New PC with Windows 11 Home not seeing WD Drive on my Home Network,

Question

I have just purchased a new PC with Windows 11 Home. I now cannot see my external WD HDD that is on my home network. I am reading bogs about Group Policy being different and may be preventing access to the drive. What is the fix for this as the ext HDD is my local backup with all my home files on?

Thanks

Kevin

***moved from Windows / Windows 11 / Files, folders, and storage***

Answer 1

Hello,

Based on the information you provided, I suggest you try the following operations to see if the problem can be solved:

1.Turn on the sharing service to start automatically. This problem usually occurs when one of the services is not working properly.

Press the Windows logo key + R.

In the Run dialog box, type "services.msc" and then select OK.

Right-click each of the following services, select Properties, and if the service is not running, select the Start menu, and then select Automatic next to Startup Type:

Function Discovery Provider Host

Publishing Feature Discovery Resources

SSDP Discovery

UPnP Device Host

2.As an administrator and run the following command to modify the registry to enable SMBV1.

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters" SMB1 -type DWORD -Value 1 -Force

Restart your computer after running the above command.

Best Regards

Zunhui

Answer 2

Hello

I tried to follow your instructions but had the following issues:

1. Publishing Feature Discovery Resources was not listed
2. Set-ItemProperty is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

I was running the cmd as administrator

One observation I want to share my laptop is running Windows 11 Version 23H2 and does not have this issue, I can access the files on the WD Drive on my Home network.

My new PC cam with Windows 11 Version 24H2

Would it be easy to change my new PC Windows 11 to Version 23H2?

Thanks for the help

Answer 3

Hi,

If your system is Windows 11 version 24H2, I suspect the problem is caused by the SMB signature. I recommend that you open PowerShell as an administrator and run the following command to disable SMB signing and restart your computer to see if the problem can be resolved:

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false

Control SMB signing behavior | Microsoft Learn

If the problem persists, please reply here with a screenshot of the error message that appears when trying to log in to a NAS, as this will help us resolve the issue.

Best Regards

Zunhui

Answer 4

Hi

Changing the SMB settings resolve the issue and I am now able to connect to the external WD drive on my home network.

Thank you so much for the help.

Best regards

Kevin

Answer 5

Hi Kevin,

You're welcome, thank you for your reply, glad to hear that your issue has been resolved, your feedback is greatly appreciated, please click "yes" or "no" in the answer above that has resolved your issue to help us improve the support experience and help others with similar issues.

If you have any questions in the future, please reconnect with the Microsoft Community.

Best regards

Zunhui