# Unable to Access Shares on Windows 7 PC



## Meat Axe (Feb 16, 2010)

Hey everyone.

I'm really hoping someone can help me out. I've been searching for an answer to this all day, and while I've found some examples of people with similar problems to me, nothing seems to help.

Basically, I'm trying to get all of the files off a hfs partition on an external harddrive so that I can reformat the drive. The problem is that my Windows machine is the only one with enough space to do this, and, of course, Windows cannot see the hfs partition, and I can't remove it.

So I've been trying to copy the files from my Macbook Pro across the network. Unfortunately, this is the part that has proven difficult. My Windows machine does not show up in the list of shares in Finder, so I need to use Go > Connect to Server... While this works initially after first booting up, it seems to disconnect after a few minutes and all attempts to reconnect just display a connecting box for a short while, and then an error message; "Connection Failed. There was an error connecting to the server. Check the server name or IP address and try again."

I can ping my Windows machine, so there is nothing wrong with the IP, or the connection on a basic level, but for some reason I cannot connect. I've tried disabling Firewalls on both machines, and that hasn't helped. One thing I did notice is that the connection seems to remain stable as long as I do not access the network on my Windows machine. For instance, earlier this evening it disconnected as soon as I tried to use the internet.

Anyway, any help anyone can give me would be much appreciated.


----------



## hillelc (Jun 30, 2010)

Finally... this is the EXACT same problem that I'm happing. I can access the windows 7 share intermittently. Usually after a reboot of the mac I'm using to access it. But ultimately, I get "connection failed" and the mac can't even see the Win7 PC.

Did you ever figure this out?


----------



## Mi_Mini (Aug 5, 2010)

hillelc said:


> Finally... this is the EXACT same problem that I'm happing. I can access the windows 7 share intermittently. Usually after a reboot of the mac I'm using to access it. But ultimately, I get "connection failed" and the mac can't even see the Win7 PC.
> 
> Did you ever figure this out?



I had the same problem and worked around it by making a remote desktop connection from my iMac to the windows machine. Then I moved the files that way. Hope this helps


----------



## hillelc (Aug 5, 2010)

I found something that worked for me.

Don't asked me why it worked. It's insane.

But it did.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wndp/archive/2006/11/03/enable_5f00_vista_5f00_network_5f00_map.aspx

The instructions are for vista, but i applied them to my windows7 machine that was having trouble being found on the network.

It's been a couple of weeks and things have worked properly ever since.

good luck.


----------

