External Drive Networking

[Brock Jones]

I have an 80GB XHD that I can get connected to one computer but not the
other. I have a router and both computers can access each other and the
internet but the XHD is ok and connected to one computer and it cannot be
accessed by the other. I have made sure that it has given permission to
share and I have run the MS network wizard several times and rebooted
several times but I can't get it connected. I might add that I have two
memory chip plug ins and both are accessable from both computers. I'm
running out of things to try....any ideas?
--Brock

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

External hard drives were not designed for shared networking.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

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| I have an 80GB XHD that I can get connected to one computer but not the
| other. I have a router and both computers can access each other and the
| internet but the XHD is ok and connected to one computer and it cannot be
| accessed by the other. I have made sure that it has given permission to
| share and I have run the MS network wizard several times and rebooted
| several times but I can't get it connected. I might add that I have two
| memory chip plug ins and both are accessable from both computers. I'm
| running out of things to try....any ideas?
| --Brock

 

[BobC]

External hard drives were not designed for shared networking.

Why not? I've used an external HD for backup of 6 LAN computers for over a
year without problem. Each computer is backed up nightly. Even this
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx
ms article refers to using an external HD for backup purposes.

 

[John R Weiss]

I have an 80GB XHD that I can get connected to one computer but not the other.
I have a router and both computers can access each other and the internet but
the XHD is ok and connected to one computer and it cannot be accessed by the
other.

Map the drive to a drive letter on the host computer, and ensure that drive is
shared. Then you should be able to access it via the network.

 

[Ron Lowe]

I have an 80GB XHD that I can get connected to one computer but not the
other. I have a router and both computers can access each other and the
internet but the XHD is ok and connected to one computer and it cannot be
accessed by the other. I have made sure that it has given permission to
share and I have run the MS network wizard several times and rebooted
several times but I can't get it connected. I might add that I have two
memory chip plug ins and both are accessable from both computers. I'm
running out of things to try....any ideas?
--Brock

What version of windows is on each machine?

Can you give the *complete and exact* text of the error
message you get when you try to access the external drive?

Does it talk about "Not enough server storage"?

 

[Brock Jones]

Both machines are winxp home. The complete and exact error message follows:
===================================================================
\\Chuck\H is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Contact
the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

Not enough server storage is available to process this command
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(where the H Drive on Chucks computer is the desired access)
===================================================================
So your question about "not enough server storage" was a good
one.....however I have already googled for this error message and added
irpstacksize as a dword with a value of 15 to the registry.....resulting in
nothing.....so I guess I have a permission error but I have given wide
permission as best I know how.

I have struggled with this for months now because I want to use the XHD for
backup and I know it did work in the past but I haven't cracked it yet.
Thanks a lot for your interest and thoughtful response. If anything else
occurs to you, I would be very willing to try most anything.

--Brock

P.S. I am the adminitrator of both machines.

 

[Brock Jones]

Well call me crazy, but I just went back to the irpstacksize and bumped it
up to 20 and guess what...no more problem. And whats even stranger is that
I noticed that the fan now kicks in at 55C now and it never did before. It
was going all the way to 61 yesterday and not kicking in...so that concern
is fixed too. Not that 55 is all that great but its better than 61.

So I have one question. What are the hazards of using 20 as a irpstacksize
value? I know it will increase some type of memory useage but I have 512mb
of ram and lots of total memory. Do I need to back the 20 off to see what
the critical size is? Your good advice is always appreciated.

--Brock

I am a program junkie...perhaps that is why I need more than 15....
=================================================================