Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

ryannazaretian

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 21, 2008
649
5
Mississippi
Has anyone really tried out the ability to access your OSX Partition from Windows yet? I'm able to see mostly everything but the one folder I want to see, my home folder!

Empty.PNG

It just shows up empty. Maybe it's because I have my account password protected, but just for installing programs, not for logging in. Plus, if that was what is causing it to not work, Apple should have asked for a username and password to login to the folder.

Will Apple ever get its Windows Bootcamp software working correctly? They sure can never get it on the first try.
 
Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.60 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.2.14320/554; U; en) Presto/2.2.0)

I havent gotten SL yet but i was looking fowards to this feature
 
Dang, that's about my luck...

Is there anything to set up to get it to work?

Also, I envy you rgarjr... I want Windows 7 back, but some of the software for my school (engineering) won't work on 7, 64bit, or XP... So I'm stuck with Vista 32bit. :(
 
I had the same problem. I do not know the root of the problem, but I do know how to fix it. I did a clean install of Snow Leopard. By this I mean I booted the computer using the Snow Leopard disk and erased the Mac Drive. I then proceeded to install the Snow Leopard OS. Before I did this I backup my files using Time Machine and then just used the Migration Assistant to get back all my file and applications. Now I can boot into windows and access all of my files and documents on the Mac Drive. Hope this helps.
 
I called Apple about this yesterday. They said that it wasn't supposed to read the user folder except for exact files.

Whether or not that is BS, I'm not sure. I would like to hear more from other people about this because apparently it does work on some people's computers.
 
Try running Windows Explorer as admin?

You can use Windows search to show Windows Explorer,
then right click and "Run as administrator".
 
Try running Windows Explorer as admin?

You can use Windows search to show Windows Explorer,
then right click and "Run as administrator".

Nope doesn't work. Just shows an empty folder. So it works on some computers and not on others?

Here's another picture of my problem. I put in a few examples.
hfs explorer.PNG
 
Nope doesn't work. Just shows an empty folder. So it works on some computers and not on others?

Here's another picture of my problem. I put in a few examples.
View attachment 192218

Have you tried reinstalling the drivers?

Dang, that's about my luck...

Is there anything to set up to get it to work?

Also, I envy you rgarjr... I want Windows 7 back, but some of the software for my school (engineering) won't work on 7, 64bit, or XP... So I'm stuck with Vista 32bit. :(

This is completely irrelevant to the thread, but which software do you use for engineering? I only ask because I'm into my second year of engineering at college and am curious as to what software you're using.
 
same problem with xp

I'm having the same problem as rynannazaretian, with xp installed on both my macs. It's not a password problem, because I do have access to files and folders of other users whose mac accounts are password-protected, but my own home folder appears as empty. (My account is the only admistrator account under mac os.) I don't feel like doing a clean install at this point: too much work. Anyone else find anything that could help?
 
Have you tried reinstalling the drivers?

I don't see the driver in the list at al, but I may not be looking in the right place...



This is completely irrelevant to the thread, but which software do you use for engineering? I only ask because I'm into my second year of engineering at college and am curious as to what software you're using.

I'm an EE. The version of LabView that I have only works on XP or Vista. It won't install if its anything older or newer, even with compatibility turned on. I also have to use Xilinx ISE Webpack which is incompatible with 64bit at this time. I would run these in 'XP Mode,' but I'm afraid that virtualization will cause problems with connectivity in both software, plus it generally runs slower.

Since ungar can see files of other people, I might try to create a new account and see if it works, then move all my stuff to that account and remove my current account. Who knows, it might work!
 
The presence of the (invisible) file named .Xauthority in your home folder will prevent the Bootcamp HFS driver from showing your home directory. If you delete that file, you'll see your home folder again. If you then open X11 on the Mac side of things again, you'll get the .Xauthority file back and will need to remove it again to see your files in Windows.
 
The presence of the (invisible) file named .Xauthority in your home folder will prevent the Bootcamp HFS driver from showing your home directory. If you delete that file, you'll see your home folder again. If you then open X11 on the Mac side of things again, you'll get the .Xauthority file back and will need to remove it again to see your files in Windows.

I have deleted that file and rebooted, but I still can't see my home folder. Any suggestions?
 
Never mind. I had a couple .serverauth files that were also making the contents of that folder invisible in Windows.
 
Can I install this on my PC? I have an external drive using HFS+, and not being able to use it on windows is bugging me.
 
There is a very easy solution to this.
Just make shortcuts to the folder you want to access in your home folder. place them anywhere convenient.

eg. \Users\*username*\documents
X:\Users\*username*\documents
 
There is a very easy solution to this.
When you reach your home folder in explorer, and the path bar says "x:\users\*username*" just add a "\downloads" or "\music" etc. to the path and the folder will open directly.

Just make shortcuts to the folder you want to access in your home folder. place them anywhere convenient.
Do this for all or some of your folders. personally i have created just two shortcuts for downloads and documents.

\Users\*username*\documents ---> X:\Users\*username*\documents
 
There is a very easy solution to this.
When you reach your home folder in explorer, and the path bar says "x:\users\*username*" just add a "\downloads" or "\music" etc. to the path and the folder will open directly.

Just make shortcuts to the folder you want to access in your home folder. place them anywhere convenient.
Do this for all or some of your folders. personally i have created just two shortcuts for downloads and documents.

\Users\*username*\documents ---> X:\Users\*username*\documents

Yea... that doens't work. The .Xauthority file is created in every one of my home folder's folders.

Deleting the .Xauthority file fixes the problem, but one of my engineering programs, MatLab, uses X11, which recreates the .Xauthority files.
 
well i dont have an .xauthority file in my home folder, but i also found that the home folders were not visible too. you have to manually point to them.

i hadn't looked at your screenshot above, it seems you cant read the folders immediately in the home folder but can read subdirectories...
 
Yea... that doens't work. The .Xauthority file is created in every one of my home folder's folders.

Deleting the .Xauthority file fixes the problem, but one of my engineering programs, MatLab, uses X11, which recreates the .Xauthority files.


I managed to create a plist file for launchd, using Lingon, to delete .Xauthority file in the home folder every time it is created by X11.

Just create a .myscript.sh file (the first dot makes it invisible) containing:
Code:
if [ -f ~/.Xauthority ];
then
	rm ~/.Xauthority
	echo "File .Xauthority successfully deleted."
else
	echo "File .Xauthority not found."
fi
and place it in the home folder /Users/YOURNAME/


Then open Lingon 1.2 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/lingon/files/Lingon/1.2/Lingon-1.2.dmg/download) and create a new My Agent, configure as follow:


In tab Basic:

Label: what you want
ProgramArguments: a single line with this
Code:
/Users/YOURNAME/.myscript.sh


In tab Paths:

WatchPaths: a single line with this
Code:
/Users/YOURNAME

Then select Save & Load.


Enjoy!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.