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How do I access another Mac's external USB harddrive over the AirPort network?

J

jonas.rundqivst

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2007
4
0
Atsugi, Japan
My first visit to this forum. I hope to find some answers from you Mac-wizards.;)

We have two Macs, a MacBook Pro (my computer) and a MacBook (my whife's) and an AirPort network at home. I am the only user of my MBP and my wife the only one of the MB. The MB, most of the time, has a big external USB harddrive connected to it. How do I access this USB harddrive on the MB from my MBP over the network?

We have tried to share the harddrive and give any user read/write access rights but I can not see the disc over the network.

We already share files over the network through our shared folders but I'd like to have access to the external drive.

Thanks in advance for any help in this matter.
 
If you don't mind using terminal, then you can ssh into the machine and "cd" into /Volumes directory where you'll see the harddisk mounted as a subdirectory. You may have to enable ssh access on the computer with the external harddisk attached.

Still I am surprised you cannot reach it through Finder, but I cannot speak from experience as I only have one Mac.
 
You could try going to Network in the Finder, then connecting to the MB (be sure you log in a registered user, which will require the shortname and password to her computer). Once the macbook has mounted onto your desktop, click the desktop FROM THE MACBOOK. The external drive should be there, if you've enabled Appletalk, etc on her machine.
 
When I browse the network and connect to another machine, after login in, I'm presented with all the volumes on that Mac (as well as just the user folder) to choose from. Doing that, you should be able to just select the external drive and it will mount to your desktop.
 
I'm trying to get something similar working. We have an iMac which has an external firewire-connected HDD on it. I'd like to access this from the iBook or Powerbook which connect to the same wireless router.

I can access the shared user directories on the iMac but can't seem to see the external HDD.

Am I missing something very simple? I've tried accessing the desktop but its not there and have also tried creating an alias to the HDD on the iMac in my user directory but no joy.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike.
 
Here's exactly what I do:

1. In Finder, select Go > Connect to Server
2. In ensuing window, click Browse
3. Select computer from the network list that has the external HD connected to it.
4. Click Connect.
5. Enter username/password (I use the user/pass for the user of that computer)
6. I'm then presented with a Select Volume to Mount. The options are the main HD, the user folder, and the External HD. I select the external HD and it mounts to my desktop just fine.
 
Dimwhit said:
Here's exactly what I do:

1. In Finder, select Go > Connect to Server
2. In ensuing window, click Browse
3. Select computer from the network list that has the external HD connected to it.
4. Click Connect.
5. Enter username/password (I use the user/pass for the user of that computer)
6. I'm then presented with a Select Volume to Mount. The options are the main HD, the user folder, and the External HD. I select the external HD and it mounts to my desktop just fine.
Click to expand...

For some reason the External HD isn't showing in the list of volumes.
 
skwij said:
You could try going to Network in the Finder, then connecting to the MB (be sure you log in a registered user, which will require the shortname and password to her computer). Once the macbook has mounted onto your desktop, click the desktop FROM THE MACBOOK. The external drive should be there, if you've enabled Appletalk, etc on her machine.
Click to expand...

Thank you guys for your replies and sorry for my late post (have spent a week abroad and had limited computer access)!

I will check if AppleTalk is enabled on the MB with the usb-harddrive, I have forgotten about that, just registering a user on the MB and allowing all to read/write the harddrive.

Another tip I got was that it can be difficult to see a harddrive not formated as Extended Mac OS over the network. Our usb-harddrive was Windows_FAT_32 which could be the source of the problem. I will reformat it, eventually, and will get back to you if it solved this problem.

Cheers,
 
you guys will need to use sharepoints a freeware add-onto SMB that allows sharing of folders/volumes other than the public folders on your Mac user accounts.

All will seem simpler after you read the instructions that come with sharepoints.
 
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