0x80070035 error - Windows cannot access //ASROCK-PC

I received this error attempting to access a shared network drive - I was able to connect to this drive with Win7 Pro installed on my laptop, then upgraded to Win8Pro saving all Windows Settings, then was no longer able to access the drive.

I had to turn off Password Protected Sharing on the source computer to access this shared file with my Win8 laptop - I would rather have password protected sharing activated.

I was not prompted to enter a password when I attempted to access the drive originally using Win8 when Password Protected Sharing was enabled on the source computer - where can I enter this password?

Any suggestions?

Well, that error code is:
ERROR_BAD_NETPATH
# The network path was not found.
So, you won't get prompted for auth if you never get challenged for it. Your windows 8 box can't find the remote machine you're trying to connect to - can you ping it by name, or find it via nslookup?

Since it works when I disable password protected sharing on the file server - yes it can find the remote machine. If I turn password protected sharing on I get the error, and don't know why Win8 doesn't prompt me for auth.

The error is interesting then. Mind getting two separate network traces, one from a working and one from a non-working attempt? The error would indicate it's not finding the path, but I suppose it's possible it's not finding a viable path (rather than not finding the remote machine itself).

The network trace should tell us what happened.

I was working on another issue and ended up creating a new homegroup between my devices - before I got to your post. When I went back in to turn on password protected sharing my access was restored, but it still didn't ask for authentication - perhaps it was saved in my Windows Settings from Win7.

Either way, it works now, but I polluted the process, so unfortunately I don't know why. It's possible fixing the homegroup issue also fixed this issue, but I didn't think these two should be related. Thanks for your suggestions.

I ruled out Homegroup changes - I rebooted and could not access the shared folder again - got the same error.

I was able to verify connectivity with the file server - I could browse public folders assigned to the new home group, however, I could not access the shared network folder with password protection on.

However, once I did a nslookup on the file server, I was able to access the shared folder.

I rebooted - had no access to the shared folder - pinged the IP address of the file server - I was able to access the shared folder.

FYI my laptop (win8) is connected wirelessly through a router - the router is wired to a switch, the switch to my file server (Win7).