wont use it as a cheap home server. Believe me, there are a lot of people who would do just that. Anyway, back to your problem. Since you are booted in Safe Mode with networking, download the latest definition for your AV and run it from w/in Safe Mode. While in Safe Mode, you AV should be able to detect and clean any infections (doing any AV scan and clean is always best in Safe Mode). It is not a good idea to connect from another machine over the network as you could then infect your other machine and others that are on the network. In cases such as this, it is best to remain isolated until you get your Vista infection under control. You would not happen to have UAC turned off, would you? Once you have completed your AV scan and clean operation, go ahead and then issue a chkdsk c: /R /F and reboot when prompted. In either case, this is not a Windows 7 issue as you are really trying to fix your Vista box while it is in a non-fully functional mode. If you get the same error trying to connect to a fully functioning and capable Vista machine, then you have something worth investigating.