firelite firewire drive does not show up on network

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Level 4

2,312 points

firelite firewire drive does not show up on network

I have a SmartDisk FireLite drive which works great directly connected to a Mac.
But I cannot see this drive from a networked computer.

It does not show up in the Browse window when I connect to my G5 (Tiger) from my G4 (Panther). If I move it to the G5, it also does not show up when I connect to the G4 from any computer. So it does not seem to be related to the OS version.

In other words, it seems that since the Firelite is Dos formatted, I cannot see it on the network, even though it is a firewire drive.

So how can I fix this problem?

iMac G5, TiBook, G4 MP 500; G3 beige 333, iMac 333, others, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Feb 24, 2006 1:26 AM

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Answer 1

John Huber1

Level 6

17,745 points

Feb 24, 2006 3:51 PM in response to Judy

Hi Judy,

It may be necessary to restart after connecting the drive. Using SharePoints (donationware) from http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/ will also help. Sometimes my external disappears on my network also (only to the Macs...never from the PC for some reason).

If you want to format it HFS+ just launch Disk Utility, highlight the drive, choose Mac OS Extended as the file system and click the Erase button. Be aware you'll loose all data on the drive if you do this.

John

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Answer 2

Judy Author

Level 4

2,312 points

Feb 24, 2006 4:54 PM in response to John Huber1

According to the site, http://www.hornware.com/faq/
Share points does not work with FAT formatted drives.

I really don't want to reformat it since I will lose the ability to connect to a PC directly.

Is there any other way?

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Answer 3

John Huber1

Level 6

17,745 points

Feb 24, 2006 5:46 PM in response to Judy

If it's formatted HFS+ and connected to one of the Macs you can map it to the PC and use it for backup of your files (but not the system). You couldn't connect it directly to PCs though. You could also partition it and have one partition formatted HFS+ and the other FAT32 this tip.

John

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Answer 4

Judy Author

Level 4

2,312 points

Feb 24, 2006 7:38 PM in response to John Huber1

Thanks John

I think I will leave all that to the experts with more time on their hands.
I will just use the drive connected physically to a computer, be it Mac or PC. It is small enough to carry around. I have enough other drives that are seen on the network.

At least I know that the drive is OK, and that I am not crazy for thinking this should be easily done. There is no mention of this problem in the docs.

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