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I have been helping a friend to set up his new Windows 7 PC and most things have been OK, but I have hit a roadblock in using the Windows Easy Transfer program to get his old information and settings from his several years old XP machine. The problem is not with Windows Easy Transfer - I have used that several times before and it works well. The problem is getting his XP machine to be seen by his Win7 machine on his home network. I have linked XP systems to Win 7 machines a few times before and it is often tricky, but this one is baffling.
I should point out that when I first had difficulty doing this, I thought I would take the easy way out and just do the transfer by using an external hard drive. Unfortunately, when the XP machine was writing the 19GB file to the external drive, it encountered some type of error (the messages were of no help in determining what the error was) and the transfer file was corrupted and unusable on the Win7 system. I did not want to try this again because it took several hours to write the file (the XP system has only USB 1.1), so I reverted to trying to get the two PCs talking to each other on the network.
It's a simple network. The two PCs are both connected by cable to the same router. I have searched several online forums to get help on this and I'm hoping that DCT can provide some step that I'm missing. I have made sure that both systems are using the same name (WORKGROUP) for their network and I have enabled file sharing on both systems, making sure that both systems let everyone access files. On the Win7 system, I have enabled network discovery and all the other necessary settings in Advanced Sharing, including saying that I am not using homegroups. And I have made the network a Work network rather than a Home network.
When I go to Network and Sharing on the Win7 system, it shows the XP system, but when I click on it to see a file, it says I do not have permission and ironically says I should contact the network administrator, which is myself. I thought Firewalls might be the blocking factor so I disabled the firewalls on both systems - McAfee on the Win7 and Avast on the XP. Still the same result.
Can anyone suggest how to get these PCs talking?
Hi, and welcome to the forum. 
Haven't had any first hand experience networking XP and Win7 myself but a little research reveals there are many variables which can affect the success (or failure) of this process and, accordingly, many different solutions. The most common fix seems to be a simple registry edit on the XP machine - information from MS:
"Error message when you try to access a Windows XP-based network computer: "You might not have permission to use this network resource"
To resolve this issue, set the value of the restrictanonymous registry entry to 0. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
- Locate and then double-click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlLsa
- On the right side, double-click restrictanonymous.
- Make sure that the value in the Value data box is set to 0, and then click OK.
- Close Registry Editor.
- Restart the computer.
Suggested reading: HERE and HERE.
Cheers...Jim
Jim Hillier said
Hi, and welcome to the forum.
Haven't had any first hand experience networking XP and Win7 myself but a little research reveals there are many variables which can affect the success (or failure) of this process and, accordingly, many different solutions. The most common fix seems to be a simple registry edit on the XP machine - information from MS:
"Error message when you try to access a Windows XP-based network computer: "You might not have permission to use this network resource"
To resolve this issue, set the value of the restrictanonymous registry entry to 0. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
- Locate and then double-click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlLsa- On the right side, double-click restrictanonymous.
- Make sure that the value in the Value data box is set to 0, and then click OK.
- Close Registry Editor.
- Restart the computer.
Suggested reading: HERE and HERE.
Cheers...Jim
Thanks for the quick response, Jim. I will be at my friend's home to have another go at this in the next day or two and I will certainly give this a try. I'll also investigate your other suggested reading sources. I particularly appreciate your taking the time to check out these sources since you have not had to face this problem yourself!
Happy New Year!
Patrick
Jim Hillier said
No problem Patrick, Happy New Year to you too mate.
Let us know how you get on, if no joy then I'll refer the issue to one of our more technically adept team members and see if they can help.
Cheers...Jim
I'm very happy to report, Jim, that the registry fix that you dug up did the trick! I was at my friend's today and after applying the change, we sailed through the Windows Easy Transfer without a hitch. After four previous visits to his home and at least 12 hours trying to get this working, this was quite a relief!
Patrick
Well Patrick, I'm glad you were able to make the transfer. Just curious with a few questions, how long did it take the wizard to make the transfer, as with transferring using USB 1.1, and were you able to restore that corrupted file. Thanks, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
mindblower said
Well Patrick, I'm glad you were able to make the transfer. Just curious with a few questions, how long did it take the wizard to make the transfer, as with transferring using USB 1.1, and were you able to restore that corrupted file. Thanks, Mindblower!
When I attempted to make the transfer using a hard drive connected to the USB 1.1 port, The Windows Easy Transfer (WET) program estimated the required time to be over 6 hours. Since I did not stay around to find out, I'm not sure how long it actually took.
Once we managed to get the two systems to see each other, the transfer took about two and a half hours - didn't really try to time it. I did not try to restore the corrupted file. As I recall, it was about 12GB, whereas the estimated (by WET) size of the file to be transferred was almost 20GB, so I figured the corrupted file was not all there and not worth trying to use. I still have to go back to my friend's home tomorrow to get him set up with email, printing and scanning. I hope his printer and scanner have Win7 drivers.
Excellent reply Patrick. I recently purchased an external drive with USB 3.0 ability, and a PCI 3.0 slot card. Unfortunately the card does not work (returned), but the external drive does have a hidden ability to transfer via the USB 2.0 ports at a faster rate than my other external USB 2.0 drive. Makes little sense, but I'm happy.
Just wanted to know the approximate times, which I now know.
On a side note, I've been using a program called ZtreeWin (off shoot of famous DOS Xtree) to transfer files, which I highly recommend, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
Jim Hillier
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