I'm not a windows expert in any sense - OS/2 here - but having read of the problems some NAS users are having with win7 seeing the shares available I would say try looking at the firewall settings and security permissions. Those two appear to hold the key to what win7 will and will not 'see' be it on the network or by direct connection.

If the ADB is available for Linux then I would recommend that he uses one of the live CDs and trys that.