External Hard Drive On A Network
 

Hi, I have a network set up at home with 4 computers, file sharing works fine between all of them, i bought a 120g usb2 Maxtor onetouch external hard drive for one of the computers recently and it works as i would like however when i try and share any folders on it so the other computers can get files from it it doesnt work, when someone tries to access it from another pc i get

Is there a solution to this and if so how can it be fixed, ive searched on arious sites but havent found a solution to a similar problem. If someone could help me i'd be most grateful.

Many Thanks-smoiu

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

Sorry, should have mentioned using a linksys router and all users are on xp home

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

Hello,

Filesharing requires 4 basic things: Network connectivity, Firewall permissions, NTFS Permissions, and Sharing Permissions. I think your Network and firewall is working properly, so let's look at NTFS and File Sharing.

1) Did you format the new drive? Is it FAT32 or NTFS? If NTFS, did you allow the local users group access to the drive? To test, go to the computer that has the drive attached to it, login as the user, and see if you can create a folder there. If so, permissions are fine. If it is a FAT32 drive, do not worry about this part at all.

2) Did you setup sharing permissions properly? You should right-click on My Computer, and go into Manage. Go into the Shared Folders... and find your share. Check the share permissions to make sure the group/users is enabled properly.

Let us know what you find.

Christian

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

Thanks for your reply

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

Looking in the help file I dont think access control is available in xp home

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

Does anyone have an idea of what the problem may be?

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

Try the administrative share which will be whatever drive letter the external HD uses +$

example:

\\computer name\e$

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

I'm facing the same problem. Did you ever succeed in sharing your external hard drive?

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

Answered my own question. As kc0arf suggests it has to do with permissions of the external hard drive. To set them:

My computer->right click hard drive->properties->sharing & security tab->select "share this folder on the network." Also select "Allow network users to change my files."

Re: External Hard Drive On A Network
 

___________________________________________________________


My Name is Ray. I have this same exact problem. I can use the External Hard drive at the PC it is connected too but the drive cannot be accessed from any PC on the my Netwrok. Sharing is in place. Infact the same sharing options selected for the external HD is the same sharing option selected on the other drives on all 4 of the other PC's on my network and they all work fine. I am using a LinkSYS WRT54GS router and LinkSYS speedbooster PCI card. I have 4 PC's connected in total. My problem is I cannot access my external hard drive from any PC on my network other than from the PC (My server) the External Hard drive is connected to. All permissions are in place and all drives are shared properly. I can access all of my servers IDE hard drives except my external hard drive. The hard drive is Western Digital Model #:WDXUB2500JBNN. I shared the drive as standard procedures. I can see the drive on all systems but cannot access the drive. All systems are running Windows XP. Im using Nortons Firewall and ZoneAlarm 6. Even if I disable the firewalls still no access. I have searched and searched the net with no real answers. This tread was the closet I've gotten to a similar problem. Hope I was detailed enough to have my question answered. PLEASE HELP ME.