i am running winxp home sp3 on my laptop and my desktop has win7 it has an external hdd that i want to be able to access from within xp is it just as easy with 2 win7 PCs?

Hi paul3200, You may follow the steps from the below link which has steps to how to connect and disconnect a network drive in Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308582 You may also refer the below link: Create a shortcut to (map) a network drive:http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Create-a-shortcut-to-map-a-network-drive Regards:Samhrutha G S - Microsoft Support.Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.