Connect external hard drive to two computers?

[flanamac]

I have an iMac and a Macbook Pro.

The MB Pro is connected to an OWC hard drive via eSATA.

I would like to connect the iMac to it as well via FW 400 since the hard drive has a FW 400 connection.

Will the iMac recognize it and can it write to it as well, regardless whether the Macbook Pro is on or not?

 

[GGJstudios]

You can't have two computers simultaneously physically connected to an external hard drive. You can physically connect it to one, then access it via your network from the other Mac.

 

[flanamac]

You can't have two computers simultaneously physically connected to an external hard drive. You can physically connect it to one, then access it via your network from the other Mac.

Ok, but what happens if you do connect them both? Is there something in the CPU of each computer that which becomes conflicting and prevents accessing the data?

 

[GGJstudios]

Ok, but what happens if you do connect them both? Is there something in the CPU of each computer that which becomes conflicting and prevents accessing the data?

I don't know, but it wouldn't be advisable to attempt it. Hopefully, the drive just wouldn't mount on the 2nd Mac. It's possible you could corrupt the data on the drive (best case) or physically damage the drive (worst case) by both Macs attempting to control the drive. The different connectors on a drive (eSata, Firewire, USB) are there to give you options as to how to connect to one computer. They're not intended to be methods of connecting to multiple computers simultaneously.