Unable to Share DVD Drives

I set up a private home network last week between two desktop computers, and all of my selected folders have been shared successfully between the two, however both computers will not allow me access to the other's DVD drive. Everything with with them has been set up exactly like my shared folders, with access set to 'Everyone' for both DVD drives. My old computer has Vista (32-bit), and my main computer has Windows 10 Pro (64-bit).

With each machine, these are the errors I get below (screenshots).

Thinking that I was doing something wrong, I looked up an article on how to share DVD drives, and I have both computers set up exactly as it explains here for both DVD drives: Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 - Sharing a CD/DVD Drive on a Network

Is there something that I'm missing?

dalchina said:

Hi, I see exactly the same between my 2 PCs.

This goes on to mapping the shared drive- tried that too- same outcome.
How to Share CD & DVD Drives Over the Network on Windows

There is a solution posted here (reads oddly as a page) - which I've not tried. Back up appropriately.
[FIXED] CD/DVD ROM Access Denied - Grant Permission [Windows 10/8/7/XP Tutorial]
- skip down to
Just follow the instructions to permit the fix CD/DVD access denied issue in Windows:

The same fix (albeit for Win7) is offered near the bottom:
Access to CD/DVD Drive is Denied through Windows 7 Explorer (Permission Problem) - Super User

Thank you so much for this. Wow, I guess this is a very common issue then. I didn't map the shared drive before, but I just tried to see if it would work, and unfortunately, it didn't. The main error that comes up is that the drive/device is not ready. Weird.

Thank you for the articles with the Regit fix, but not sure if I want to try that or not. I did read it, and it doesn't seem difficult, but I'll have to think about it more lol. I assume that this fix has to be performed on both computers, correct? My one (old) machine is Vista, so I guess it will be similar procedure for that too, even though both of the articles you gave me cover XP, 7, 8 and 10.

I may have read this post wrong but I believe that one cannot access a DVD drive unless media is loaded and the contents are visible in File Explorer.

JackHughs

JackHughs said:

I may have read this post wrong but I believe that one cannot access a DVD drive unless media is loaded and the contents are visible in File Explorer.

JackHughs

Wow, that worked! Put a DVD in the drive I wanted to play from, then went to my other networked computer. When I opened up the networked DVD drive, it opened up a file explorer window which had two folders; one for video and one for audio. Right clicked on the video folder, and selected 'Play with VLC media player,' and wal-la, it played it just perfect!

I have two desktop computers side by side, and my older machine which has Vista, won't play certain DVD's that I have. What would solve the problem without having to replace the drive or buying an external drive, would be to be able to use the DVD drive in my networked main computer (Win 10). I'm really glad this works. Thanks so much for the tip and help!

dalchina said:

Wonder why it didn't work for me...

I have no answers but, here's a conjecture or two.

Perhaps the OP's success is partly due to one PC running Vista with SMBv1 enabled by default. I've searched the internet to find any comments relating to the file structure of CD/DVD and if that file structure is reliant on SMBv1 for transfer. So far, I've come up empty.

Also, I suppose that Vista could contain MS Media Center functionality that was designed to to reach out to media devices on other machines.

Other than these random thoughts, I'm stumped.

JackHughs