Windows 7 Dude...I'm so hosed up...Help?

So, I have a Windows 7 box that I use as a home server. I store all kinds of shared files on the machine include music, pictures, videos, home movies, work related, kids' homework, everything. I created the computer with two hard drives including a SDD drive that i use for the System's core files (the C drive). This has worked INCREDIBLY...the server boots up in 15 seconds flat...from dead cold to ready to go in 15 seconds, AMAZING. Over time, I've added more and more harddrives. Now, I'm up to 10 TB of drive space but my permissions and access have become completely hosed. Some people can access certain drives but not all of them. To confuse things even more, a user using ONE device can access Drive 1 but they cannot access drive 1 from a different computer on the network using the same login credentials. I've gotten my setup so confused that I just want to start over with respect to users, sharingm etc....general security settings for this machine as well as the other machines I want to connect to this server. I have a laptop, my wife and kids both have laptops that all use data on this machine. I also have two Logitech Revues that connect to the machine for movies, music and videos. They all still work...knock on wood. But things are REALLY messy. I can sit here on my laptop and try to connect via Windows Explorer and NOTHING....but as soon as I used VNC and connect to the machine with VNC, it works...perfectly. Can someone point me in the right direction to explain how to start over and maybe the CORRECT way I should set all of this up? I've been a programmer for over 10 years and I know just enough about Windows, obviously, to be dangerous....lol. Help?

Thanks in advance for whomever is crazy enough to help me out.