Problems sharing external hard drives with Lion

I have 2 external hard drives connected to my imac. I had no problem sharing and accessing my external drives on other computers (pc & mac). Recently I just upgraded my mac os to Lion and since I am having problems accessing my external drives on my PC (windows 7).
On my PC in the shared folder I can see the external drive folders but I am getting an error code when I try to open them. I have no problem accessing my imac folders on my PC, just my external drive folders.
I would like some help because it would be nice to access them wirelessly on my PC without having to disconnect them from my iMac.
Rome.

My external hard drive was formatted in the FAT32 format--my iBook had no trouble reading or writing on this drive, and neither did my family's Dell deskop.
If I recall correctly, the FAT32 format cannot store files larger than 4GB. Also, you will have to partition the drive. My 160GB drive was split into 4 parts, each about 30GB in size. This is another limitation of the FAT32 format.
Formatting my drive was such a pain--and time consuming--that I didn't bother to format the remaining 30 or so gigabytes.
I've reformatted my drive to be HFS and will likely do some work with our home network so that our Dell will be able to send files to my machine & then to the external hard drive.
Programs exist for Windows machines to allow them to read a HFS (Mac-formatted) volume. If you want to be able to use all space possible on the hard drive, purchasing such a program may be your best option.

Similar Messages

  • Cannot access shared external hard drive with other mac accounts

    I cannot access a shared external hard drive with other mac accounts (all accounts are on the same macbook Pro). The shared external drive is shared via time capsule and is connected (of course) in USB. I see well this external hard drive as a shared disk with my main account. Yes shared option has been activated with the Airport Utility .. but when I open other account these othe accounts can see the external drive but cannot access to its content that is flagged with a no way sign. Strangely enough when I close my main account and start opening a new session with one of the other account then fine I can access the external hard drive and its content .. BUT then it is from my main account than I cannot access its content the no way sign showing ..
    Looks like only one account at a time can access the content of this SHARED external hard drive .. any one as an idea on how to really make it a shared hard drive so that all accounts on the same mac can also access it ? I am at my wit ends on this case. THANKS ..

    Results of my enquiries at Apple Genius Bar .. the guys found the problem interesting. They've been unable to provide a fix neither to give any explanation as to the reason why. To be fair I was not much impressed by the technical level demonstrated ..
    In the mean time I have found that if account no.1 can see the shared external drive content and in such case account no.2 (same Mac computer) cannot see its content (only the external HD with a no way sign) this account no.2 can UNMOUNT (by ejecting) this external HD from account 1 and then remount it (just clicking on the TC shared part in a finder window) and .. see and access its content ; whilst account no.1 cannot see its content anylonger. Unless it unmounts the shared external HD and remount it .. then account no.2 can see its content anylonger. This can goes on an on.
    So eventually YES the TC can allow to share a USB external drive between several accounts and a same Mac .. BUT this require to unmount and remount EACH time the external drive is accessed from a "no.2 account". So OK to share files with seldom access but not practical in case of frequent access needed.
    I just I have now to figure how iTunes can automatically unmount and remount a shared external HD when it needs to access one of this shared HD content from on time account no.1 and then next time from account no.2. May be I am asking too much ..

  • Problem partitioning external hard drive with Disk Utility

    I'm trying to create a new partition in disk utility in an external hard drive using disk utility and every time I click Apply it says that "Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and can't continue. Quit and relaunch Disk Utility". It is a 3TB hard disk and I already created the first partition of 2 TB, and when I click the + symbol to add a 1 TB partition and click Apply is when the error shows up. I have restart the mac, unplugged the hard disk but the error still shows up. Anyone has any idea??? Thanks for your help in advance
    David

    I solved this issue. I was able to create the partition with the format MS-DOS and then I erased it to the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
    Now it is working OK. Hope this help someone

  • Sharing External Hard Drive with Windows PC

    I just purchased the Maxtor Turbo III. I can read/write to/from my PowerBook to the Maxtor, but I cannot even see the drive when it is attached to my PC. I'm assuming that it the drive has been formatted for OSX but that it needs to be reformatted for PC.
    Is there a formating method that can be applied such that both Windows PC's and Macs can read and write to the drive?
    Thanks

    You wrote: "Thanks, but isn't Fat32 "old technology"? And doesn't it have file size limitations?"Yes: 4 GB is the largest file size under FAT32.
    See my "Sharing a FireWire drive between a Mac and a PC" FAQ for some other ideas.
    Good luck!
    Dr. Smoke
    Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
    Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
    I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

  • Sharing external hard drive with all home macs and pc's

    I'd like to connect my go flex desk hard drive to my BT home hub 4 and access it through my macbook pro, is this possible and how can I do this myself?

    You need to format the external drive to a format that can be used by Windows, OSx, and your BT home hub (what ever that is). So I think your best bet would be to format it FAT32 or ExFat since Windows and OSx can read/write to a hard drive formatted as FAT32 or ExFat. Read your BT home hub documentation to determine how to connect a hard drive to it. Most likely it will have a usb port if hard drives can be connected to it.

  • Sharing External Hard Drive with PC

    I have added external HD that has one partition formatted in FAT32 to my iMac. My goal is for this EX. HD to stay connected to my iMac but I want to be able to see it and share it with my PC. Both computers are located on my personal home network <router - cables, etc.>.
    What I've done so far is as follows:
    On my iMac <OS X 10.4.10>, I have turned on Personal File Sharing and turned on Windows Sharing. Also I have created a user account to match the user account on the PC.<even though Winuser was there already>.
    My iMac can see the folders I have shared on my PC.
    My PC <XP SP2> can see the folders and files on my iMac.
    My PC cannot see the EX. USB HD attached to my iMac.
    I tried putting an alias of my EX. HD in my Public Folder but when I click on that from the PC, it doesn’t work. The message my PC displays says: HD alias is an unknown File type.
    I don't see anything else I can do to make the EX. HD visible to the PC. Are there any ideas what I should do to make this setup work? Or isn’t it possible for an iMAC to share an EX HD with a PC?
    Thanks for any and all help
    Skitterbug

    Hi Dennis!
    Wow! A perfect tool <SharePoints> and it worked like a charm. I am busy playing with the SharePoints App. now and if I run into any questions, I'll post back. But so far this seems to do the trick for me!
    Also thanks for the link to the document about Sharing files between PC and Mac. I hadn't seen this one and I got to where I am now by trial and error. I had worked on the old LCII and III and later on some of the PowerMacs but my poor brain was a bit rusty regarding the steps I needed to take. Add to that, a lot of what I used to know doesn't always apply to the current platforms!
    Thanks lots for your great help! <thumbs up>
    Skitterbug

  • I have LR5 on a mac book pro with a external hard drive with LR5 images. my problem is my external hard corrupted reformatedand have to this is expensive and i would to start over in LR5

    i have LR5 on a mac book pro with a WD external hard drive with my with my LR5 images . my problem is my external drive is corrupted .i was told by apple that my macshow the hard drive is there but it is not moumting and have to be reformat. i have to use recovery data to save my images on my external before i can refomat.iam willing to lose my images on my extenal hard drive but i would like to know can i erase my LR5 images and start over or delete LR5 and download it again

    Simply start a new catalog:
    File >> New Catalog
    Choose a new name and save.
    When the empty catalog launches you are ready to start over.

  • Using the same external hard drive with two computers

    I recently started sharing an external hard drive with my roommate because I was running out of room on my computer. I have had no problems until he added a new cd to the external drive. When I plugged in the drive to add it to my ipod, it didn't show up in itunes (or on the external drive) but it is there when he plugs the same drive into his computer.
    Did I set up something wrong? Do I need to synch something whenever I plug the drive in after he adds something? I have searched around anc can't find an answer. Any help is appreciated!! Thanks.

    As Kappy says, Time Machine will put both sets of backups in the same Backups.backupdb folder. That may not be a good idea for the future; your best bet may be to partition the drive.
    See #4 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

  • Time Machine: Can I use a smaller external hard drive with larger internal?

    Can I use a 250G external hard drive with and 500G unfilled internal drive with time machine? Or will time machine require I a 500G? I don't plan on filling the internal drive for a long time and don't want to buy a new external drive right now.

    Yes, but you are very likely to get in trouble very quickly.
    The problem is that TimeMachine saves multiple versions of any file modified, and if that file happens to be large, you can quickly fill up your TimeMachine drive such that it is throwing away older versions faster than you would desire.
    Also if your boot drive's storage usage gets even close to the 250GB external drive's capacity, TimeMachine is likely to stop working.
    If possible, I would suggest an external drive that is twice as large as your boot drive, or at least 1.5 times larger.
    I guess you could repartition your boot drive so it is smaller than your external disk so you would be less likely to use more space than could fit on the external.
    Personally, my opinion about backups is that much of my data is impossible to replace (family pictures, etc...), and spending money on backup hardware is a small price to pay for securing those memories. I also try to have it backup in more than one location in more than one way.

  • Does anyone use a LaCie external hard drive with their Mac using imovie '09?  I have some questions.

    Does anyone use a LaCie external hard drive with their Mac using imovie '09?  I have some questions.

    Are you actually having a problem with the new Lacie drive, or are you just asking is the Lacie drive somehow different from your old G-Drive?
    From a connection standpoint, most Lacie desktop drives have both USB and FireWire connections, just like the G-Drives do.  You would connect and use it the same as a G-Drive.
    Regarding capturing to the external HD, if you are using a camcorder that has FireWire (iLink) connection, it is not advisable to have an external FireWire HD connected to your Mac at the same time as your camcorder; there are often communication conflicts between the camcorder and the hard drive if they are connected at the same time.  The conflicts usually appear as either dropped frames or a complete freeze.   This is more common with Canon miniDV camcorders but I have also seen this behavior with Sony miniDV camcorders.  (The problem is the camcorder's FW implementation, not the hard drive.)  The workaround is to capture to your Mac's internal HD and later copy the captured video to your external HD.

  • How can I partition an external hard drive with data in it? When I select the drive, the partition option is grayed out.

    I am having a problem partitioning an external hard drive with data in it. 
    When I select the partition, everything is grayed out.  I can't add a a partition for some reason.  When I asked this question to other people, they told me to select my partition "io" to do it from there.
    As you can see, I can't seem to partition it form there either.  I ran the Verify Disk utility but the volume came out okay.
    Any ideas as to what the problem would be?
    Thanks!
    Luis

    Select the main hard drive entry (topmost one.) Click on the Partition tab. Shrink the existing partition by grabbing the sizing gadget in the bottom right corner and pushing up until you free up enough space for your second partition. Be sure you do not shrink to less than the space currently occupied by your files. Click on the Add[+] button to create a new partition in the free space. Click on the Apply button and wait until the partitioning is completed.

  • How can i use external hard drive with mac and pc!

    I've been using a Lacie external hard drive with my mac to keep the itunes library and other things since day one. Since i have a dvd with files for windows and an old pc without a dvd drive, i decided to copy and paste the content of the dvd to the external hard drive. The only problem now is that when i plug the external hard drive to pc, it won't open. I know it has to be formatted in a different way, but i need to find out the best solution!
    Any idea?

    You can format the external drive in Fat32 (which I don't recommend but is the most compatible between both platforms), or NTFS (which requires some work to get your Mac to recognize), or HFS+ (which requires special software on your PC so your PC can use it).
    If you use this drive mostly with your Mac, get MacDrive for your PC:
    http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive
    If you use this drive mostly with your PC, here's some software for you Mac. I haven't tried this myself, but the professional reviews have been good:
    http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

  • How do I connect my external hard drive with all of my digital media to my Apple TV network and make it accessable 24/7?

    How do I connect my external hard drive with all of my digital media to my Apple TV network and make it accessable 24/7?  I have the latest Apple TV, ipads, iPhones as well as a solid HP Windows machine all on my home network.  Is there a way that I can connect my hard drive to my receiver or Apple TV directly so that the digital media is available on my network 24/7 rather than have it connected to my computer and available through Home Share which never works anyway??

    Sorry it's all done through iTunes.
    The following article(s) may help you with home sharing.
    Troubleshooting Home Sharing
    Troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks and connections
    Recommended Wi-Fi settings
    Wifi Diagnostic Software (for Mac users)
    You may also find some help on this page, where I’ve collected some of the more unusual solutions to network issues.

  • Shared external hard drive or regular external drive for airport extreme?

    Dell has "shared external hard drive" and "external hard drive" for sale. Would any of these be a conflict with airport extreme?

    Could you please provide a link for each of these Dell offerings to help us understand what they are?

  • Finder freezes when attempting to access a "shared" external hard drive (wireless via Airport Extreme)

    Finder freezes.   As soon as I click onto my "shared" external hard drive (3TB WD - wireless via Airport Extreme), finder immediately freezes / eternally spinning beach ball (until I restart finder).  Can still access wirelessly on another Mac (not on Yosemite).
    Please help!

    Ok - for a while there, the hard drive would not come up on the desktop - but now on a re-boot of the compter, or if I disconnect the hard drive and re-connect it, a message comes up with three buttons which say:
    Initialize
    Ignore
    Eject
    Sound like the hard drive has died?

Maybe you are looking for