Member Avatar for sharkmaster

I just received a LaCie 500GB mini Home Edition network drive. You connect it via ethernet to your router and should be able to access it anywhere on the internet. My Macbook pro cannot see the disk directly. But I can log onto the portal from a web browser. My westell VersaLink 327 dsl modem router recognizes the drive. by my mac osX 10.5.4 cannot find it. I have a trouble ticket into LaCie but they have not responded yet. Any help would be much appreciated.

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Quick summary and focused steps to try next — already has the right setup (ED mini on the router) and and have shown Finder/Connect-to-Server can work, so the goal is to get OS X talking to the EDmini’s file‑service directly instead of only using the web portal.

The EDmini (HipServ) exposes SMB/AFP/FTP and the device provides a Network IP Configurator and HipServ/QuickConnect desktop agent for discovery; the Seagate/LaCie KB documents using the configurator, Finder’s Connect to Server and the default admin account. (seagate.com)

Practical sequence: 1) Retrieve the unit’s local IP with the LaCie Network IP Configurator or your router’s DHCP/attached‑clients list. 2) In Finder use Connect to Server and force the protocol/address (use an explicit SMB or AFP address with the EDmini’s IP) — this bypasses Bonjour discovery problems that make the share invisible. If Finder settings hide connected servers, enable them in Finder preferences. (seagate.com)

If authentication keeps failing: try the factory/admin account if it hasn’t been changed, clear any saved server passwords from Keychain (old credentials can silently block Connect to Server), and run the HipServ Agent / QuickConnect on the Mac so it can discover and open the share. Also make sure the EDmini firmware and HipServ desktop apps are up to date — the installer/initial‑setup docs recommend updating firmware during setup. (seagate.com)

Other checks: confirm the Mac firewall or any third‑party network filter isn’t blocking SMB/AFP; ensure the Westell router isn’t isolating LAN clients (guest/AP isolation) so the Mac can see the EDmini; if problems persist, test by temporarily connecting the EDmini and the Mac to the same switch or directly to rule out router issues. If those steps don’t help, capture the EDmini IP and the exact error message shown by Finder/HipServ and consult the LaCie support docs for device‑specific resets and diagnostics. (seagate.com)

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Member Avatar for John A

How is the drive being shared over the network (i.e. what network protocol is the hard drive being shared over)? Do you have its IP address?

Member Avatar for sharkmaster

The drive is connected via ethernet to the router which assigns a private IP on my side of the router. Not sure what the IP is on the internet side. Because you give the drive a Portal name and register it wiht LaCie. You have to go to the LaCie site to log into the portal from the web brouser or I can go to the private IP directly and access it. It just isn't recognised by OS-X as a mounted drive.

How is the drive being shared over the network (i.e. what network protocol is the hard drive being shared over)? Do you have its IP address?

Member Avatar for John A

Still wondering: how is this drive supposed to be mounted? If it's using Windows sharing, you'd need SMB, if it's file transfer protocol, you'd need ftp. It's hard to diagnose the problem when I don't know what's wrong with it (other than "it won't mount").

Member Avatar for Jay3903

I got this same drive this week and I was having the same issue. I blew 2 hr on the phone with Lacie and Apple support and that turned into a finger pointing contest! The way I got this to work was I went to finder and clicked on the hipserv share and then clicked on connect as and a screen came up that asked me to log on as a guest or registered user. I selected registered user and used the user name and password that I configured when I set up the drive. At that point I had direct access to the folders on the drive and could copy files to them. I hope this helps you. By the way after I did this I went to the hipserv agent and selected browse folders and they still won't mount. However I have direct access to them and that's all I needed.

Member Avatar for sharkmaster

Well you got further than I have. The hipserve share (disk) does not show in the finder.
When I activate HipServ Agent and try to view my folders put in various names and passwords and ALWAYS get the same "the name and password you entered is not correct"
Cancel that I just now got the Shared file to show up. Don't know what I did different or if I can do it again. wish me luck

I got this same drive this week and I was having the same issue. I blew 2 hr on the phone with Lacie and Apple support and that turned into a finger pointing contest! The way I got this to work was I went to finder and clicked on the hipserv share and then clicked on connect as and a screen came up that asked me to log on as a guest or registered user. I selected registered user and used the user name and password that I configured when I set up the drive. At that point I had direct access to the folders on the drive and could copy files to them. I hope this helps you. By the way after I did this I went to the hipserv agent and selected browse folders and they still won't mount. However I have direct access to them and that's all I needed.

Member Avatar for Jay3903

If you lose the share or reboot you can get it back by doing a "connect to server" in finder and use the ip address of the drive. It seems that OSX sees the drive as a network server.
I am a mac newbie, got my MBP 8 months ago and I love it.

Member Avatar for John A

>It seems that OSX sees the drive as a network server.
OS X sees any device on the network with shared services as a network server. The "connect to server" window is just a way to connect directly to an IP address/hostname, bypassing the waiting of Bonjour to autodetect it and show up in the Finder.

You can also use different prefixes to connect over different protocols, such as AFP, SMB, FTP, NFS, etc., the default being AFP (which I presume this device is using). For example, if you wanted to mount a device over NFS, you would enter in nfs://host (replacing 'host' with the hostname/IP address of the host that you wish to connect to).

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