Cant access Vista hard drives from XP desktop

I can access my XP machines (harddrives) by entering \\computername\C$ in an
explorer address bar. I cannot access my Vista notebook in the same network.
It prompts me for credentials(user name and password). I have one user account per machine. Both my C and D drives on Vista has shared enable. I dont have a password set on Vista. So why is it asking for password and user name?

 

You running SP3? This has fixed some problems for me in the XP/Vista arena:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=4f01a31d-ee46-481e-ba11-37f485fa34ea

One thing that WILL work (ok, usually), is if you give your XP box the SAME username and password as the Vista one, then you will have valid "credentials"

 

mmm actually I had this issue way before installing SP3 on my xp machine. see I dont have any password set on both machines. Under the drives I want to shared in Vista I had permission set to everyone (full access) I just dont understand why it asking me for a password.

 

I don't pretend to understand networking in XP...if you ask me a it's a big pile of poo...something that Vista-hating XP-fan-boys always fail to mention.

If you're desperate, set a password on either side. I seam to remember years ago how to set a truly "empty" password. Something about how leaving it blank didn't work, but if you tweaked/set it somehow the blank password would then work. (sounds crazy right?)

UPDATE:
AHAH!
www.theeldergeek.com/blank_password_network_access.htm

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=XP+networking+administrator+blank+password

 

Go to your Vista Network and Sharing Center, Password Protected Sharing is on.

 

I am there and I noticed that under Public folder sharing is set to
On(password required). How could I remove password required?

 

Click the little green button next to Password Protected Sharing and it should open up a box directly below it with options to turn it off.

 

If the above doesn't work I think your best bet is to actually create a password on the said .Vista machine; try to connect to it again and enter those credentials. I believe having a password to connect to shared files like that is mandatory...I could be wrong though.

 

If you want to access C$ from the netwrok, you must have password set on your username. It is a security feature on Windows. If you get this far, I assume that you don't have network problem. Just have the password on your account would fix the problem.

 

Thanks for this confirmation merlin.

EDIT: +Rep Meetloaf...very informative information that I overlooked.

 

I also believe the passwords are necessary by default. In XP Pro, the get around is by using Group Policy Editor. It can also be downloaded for XP home. Now, Vista being a warmed over XP, I'd bet has a similar feature. So look into Group Policy to bypass passwording. Keep in mind the vulnerabilities involved.

 

thanks. I guess I will create a password for my vista account. Reason why I never setup a password is I wanted access right away to my computer.

 

Remedy
http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=vista+auto+login

 

i thought this was about network sharing, not OS login's.

 

thanks.

 

thanks everyone for your help. apparently all I had to do was setup a password for my vista computer. Now I am able to access my files.

 

super cheers!