is there a way to connect to external drives

[tivoboy]

that are connected to a PC on the same network?

I have setup networking as per the networking thread, and can get to individual folders that are shared on the pc.

but, for example some network DRIVES that are connected and SHARED, I cannot connect to them.

I get this ALIAS error. What is the alias anyway?

But, I have some NAS connected, and the drives are listed as to be shared. they show up in the list of things the imac will connect to, but when I try to connect I get a LOGIN (there shouldn't be a login) and then a cannot connect dialogue and request for the alias, or delete or repair the alias.

what is this alias and is there a differant protocol for connecting to remote DRIVES?

 

[LimeiBook86]

An alias is like a shortcut. This link may help you a bit but, your solution may be a bit more complicated: Networking Windows with Mac OS X

Good luck

 

[tivoboy]

thanks

I think I may have found a part of the problem. The drive I was trying to MOUNT and SHARE was an NTFS formatted drive.

IS that not shareable across platforms? The minute I pluggged in a FAT32 DRIVE over Firewire to the PC, THAT drive popped up no problem.

Should one reformat the NTFS drive? I mean the box DID say, works RIGHT out of the box on PC and MAC.

 

[baummer]

I think I may have found a part of the problem. The drive I was trying to MOUNT and SHARE was an NTFS formatted drive.

IS that not shareable across platforms? The minute I pluggged in a FAT32 DRIVE over Firewire to the PC, THAT drive popped up no problem.

Should one reformat the NTFS drive? I mean the box DID say, works RIGHT out of the box on PC and MAC.

Well, by nature OS X cannot write to NTFS formatted drives. What kind of external drive is it? Now, OS X CAN write to NTFS formatted drives so long as OS X cannot tell what kind of drive it is. This is achieved by hooking the drive to a Windows PC and sharing the drive as a whole. Once you connect from OS X, you can then write to it thereby not having to reformat. Note you won't be able to write to it if you connect it directly to the mac; you'll only be able to read it.

As for connecting, make sure you are connecting properly. Check the names of the drives to ensure you're entering them correctly. What mode of access are you using? SMB? FTP?

 

[Counterfit]

The format should only matter to the computer the drive is connected to.

 

[tivoboy]

thanks

I figured if I could connect to it, over a network on the PC, then that would be fine.

But I cannot connect to this drive, I can only connect to another drive over the network. they ARE from differant manufacturers, one is connected via usb2.0 and the other, the one I can connect to is FW. Again, these things should not matter, yet I cannot connect to the one over the network at all.