How to backup to a network share - Windows 7
I have a network share that I can access and read and write to. Trying to setup backup, I can browse and find the drive and folder but Win 7 asks for network credentials. I have no password required or setup. I cannot proceed without the credentials. Trying to use the PC's admin id and password fails. How do I backup to a nework share drive in Windows 7 Beta?
January 24th, 2009 4:58pm

Try to disable password protected sharing under Action Center.- Ramesh Kumar
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January 24th, 2009 10:33pm

When I turn off password protected sharing in the network and sharing center's advanced setting, I save settings but when I go back in, it's turned on again. Turning it off doesn't stick. I may open a separate questiion about this. Thanks.
January 24th, 2009 11:09pm

When you are trying to connect to the share are you using specifying the machine name as well as the user id? For example:ServerName: myServerShareName: myShareServerAdmin: AdministratorWhen the Win 7 client asks for credentials, enter in myServer\Administrator in the User Field. If you are connecting to a resource on a Domain then enter DOMAIN\Administrator as the user.Joe
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January 27th, 2009 6:38am

And what password would I use? My network share has no user name or password.
January 29th, 2009 4:12am

Can you tell us a bit more about this network share? Is it on a Windows machine? Is it behind a firewall? Can you connect to it from other machines without authentication? (and if so, are those machines in the same domain as the machine hosting the network share?)Mark Wilson (MVP Virtual Machine) - http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/
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January 29th, 2009 4:56am

My home network has a Vista Desktop with an Ethernet cable to a router and two laptops wireless to the router. One of my laptops is XP and one is the Windows 7 machine. The router also has an Ethernet cable to a Buffalo LinkStation shared drive. The shared drive has no login ID or password. On my Vista and XP machines, I can automatically backup with the login ID and password empty. Only the Windows 7 machine is requiring an id and password for backup. I can browse and find the network share and read/write to it using Explorer. I just can't setup the backup.Thanks.
January 29th, 2009 5:01pm

What if you added a username and password to the share on your Linkstation? Microsoft is cracking down on making resource available remotely and not having password to protect it. Perhaps it's this in reverse.Joe
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January 30th, 2009 7:35pm

Thanks but I'm not sure how to do this. There is nothing obvious in Linkstation about requiring authentication. Since this is a mapped drive, it works fine from Explorerand just the backup setup has this username/password requirement.
January 31st, 2009 10:51pm

Hey,Can you do a simple test and enable password for the backup (on your router or remote machine), and try mapping Windows 7 to the remote machine again?Win7 might not like it if your remote machine has blank password... Jabez Gan [MVP] - http://www.msblog.org
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February 1st, 2009 7:40pm

After trying everything I could think of, I've concluded that Windows 7 will not backup to a network share drive ... at least not mine.I've also had issues with both Kaspersky and AVG causing blue screen crashes: IRQL Not Less or Equal BSOD.After uninstalling them both (Kaspersky was pretty hard to uninstall), I installed Norton 360 and so far, the IRQL error has stopped occuring.Norton 360 also has a backup facility that was able to backup to my network share with no problemswith no request for a user id or password. It works kind of like OneCare did. OneCare is incompatible with Windows 7.So far, I've seen nothing compelling about Windows 7 and should I decide to move to it on my main system after it's released, I may be forced to also purchase Norton.The only thing I was hoping Windows 7 would offer was to backup a complete system image and not just documents and files like both OneCare and Norton.I'llkeep checking but at this point, I've given up that Windows 7 willl provide backup to a network share.Thanks to all for the suggestions.
February 11th, 2009 5:53am

well if you want to backup to that network share your gonna have to create a user password for that machine which you can do by in the control panel & account settings, as for antiviral software, try out either these free ones, Microsoft Security Essentials or avast home, hope that helps!
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January 10th, 2010 9:31pm

I had the same problem as you are having with Win 7 Backup. I solved the blue screen problem by turning off Avast before backing up my computer to a network shared drive. Good luck. Hope this helps.Al
January 13th, 2010 4:29pm

I had an identical problem under Win7Pro with a Dlink DNS 323 network drive which is shared openly on my wired network. No need for passwords there! Just go into the configuration setup for your network box and add a user and associated password to the box's permitted users and groups (even if you don't have to use that user and password from your PC, just set it up as a login OPTION on the network box), and use that permission for Windows 7's backups. It worked great for me.MSI Wind/XP SP3
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March 20th, 2010 12:24am

Ramesh's suggestion worked for me. To be more verbose: In Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing, I turned off "Password protected sharing" on the source pc, with no change in behavior. (That is, the backup setup dialog box still demanded a user and password and rejected all my guesses.) I then turned off "Password protected sharing" on the target pc. Then, on the source pc, I entered a username that exists only on the source pc and a password that exists on neither pc. Clicking "OK" in the backup dialog box took me to the next screen. If I were more committed to science, I would restore the source pc to its original state, since I doubt that the setting on the source pc matters. Thanks, Ramesh!
October 2nd, 2010 5:11pm

Ramesh's suggestion worked for me. To be more verbose: In Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing, I turned off "Password protected sharing" on the source pc, with no change in behavior. (That is, the backup setup dialog box still demanded a user and password and rejected all my guesses.) I then turned off "Password protected sharing" on the target pc. Then, on the source pc, I entered a username that exists only on the source pc and a password that exists on neither pc. Clocking "OK" in the backup dialog box took me to the next screen. If I were more committed to science, I would restore the source pc to its original state, since I doubt that the setting on the source pc matters. Thanks, Ramesh!
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October 2nd, 2010 5:13pm

Thanks for that man. I really hate this rout that Microsoft is taking forcing a password for everything. Do they not realize that there ARE scenarios where people just do not require passwords? I have 5 devices on my network and none of them require passwords, yet setting up the home group and trying to backup to my NAS is a pain in the butt because it asks for passwords that simply do not exist. There is nothing top secret on my computers, and no data I cannot do without so I just do not require all this password c-r-a-p . For the home group setup we had to finally relent and set up a password. Of course no one remembers what it is now. Lucky setting up a home group is pretty easy and if we have to do it again it only takes a couple of minutes. I was looking all over Microsoft's sites for help regarding using the Windows 7 Pro 64 backup software to backup my system to the NAS, and nowhere could I find a way around this password requirement. I`m not the only person who was asking but no where could any of the high salary engineers respond with the simple "log into your NAS software and set up a new account". Simple solution. Why can they not just put an option in the network settings that says "DISABLE ALL PASSWORD REQUIREMENTS", because frankly for a home user to have to go through all this c-r-a-p just to backup to a NAS is ridiculous. It's fine for business users, and since Windows 7 home versions are so crippled that they cannot even backup to a NAS at all that version of Windows 7 is just not acceptable. Your solution, while still requiring me to setup an account in my NAS, was better than continuing to pull out my hair because MS insists on doing dumb things with their operating systems. Requiring passwords for so many things is one of those dumb things (or at least not including an option to disable this requirement). Thanks for your suggestion. It had not even occurred to me to set up the account on the NAS instead of trying to use Windows. Of course, now I have to remember the creds for this account, but it`s better than nothing. Of course, now other errors are popping up. The last one, while the backup is going on it stops and says "The Network Name is no longer available", how cryptic of them. At least clicking on the retry button got it going again, but how could "the network name" suddenly disappear? I'm pretty disappointed in Windows 7 in this regard. I would have thought it would be a little more polished for functions such as this. No wonder so many people are leaving to go to the Mac platform. I never would, but for people who are not technically inclined, none of them would want to go through this kind of garbage just to backup to a network drive (the drive itself was pretty much plug and play). Thanks again bud. Edit: FYI, I have been getting a 0x80070005 error about 5 or 10% of the way into the backup. Checking into the error, it seems to have something to do with permissions (oh joy). So, I used the admin credentials from my NAS and so far it seems to be working. Hey Microsoft! How about fixing some of these very frustrating problems you have created with your accounts/passwords/privileges settings? I am logged in with an administrator account, and yet Windows STILL tells me at times that I don't have the access I need to do some things. That's when I have to spend tons of time looking for a way to correct the problem when it should have JUST WORKED in the first place. During the Windows installation, it should ask you if you want the system set up with accounts and permissions. Some of us can do without them. Even at the risk of malware or viruses, I would still chose to do without accounts and permissions because I'm careful enough to have never gotten a virus in over 20 years and I would rather not have to go through all the frustrations caused by having all these settings. Sorry for the rant, but having something as simple as a backup to a network storage drive turn into an entire evening of having to troubleshoot problems that could have been avoided really gets my goat.
December 15th, 2010 9:00pm

Thanks for that man. I really hate this rout that Microsoft is taking forcing a password for everything. Do they not realize that there ARE scenarios where people just do not require passwords? I have 5 devices on my network and none of them require passwords, yet setting up the home group and trying to backup to my NAS is a pain in the butt because it asks for passwords that simply do not exist. There is nothing top secret on my computers, and no data I cannot do without so I just do not require all this password c-r-a-p . For the home group setup we had to finally relent and set up a password. Of course no one remembers what it is now. Lucky setting up a home group is pretty easy and if we have to do it again it only takes a couple of minutes. I was looking all over Microsoft's sites for help regarding using the Windows 7 Pro 64 backup software to backup my system to the NAS, and nowhere could I find a way around this password requirement. I`m not the only person who was asking but no where could any of the high salary engineers respond with the simple "log into your NAS software and set up a new account". Simple solution. Why can they not just put an option in the network settings that says "DISABLE ALL PASSWORD REQUIREMENTS", because frankly for a home user to have to go through all this c-r-a-p just to backup to a NAS is ridiculous. It's fine for business users, and since Windows 7 home versions are so crippled that they cannot even backup to a NAS at all that version of Windows 7 is just not acceptable. Last edit. Once again, only this time about 50% of the way through, I get the same error (0x80070005). That's it, I give up. I will never attempt to use the MS backup software again. Frankly I feel it wouldn't take a genius to make the o/s actually recognize that the admin account has admin access. I should have known better. Every time I trust MS software to do what I need it fails in one way or another. Their operating systems are not bad in general, but problems like this while trying to do something simple are just not acceptable in any way. I will never bother trying a MS solution again. Your solution, while still requiring me to setup an account in my NAS, was better than continuing to pull out my hair because MS insists on doing dumb things with their operating systems. Requiring passwords for so many things is one of those dumb things (or at least not including an option to disable this requirement). Thanks for your suggestion. It had not even occurred to me to set up the account on the NAS instead of trying to use Windows. Of course, now I have to remember the creds for this account, but it`s better than nothing. Of course, now other errors are popping up. The last one, while the backup is going on it stops and says "The Network Name is no longer available", how cryptic of them. At least clicking on the retry button got it going again, but how could "the network name" suddenly disappear? I'm pretty disappointed in Windows 7 in this regard. I would have thought it would be a little more polished for functions such as this. No wonder so many people are leaving to go to the Mac platform. I never would, but for people who are not technically inclined, none of them would want to go through this kind of garbage just to backup to a network drive (the drive itself was pretty much plug and play). Thanks again bud. Edit: FYI, I have been getting a 0x80070005 error about 5 or 10% of the way into the backup. Checking into the error, it seems to have something to do with permissions (oh joy). So, I used the admin credentials from my NAS and so far it seems to be working. Hey Microsoft! How about fixing some of these very frustrating problems you have created with your accounts/passwords/privileges settings? I am logged in with an administrator account, and yet Windows STILL tells me at times that I don't have the access I need to do some things. That's when I have to spend tons of time looking for a way to correct the problem when it should have JUST WORKED in the first place. During the Windows installation, it should ask you if you want the system set up with accounts and permissions. Some of us can do without them. Even at the risk of malware or viruses, I would still chose to do without accounts and permissions because I'm careful enough to have never gotten a virus in over 20 years and I would rather not have to go through all the frustrations caused by having all these settings. Sorry for the rant, but having something as simple as a backup to a network storage drive turn into an entire evening of having to troubleshoot problems that could have been avoided really gets my goat.
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December 15th, 2010 9:01pm

Having something as simple as a backup to a network storage drive turn into an entire evening of having to troubleshoot problems that could have been avoided really gets my goat. Very eloquently stated. I hate using a password on my server because I don't want to have to switch to it and log in every time it updates. I've spent the last hour and a half figuring out this exact same procedure and mucking through every set of "credentials" I can think of before I came to terms that it just simply won't work without a password, even though I can access the folders just fine and whatnot otherwise. It's inconsistencies like this that drive me insane! I appreciate how everything is becoming more end user friendly (less time I have to waste to accomplish the same thing) but for something as simple as this, I would have expected the process to be more polished
April 23rd, 2011 1:48pm

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