Can't delete from shared network drive

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Level 1

15 points

Can't delete from shared network drive

Hi There,

Firstly my apologies as I'm really new to networking and have no idea of the correct terminology to use.

I recently managed to access our department's section of our workplace Windows network - it's quite an old network, shortly to be replaced by Windows Network 2003 (I think we're on an NT network at the moment but I'm not entirely sure). I've been able to use the internet through it and also email but until recently hadn't tried file/printer sharing.

Anyway, I was glad to find I could access our portion of the server and I transferred a pdf file to it for another member of staff to print off. After she'd done so, I tried to delete the file and found I couldn't. System Admin also can't delete it either remotely or from the server directly and I'm now told it's interfering with their routine backup.

If anyone has any ideas about what to do about this I'd be most grateful.

Thank you.

G4-500 AGP (Tower) Mac OS X (10.4.4)

G4-500 AGP (Tower), Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Mar 10, 2006 8:53 AM

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Answer 1

mecklists

Level 4

1,795 points

Mar 10, 2006 8:04 PM in response to Calum Murray

Hi Calum!

Your answer will depend on "how" you connected—via AFP or via SMB?

If you simply browsed the network or entered the server's name in the "Connect to Server" window, then you connected via AFP. If you specifically entered something like "smb://servername" or "smb://serverIPaddress" in the "Connect to Server" window, then you obviously connected via SMB.

If you connected via AFP, then your problem is most likely the old version of the AFP protocol that Windows Server uses. It's version 2.2 whereas Mac OS X uses AFP 3.x. Windows 2003, the latest version of Windows server, has not updated its version of AFP and still uses version 2.2. Permissions issues are a symptom of the differences between the two versions.

If you connected via SMB, then your problem is most likely Apple's implementation of the SMB client used to connect to Windows machines. To preserve some Mac featues, Mac OS X has to do some file manipulation prior to saving files to a Windows server. This doesn't always work very well.

I suggest that you look into a product called "Dave" from http://www.thursby.com. It's a better SMB client and also better than having to deal with two different versions of the AFP protocol. You can download a free 30-day trial to test its effectiveness for yourself.

If you plan to connect multiple Macs to your server then I suggest you look into a different product called "ExtremeZ-IP" from http://www.grouplogic.com. It's an up-to-date AFP server for your Windows server and works very well with Mac OS X's AFP client. You can also download a trial version of this software.

Hope this helps! bill

1 GHz Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

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Answer 2

Calum Murray Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 14, 2006 2:02 AM in response to mecklists

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify, I went in through the network icon in the Macintosh HD window. This gave me a list of servers and when I selected the correct one I get a further list. Selecting the name here gives me a window that says "Select SMB/CIFS shared volume you want to connect to" and this comes up with a pop up window listing the available "shares".

When I "Get Info" on the Network icon on my desktop the address for the volume starts off "cifs://"

Not sure if that makes any difference.

I had a trial of Dave while I was still using classic but thought it wasn't necessary under OSX. Do you think that it would be a worthwhile buy or will our upgrade to Server 2003 solve my problems anyway (this will be in a couple of months and I've lasted this long without access I'm sure I can do so for a little while longer)!!

Thank you again.

G4-500 AGP (Tower) Mac OS X (10.4.4)

G4-500 AGP (Tower) Mac OS X (10.4.4)

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Answer 3

mecklists

Level 4

1,795 points

Mar 14, 2006 7:29 PM in response to Calum Murray

Hi Calum!

When I "Get Info" on the Network icon on my desktop the address for the volume starts off "cifs://"
Not sure if that makes any difference.

CIFS is synonymous with SMB. You'll typically see Microsoft refer to CIFS and UNIX implementations refer to SMB.

I had a trial of Dave while I was still using classic but thought it wasn't necessary under OSX. Do you think that it would be a worthwhile buy or will our upgrade to Server 2003 solve my problems anyway (this will be in a couple of months and I've lasted this long without access I'm sure I can do so for a little while longer)!!

If you plan to regularly connect to a Windows server via SMB, especially for storing files and sharing with Windows users, then I'd suggest using Dave. Apple's implementation of SMB is decent for the occasional need to transfer a file to a Windows user, but not daily use. Upgrading to Windows 2003 will change nothing for you for either AFP or SMB connections.

Hope this helps! bill

1 GHz Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

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Answer 4

Calum Murray Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 4, 2006 9:32 AM in response to mecklists

Hello again,

An update. I've downloaded and installed a trial version of Dave and it does "exactly what it says on the tin". Easy to use file and printer sharing.
Unfortunately I can't delete the original pdf file but it is quite small and sys admin assure me that it will go once they reboot the server.

Many thanks for your help.

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