The issue:
I am trying to mount my wife’s laptop hard drive on my mac to transfer over some files, and I’ve found I really don’t know where to start. Any advice? I’m on OS 9.2, she’s got windows 2000 professional.
This is easier if the user has a version of Mac OS X but its still possible with OS 9. Here are the steps:
- Download and install a free evaluation copy of DAVE on your Mac
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On the PC go to Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections (name may be different) -> right-click on the LAN item (you may have named it something else) and select Properties. Under the General tab check the “File and Printer Sharing for…” if it is not already checked. If the item isn’t there at all click the “Install” button and choose it from the list.
Here is the detailed KB article from MSFT on how to set up permissions on the folder(s) you want to share:
- Once the steps above are done you should be able to go to your Mac, open the Chooser, using the DAVE item in the chooser (I think they also may add an item directly to your Apple Menu…I forget) then navigate to your wife’s PC and the folder that is shared.
It sounds complicated and it is, especially if you’re not familiar with Windows and Mac networking. I know many Mac users still may not be able to run OS X on their machines but Apple does include all the cross-platform networking goodies you need in OS X. Also Microsoft includes networking for Macs (OS 9 and X) in their 2000 & 2003 Server products so on a corporate network this can all be set up by the network administrator so that it is invisible to the Mac user. They also somewhat simplified the sharing setup on the Windows side with XP.
To simplify this on my home network I have a Mac OS X Server that runs a Windows Workgroup. All the computers in the house be they Mac, Windows, or Linux can read/write to Windows shares so this way the computers don’t need to talk to each other only to the server. Files can be copied to/from the server from any computer even from a friend’s computer if we have a guest in the house.