Windows 2000 -- Sharing Drives Across Network

[kaseytraeger]

This is a really dumb question, but I can't seem to find the answer on google. Maybe I'm using the wrong search phrase.

 

Basically, I want to share a drive on my computer with the other computer on my home network. I open File Explorer, highlight the drive I want to share, then right click and select Properties. In the pop-up dialog box, I choose the tab called "Sharing" and select the box that says "Share this folder". Then, I'm asked to give it a share name.

 

I vaguely recall doing this a few years ago, and I shared my drive with the name of E$. I've also seen drives shared as E. What is the difference between E$ and E?

 

[borfast]

Kasey, I'm not into Windows networking stuff anymore. Well, not as much as I used to, anyway

I don't think there's much of a difference besides being two different names - if Windows accepts the '$' as a valid character for the share name, that is.

 

Anyway, I'm moving this to a more appropriate forum, so you have more probability of someone finding this post and answering it.

[kevan_j]

E$ is a default administrative share which allows administators to see the entire contents of a drive over the network. It is not visible when you access a computer remotely. You have to use the UNC path from the client machine, ie:

\\computername\e$

then log in with the local adminstrator username and password (or your own if you are in the administrators group). When you right click on a drive and select the Sharing option from the pop-up menu, it will listy it as e$. You can't change permissions on this, but there should be a button on the dialog which says 'New Share' which will allow you to share the drive out as any name you want, and apply permissions to it.

[kaseytraeger]

Thanks for the tips. When I tried to share the drive, the default came up as E$, so I left it at that, and it seems to be working just fine. I can now see E: on my computer in the second bedroom from the computer in our home office (they are in two separate rooms).