network doesn't see drive

Hi all and thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
I have 2 computers in my peer-to-peer network using xp pro. All working fine until I tried to get a new external hdd to be viewed on the network.

Computer 1 (xp pro) has the external hdd which is drive J.
When I looked to see if Computer 2 (xp pro) could see it, it saw the drive but I couldn't get into it and no access. I did set it up right (or thought I had with sharing etc.) I thought well I'll get rid of drive J on Computer 2 and go through resetting my network from scratch (with new network name) and see if I can get it back. No such luck. When I look at Drive J on computer 1 it shows it's sharing and access to all but still no show on computer 2.

I'm trying to use the external drive for a backup drive for both computers but until I can get computer 2 to see it I'm stuck.

Thanks again
Califgal55

Are you getting an error messages when you try to access the drive from the second computer?

When you shared the hard drive, did you make sure that you ticked the option to allow network users to modify the data?

Also, try making sure that on both computers you're using accounts with exactly the same username and password.