External HDD shared over Network

[grahamtearne]

Hey guys, I know from the title you may initially think Im talking about time capsule or airport extreme base station with a HDD attached.

However what I would like to know is if it is possible to share a HDD that is connected to my iMac across my network, without the addition of one of these products. The thing that puts me off those products are that all computers connect to them remotely, whereas this HDD primarily has content just for the iMac so it makes sense to have it connected directly to it as it is in constant use with the iMac and therefore the speed of a direct connection is welcomed.

I have enabled sharing folders and such in the system preferences on my iMac and then when I click the iMac under shared in my finder on my MBA I get several folders, my user folder, the HDD root, the disk in the cd drive, my public folder and my bootcamp drive. None of my external HDDs that are attached show up, is there a way around this. I clicked get info on my external drive and ticked shared folder (wasn't sure what this done or does but seemed like it could be appropriate.)

Any help at getting my remote machines to recognize an external drive attached to another computer would be fantastic.

Cheers guys.

 

[merl1n]

Hey guys, I know from the title you may initially think Im talking about time capsule or airport extreme base station with a HDD attached.

However what I would like to know is if it is possible to share a HDD that is connected to my iMac across my network, without the addition of one of these products. The thing that puts me off those products are that all computers connect to them remotely, whereas this HDD primarily has content just for the iMac so it makes sense to have it connected directly to it as it is in constant use with the iMac and therefore the speed of a direct connection is welcomed.

I have enabled sharing folders and such in the system preferences on my iMac and then when I click the iMac under shared in my finder on my MBA I get several folders, my user folder, the HDD root, the disk in the cd drive, my public folder and my bootcamp drive. None of my external HDDs that are attached show up, is there a way around this. I clicked get info on my external drive and ticked shared folder (wasn't sure what this done or does but seemed like it could be appropriate.)

Any help at getting my remote machines to recognize an external drive attached to another computer would be fantastic.

Cheers guys.

If you have file sharing turned on in System Prefs -> Sharing, then you should see your imac listed in the sidebar of the finder window on your mba or other macs connected to your computer (it will show up under the "Shared Heading" in the sidebar. Just select the imac and connect to it and then you will see the disk.

 

[grahamtearne]

Cheers, but thats the problem. I am doing just that. The external drive connected to the iMac doesn't show up and thats what I am interested in getting shared.

When I connect to the iMac I get the following folders:
'Graham Tearne's Public Folder'
'HEROES_SEASON1_PART2_DISC3' - My DVD drive that happens to have a Heroes DVD in at the moment
'Macintosh HD' - My Mac OS X HDD
'Untitled' - My Windows XP Bootcamp HDD
'Oggy' - My home folder

I would like to know if its possible to get my external HDD that is connected to my iMac to show up.

If you have file sharing turned on in System Prefs -> Sharing, then you should see your imac listed in the sidebar of the finder window on your mba or other macs connected to your computer (it will show up under the "Shared Heading" in the sidebar. Just select the imac and connect to it and then you will see the disk.

 

[merl1n]

Cheers, but thats the problem. I am doing just that. The external drive connected to the iMac doesn't show up and thats what I am interested in getting shared.

When I connect to the iMac I get the following folders:
'Graham Tearne's Public Folder'
'HEROES_SEASON1_PART2_DISC3' - My DVD drive that happens to have a Heroes DVD in at the moment
'Macintosh HD' - My Mac OS X HDD
'Untitled' - My Windows XP Bootcamp HDD
'Oggy' - My home folder

I would like to know if its possible to get my external HDD that is connected to my iMac to show up.

On your iMac, select the drive and do a "Get Info" (Finder Menu) on it. When the Get Info window opens, look at the bottom and see if "Ignore ownership on this volume" is checked. If it is, uncheck it.

 

[grahamtearne]

Thanks again, but unfortunately I cannot find that option in the 'Get Info' screen, any other ideas?

On your iMac, select the drive and do a "Get Info" (Finder Menu) on it. When the Get Info window opens, look at the bottom and see if "Ignore ownership on this volume" is checked. If it is, uncheck it.

 

[merl1n]

Thanks again, but unfortunately I cannot find that option in the 'Get Info' screen, any other ideas?

Thanks for the screen shot. I think I see your problem now.

Your disk is formatted for MS-DOS (FAT32). Apple File Sharing by default uses AFP (Apple File Protocol). This is why you see your imac and it's apple volumes, but not the MS-DOS volumes.

You can try this:

Go back into Sharing Prefs Pane, click on file sharing, then click on the options button. Change it from AFP to SMB and see if you can remotely mount your MS-DOS volumes.

 

[grahamtearne]

Thank you so much, that done the trick. I really appreciate your help and patience.