Unable to access file folders on external hard drive when moved to another computer

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

Computers are 2 HP laptops running Windows 7.  The 2 computers are in 2 differenet locations.  In order to keep my Word and Excel files up to date I purchased a WD 750 gb external hard drive.  My Passport.  Word and Excel files were copied successfully to the 1st computer.  External hard drive was connected to second computer and the Word and Excel files were unaccessible. 

I assumed the WD external hard drive would operate like a memory stock, DVD or flash drive and that the files would be easily accessible.  Not the case.

 An error message was received that “the file was not accessible” and “You don’t currently have permission to access the folder”.

What am I doing wrong?

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P.S…  I changed the Excel and Word batch files from drive C: to drive F: and had no problem accessing the folder location but was unable to open the files and got the previously mentioned error message.

3

Should have read my lst post more carefully  “copied successfully the Word and Excel files from the lst computer to the external hard drive”

4

With the drive hooked to first PC go in and change sharing permisions and see if that’s it. Windows 7 and Vista can be fussy about that.

Joe

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5

Thanks for the help.  I won’t be back at the lst computer until next week but I will try and see if changing sharing helps.

6

ouch - i copied onto external my passport from laptop 1, which I am no longer in posession of. 

when i try to copy from external my passport onto new laptop, i get the same error:

“the file was not accessible” and “You don’t currently have permission to access the folder”.

any other suggestions?

7

Something else I just thought of for both Vista and Windows 7.  Along with the permissions in advanced sharing there is Take Possesion. You’ll have to google that. The sharing in Vista Windows 7 can be a real pain.

Joe

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