Share an external hard disk drive

[brettbri5694]

Easy Solution

Okay here is exactly how to get a FAT32 external to share. First my set up. I have a MacMini with a Lacie 1Tb hooked up to it by usb, and a MacBook Unibody. Both have Snow Leopard. So I know that this works with Snow Leopard and Leopard.

1.Go to Preferences < Sharing
2.Add the Lacie HDD or what ever folder therein that you want to share, to the Shared Folders pane
3.Highlight the HDD in the Shared Folder pane.
4.Click on the Options button.
5.Check "Share files and folders using SMB(Windows)
6.Check the box under the word on.
7.Create a password that you can connect to.
8.On your other computer (i.e.my MB) click on Go in the toolbar of Finder
9.Click on Connect to Server
10.Enter smb://(ip address)
11.Hit connect
12.Select the HDD (i.e.my Lacie)
13.Enter password
14.Go to the Finder and on the left hand pannel there should be your the IP address you entered, click on that and there should be you folders!

Any questions feel free to comment me

 

[Lawrence123]

It does work, sorry for repeating what was said before

I am not using leopard. I am using Tiger. 10.4. First go to the mac computer that the Fat32 drive is mounted to.
Go to system preferences, sharing, below is services and check on windows sharing. Before you leave that window take note on top of window what the computer name is. Then open finder window on the mac that you want to see or network the hard drive to. Go to the finder menu on top. Select Go. Select connect to server. type in the server text field "smb://yourothercomputername.local". [your computer name of the mac that has the hard drive mounted]. Check connect and soon there should be a drop down list of any fat32 hard drives mounted on the other computer. I believe the trick is that mac uses afp to network and will not see the fat32 but using the smb will. Good luck and please follow up that this is working for you.

 

[exhibita]

Still not working for me...

I should preface this by saying I seem to have sporadic sharing issues top to bottom on my new MBP. Whenever I change locations - i.e. home to the office, I usually cannot connect to any shared drives without a restart, and even then it often takes 10 minutes or so before I stop getting "connection failure". Once I connect, it remains solid all day, but by the next morning, I'm right back where I started.

To combat this, I've tried turning off the airport and turning it back on, relaunching the finder, and the go>network route, with little data to suggest anything but time will remedy the connection.

That being the case, I have a 2.0 GHz 20" iMac in the bedroom running Leopard 10.5.8 with copious amounts of digital media on FAT32 formatted Lacie hard drives. I used to be able to stream these attached drives to my Dell laptop no problem using SMB file sharing.

I have upgraded my Dell laptop to a MBP 2.66 GHz running 10.6.2 and after a restart and/or sufficient time, I can generally connect to the iMac, but so far, not the external hard drives.

Since unticking the AFP as recommended above, (on both computers), the iMac icon shows up in the finder pane on the laptop, but when I click on it, it attempts to connect for a few minutes, and ultimately always fails. I get the same result when using the "connect to server" command.

To be clear; in the connect to server prompt, I am using the following server address:
smb://XXX.XXX.X.XXX

where XXX.XXX.X.XXX is the address listed in the connect via FTP area on the sharing preferences of the iMac. I also confirmed that address using the (ifconfig) command in terminal.

Am I missing something? Any suggestions? Please help, this is absolutely maddening!

 

[exhibita]

It works it works it works!

Okay, I just re-enabled AFP on the laptop (not the computer hosting the external drives) rebooted both computers, took a shower and came back to glorious victory. I think this is working, no IP address needed, just showed up in the finder pane.

Hoping it stays locked in.

Thanks to all the contributors who walked me through this without realizing it.

 

[skate71290]

okays i got down to the bottom of the 1st page, and i don't think anyone has suggested - make an alias into your Jupiter Public Folder that worked for me one time, but i'm not sure if it supports FireWire... but it should do, let me know how you get on

 

[DoFoT9]

Okay, I just re-enabled AFP on the laptop (not the computer hosting the external drives) rebooted both computers, took a shower and came back to glorious victory. I think this is working, no IP address needed, just showed up in the finder pane.

Hoping it stays locked in.

Thanks to all the contributors who walked me through this without realizing it.

congrats! i was about to write a nice big reply until i saw your 2nd post. glad to hear its going ok

 

[toddymyguy]

my solution

i have a WD external drive hooked up to my mac mini - i was finally able to gain access to it via my macbook by creating computer to computer networks on both the mac mini and macbook network settings. I had also turned on sharing files and several of the other recommendation listed here prior to this. I hope this helps - I am certainly excited that I figured it out!

 

[Lawrence123]

SMB connect

I found the easiest way to connect to a FAT 32 Hard Drive that is connected to another Mac or via network is to use smb protocol. I was able to see all FAT 32 hard drives on the network. I had been looking for a way to see FAT 32 externals on my network for the longest time. I mostly use "connect to server" window. Type in smb://NameOfComputer.local/NameOfHardDrive and connect. That simple! I now use smb on all transferring of files thru my network. Just an annoying situation I want to share that I resolved with painful research and a simple remedy was that I have a nas raid system and when I connect to it using afp apples protocol the files I renamed in lightroom or any other organizing program did not appear on the network nas drive after I renamed and saved directly to the nas. Only when I saved on my mac then transfered everything over to the nas. So I used smb and is now working like it should logically. I am still having transfer time issues with NTFS formated hard drives.

 

[knaught]

Tiger absolutely lets you share an external drive. I do it all the time, you don't need to buy anything!

1. From the computer that is physically connected to the extHD turn "Personal File Sharing" on from the "Sharing" preference pane
2. From the other computer open the finder and go to to "Network"
3. Connect to the computer that is physically connected to the ext HD
4. You'll get a list of all the volumes and user folders in a list, just click on the name of the ext HD

Worked perfectly for me. Thanks!