Unable To Access Files On Windows 10 Share
 

Hello, I'm unble to connect to a Windows 10 Home share from Mint Linux (Cinnamon 3.6.6 Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia). In Mint, under 'Network', I can see my Windows PC. When I double click on the icon for my Windows PC, it asks for username, Domain, and Password.
username: I entered my Linux username
Domain: Was automatically polulated with 'WORKGROUP'
Password: I entered in my Linux password

Once I clicked on 'Connect', it listed 5 items. Since I shared my entire 'C' folder from Windows, I see both a 'C' and 'C$' (these are 2 out of the 5 items).
- When I click on 'C', it throws an error saying 'Unable To Mount Location'
- When I click on 'C$', a box pops up indicating 'Password required for share c$ on deskop-xxxx'
- If I choose 'Anonymous' and then 'Connect', it will not connect
- If I choose 'Registered User', it is asking for username, Domain and Password.

I 'think' I have tried both my Linux credentials and my Windows 10 credentials (and a combination) and I'm unable to connect to the c$ (which I assume is the correct location to connect). AFAIK, my Windows 10 PC is not part of Workgroup and I have turned on file and printer sharing and then allowed 'Everyone' full permissions for the Share in Windows.

Any help is great appreciated!

Hey okorkie,

I think your problem is more Windows-related than linux. In Windows, you can't normally share the c:\ directory. It requires THE Administrator account plus a specific parameter to permit sharing. In any case, it is not good practice, since it insecurely exposes Windows system files. If you need to perform sysadmin functions remotely, I would suggest SSH.

For standard folder sharing, common practice is to share either en entire user-space directory tree or a subset thereof.

Also, make sure your credentials (user name and password) are the same for both the Windows system and your linux system. This will greatly facilitate access.

Hope this helps ! Let us know if you require further assistance.

Cheers.

Thank you for the quick reply... I agree with you about it being more of a Windows issue. Regarding the sharing of the C:\ directory, I wasn't aware of that (it makes total sense), so I decided to share a folder under the C:\ directory called 'test'. After turning on sharing, the directory does show up in the Linux GUI file system - however, when I double click on it, I receive an error indicating 'unable to mount location.. failed to mount Windows share: Permission denied'.

I guess I should state that the purpose of this exercise is to be able to copy folders from my Windows PC to my Linux PC as I will be returning my Windows PC back to the original owner.

I'll just use WinSCP to copy from my Windows PC to my Linux PC - transfer is currently in progress.

Hi again okorkie ...

Although I see that you've decided to opt for a file-transfer based solution, I was curious as to whether you had made sure to have identical credentials on both the Windows and linux machines ? Also, make sure that on the Windows side, you don't have any share-based or ntfs-based restrictions on WHO can access remotely.

Cheers !

Use the Event Viewer utility on Windows to check the log-messages which will have been recorded when Windows denied you access.

In Linux, I see the Windows folder I have shared (based upon the earlier response, I shared a folder under c:\ instead of the actual c:\ directory), when I double click it, it displays 'unable to mount location'. Then I go to my Windows PC and when I look In the Event Viewer under 'Windows Logs', then 'Security', it seems like the error message associated with the 'unable to mount location' error in Linux is:

An account was logged off.

Subject:
Security ID: DESKTOP-XXXXXX\Guest
Account Name: Guest
Account Domain: DESKTOP-XXXXXX
Logon ID: 0x4062DFD

Logon Type: 3

This event is generated when a logon session is destroyed. It may be positively correlated with a logon event using the Logon ID value. Logon IDs are only unique between reboots on the same computer.

Rickkk - I do not have identical credentials on both the Windows and linux machines (they are close though). As far as the sharing on the folder goes, 'Everyone' has full control and I don't see anything related to NTFS.

Hi okorkie,

It looks like you are defaulting to using the "Guest" account on the Windows machine when trying to mount the share from your linux computer. This may be at least part of the issue. The "Guest" account on Windows machines is often disabled by default - check that first. Secondly, policies on Windows may prevent remote logins (ex. mounting a share) with the Guest account even if it is enabled. You may have to dig a bit more into the permissions stuff on the Windows computer to determine whether this is the case.

Long story short, it may not be worth your while to do any of this if you are returning the Windows computer to its owner and have succeeded in copying your files another way (WinSCP). For future reference, and based on years of personal experience, to successfully communicate between a linux computer and a Windows computer, it is much simpler when the user code and password are identical on both systems.

Cheers - let us know if you want to pursue this.

Hi, thanks again for all of the support. After a quick Google search, it appears that Windows 10 does not support 'guest' accounts. The article that I found that states that Windows 10 does not support 'guest' accounts says that you will find plenty of articles showing you how to do it, but the fact is that it will not work. I did find another article that stated how to create a visitor account, but after a very, very quick attempt (and no troubleshooting), this didn't work for me either.

Since I have transferred all of the files using WinSCP, we can considered this topic 'closed'.

Thanks again!

"You still must be 'logged on', somehow," in order to access a Windows share. This message can appear in EV when you are not logged on.

You should set things up so that, when establishing the share, you must enter a valid Windows user-name and password. (I do not recommend defaulting it.) Windows does :eek: have a security scheme, and it must be respected and followed.

Hi thanks for this... Unfortunately I still could not get this to work but I was able to successfully transfer all of the files via WinSCP. I will be returning my PC to the original owner on Monday.