Windows XP Home Drive Question

We have a small network set up in our office; 10 individual computers (Variation of XP Home/ Windows 7) and one "server" computer.

The "server" is a regular desktop computer which has it's hard drive split into 3 partitions, Partion A, B, and C.

The "server" partition A has the OS windows XP Home SP3 installed, and runs basic programs saved on partition A. (not shared)

The "server" partition B holds shared files which the other 10 computers share on the network. (shared)

The "server" partition C holds private information which is not shared on the network. (not shared)

Our old "server" was a windows 95 computer which recently died. We moved the data from the old Win95 computer to partition B on the new Win XP Home "server".

We now have 10 computers all connected to the Windows XP Home "server" partition B. But there is an issue. Windows XP Home has a incomming connection limit of 5 users. We need 10 users to access the shared network (Server partition B ) at the same time.

Normally I would just suggest to upgrade to windows XP Pro/Windows 7-8 to raise the user limit to 10+, however our software on partion A will be a huge headache if we try to use a new operating sytem, or move it to a new computer. So upgrading to a new operating system, or moving the software to a windows 7 computer isnt really an option.

Moving the shared files off of Partition B to another Win7 computer is an option, but I'd like to avoid this option if possible. All the network links and destinations are set up to "server" partition B, so i'd like to keep the files where they are if I can.

So my question is; without breaking any agreement terms from microsoft, is there a way to treat partitioned hard drives (partition B ) as "external hard drives" so they are not bound by the same 5 incomming connection limit that partition A is restricted to?

My ideal setup would to have partition B on the "server" have no limit to users connecting to it, while partition A of the "server" which hosts the operating system still does have the 5 user limit. Is this possible?

Any other possible solutions?

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