Sharing a MS-DOS formated external drive between two iMacs with Mountain Lion

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jflc Author

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Sharing a MS-DOS formated external drive between two iMacs with Mountain Lion

I have a USB external drive that needs to be MS-DOS formated.

I have plugged it to iMac1 and configured things so the drive is shared.

I do not see it on iMac2 😟

Both iMacs run the latest Moutain Lion.

When I reformat the external drive to MacOS format, there is no problem (external drive appears on iMac2).

When I reformat the external drive to exFAT format, there is no problem (external drive appears on iMac2).

But I need my drive to have MS-DOS (FAT) format, and...

When I reformat the external drive to MS-DOS (FAT) format, the external drive does NOT appear on iMac2... 😢

HELP!!!

Thanks

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on May 7, 2013 10:08 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

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May 7, 2013 10:17 AM in response to jflc

If you plug the drive into iMac2 can you see it from iMac1? Might narrow down where the problem is.

OT

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Answer 2

jflc Author

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May 7, 2013 10:28 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I tried that, it did not change (same problem the other way round).

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Answer 3

Eric Root

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684,033 points

May 7, 2013 10:43 AM in response to jflc

You haven't made it clear why it needs to be MS-DOS (FAT) format.

You could partition the drive using Disk Utility and format one partition as MS-DOS and the other as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). That would allow the Macs to use the drive and a Windows machine to use the drive.

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Answer 4

Kurt Lang

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57,984 points

May 7, 2013 11:49 AM in response to jflc

Do you mean you're trying to daisy chain the external drive to two Macs at the same time? If so, don't do that!

When you need to use the drive on the opposite Mac, you must dismount it from the 1st Mac, unplug it, preferably turn it off, then plug it into the 2nd Mac and turn it on.

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Answer 5

jflc Author

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May 7, 2013 12:58 PM in response to Eric Root

Eric.

The first reason is: I would like to do like I did before (before Mountain Lion, it was working fine).

The real reason is: we store our PSD files on this drive (Adobe Photoshop files).

We have great iMacs at work... and poor PCs at home...

So the drive is used in both environments.

Kurt.

I am only trying to share a folder that is on an external drive.

(actually I would like to share the whole external drive, but a folder on it would be ok).

That's all.

I don't feel like it's a "special" requirement!

I hope things are more clear now. Sorry about my poor English 😕

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Answer 6

Eric Root

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May 8, 2013 9:51 AM in response to jflc

Still trying to figure this out, but if you use Screen Sharing between the two Macs, can you see the drive? System Preferences/Sharing.

Your English is at least as good as mine. 😝

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Answer 7

Eric Root

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May 8, 2013 10:23 AM in response to jflc

Would NTFS format work?

Hard Drive – Mac and PC

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Answer 8

jflc Author

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May 13, 2013 2:22 AM in response to Eric Root

I have just tried NTFS format: same result as MS-DOS (FAT) 😠

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Answer 9

jflc Author

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May 13, 2013 2:26 AM in response to Eric Root

I have just tried Screen Sharing:

- external drive connected to iMac1

- Screen Sharing activated on iMac1

- connection from the screen of iMac1 from iMac2: I see the drive...

I am not sure if this is what you wanted me to try?

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Answer 10

Eric Root

Level 10

684,033 points

May 13, 2013 10:27 AM in response to jflc

Yes. I wanted to know if you could connect the two computers, which if you can screen share, you obviously can.

I don't use Photoshop, so I don't know the commands.

This is a bit of a workaround until someone can figure out a more direct method.

1. Since you can see the USB drive connected to iMac 1 when connected to iMac 1 from iMac 2, can you open Photoshop on iMac 2 and then use the Open/Import command, select iMac 1 in Finder or through screen share, then go to the USB drive, and access the file you are trying to get?

2. Alternative method would be to use screen share, select the file, and copy it to the desktop of iMac 2, then open the file. When finished with the file, you'd have to reverse the procedure to copy it back to the USB drive.

I tried this with iPhoto and it worked, but again it is a different program.

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