Solution to Slave drives not appearing on local network

[Gabriel]

I have several computers on a wired local network. Some of the computers have slave drives that I use to store bulky files. I have set them all up to share but they don't show up on the local network. Is there a way to do this, or am i sol?

[Cornucopia]

What do you even mean by "slave drives"? Are you just talking about non-booting externals?
Explain setup in detail: OSes, Network structure (Router config,DHCP,DNS,WINS,Workgroup-vs-NTDomain-vs-ADdomain), Sharing method, etc...

Scott

[teodz1984]

Please describe what you mean by slave drives

Hard Disks on External USB or ESATA or Firewire enclosures that you plug to your PCs?
or internal Hard Disks connected to your SATA / PATA.

[edDV]

Please describe what you mean by slave drives

Hard Disks on External USB or ESATA or Firewire enclosures that you plug to your PCs?
or internal Hard Disks connected to your SATA / PATA.

You must share your drives to the network.

[teodz1984]

I have set them all up to share but they don't show up on the local network.

TS must be doing soomething wrong with his NETWORK SHARING...

[Bjs]

If their pc listed in user profile is any guide then xp can be a right nut ... it be worth checking this doc out as to user account defaults.

And the other cracker ... it dose not help to use the same administrators account "name" on all systems ... use unique names.

[Gabriel]

I have three computers. One with one drive only. One with two drives each has the operating system loaded on it and drives are set to share. Both drives appear on the Local Network. The third computer is the problem. It has two drives on it; one with the operating system and the other with no operating that I have set up as a slave for local storage, both drives are sata. On this computer I have ready access to the second drive but it does not show up on the local network.

I tried Bjs and reset the forceguest option but it didn't do anything. It's frustrating. I set up the dvd drive to share and IT shows on the local network; the main harddrive is on the local network but the slave drive doesn't show up.

I am operating win xp on all three computers.

[Gabriel]

When a file or drive does not automatically become part of the shared network, set the share options under properties then

Go to My Network Places
Select Add a New Network Point
Select Choose another Network Location
Select Browse
Select Open Entire Network
Select Open MSWindows Network
Select MSHome
Select the computer with the file or drive
Select the file or drive

It seems like they could have made this easier.

Thanks for the replies

[Cornucopia]

Networking has many variables - it's NEVER easy. They've pretty much made it as easy as they can and still keep it secure (VERY IMPORTANT).

What OS!!?? Win XP Pro? or Win XP Home? Which Service Pack level(s)? (for each pc) - this makes a difference. Don't just say "XP".

Do you have Cable Modem? Router? Hub? Switch? Are all the devices on the same subnet?
Which one of these is providing DHCP & DNS services? or Are you using static IP addresses? Might there be a conflict?

Are you using "Simple" sharing on any of those computers? Or full/secure?
Do all the computers have "Client for Microsoft Networks" and "File & Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks" components in your network settings?
***Do you have the same WORKGROUP name (MSHOME?) on all machines? (It seems clear now that you AREN'T using a domain system).

Do you have exceptions to your firewall settings to allow file/print sharing, network diagnostics and (in the ICMP section) echo requests? Maybe also UPnP?

And Bjs is incorrect, accounts with the same name in a workgroup setting DO make things easier; also I strongly DO NOT recommend EVER using "Guest" as a login for intranets of this kind.

It could also be that you've got a "Browse Master election" conflict.

Scott

[Gabriel]

I have XP Home on all machines all SP3 and fully udated; I have a D Link highspeed gaming router and everything is on MSHome. Since I figured out how to manually add the drive the question is now moot.

The thing that made no sense was that of the five drives on three computers, four showed up with no problem and one didn't even though I treated them all the same. I think there is a special place in hell for microsoft programmers - there certainly should be.