Make external HD "universally accessible"?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JoeSpareBedroom
  • Start date Start date
J

JoeSpareBedroom

A while back, I needed to share my external Seagate HD across a small
network and I wanted a bit of security. That function is no longer needed.
Now, I want to be able to plug the HD into any computer without having to
fuss with permission, and not have to fuss with access control (for the HD).
I don't want to mess with the networking settings on those computers. These
are guys in my band, so trust isn't an issue, and I'm walking away with my
HD when I'm done giving them tunes.

Or, to put it another way, I want the HD to behave like it did when it came
out of the box. Not sure how to revert to that state. What's happening now
is that when I plug into any machine except my own and try to access the HD,
I get a "Not accessible" msg.

On my own computer, if I right click on this external HD, choose properties,
and then the Sharing tab, I see that "Share this folder" is selected, and
there's a share name, E$. If I simply choose "Do not share this folder",
will this accomplish the necessary goal?
 
A while back, I needed to share my external Seagate HD across a
small network and I wanted a bit of security. That function is no
longer needed. Now, I want to be able to plug the HD into any
computer without having to fuss with permission, and not have to
fuss with access control (for the HD). I don't want to mess with
the networking settings on those computers. These are guys in my
band, so trust isn't an issue, and I'm walking away with my HD
when I'm done giving them tunes.

Or, to put it another way, I want the HD to behave like it did
when it came out of the box. Not sure how to revert to that state.
What's happening now is that when I plug into any machine except
my own and try to access the HD, I get a "Not accessible" msg.

On my own computer, if I right click on this external HD, choose
properties, and then the Sharing tab, I see that "Share this
folder" is selected, and there's a share name, E$. If I simply
choose "Do not share this folder", will this accomplish the
necessary goal?
Click to expand...

Making the assumption that you are talking about an external USB
Drive that at one time was attached to one machine and shared on a
network and you now want to remove it from the network and walk
it around to other machines ...

There is probably two ways you can do this. One way is to connect
it to the computer that recognizes it then right-click on the drive
and select "Properties". Then click on the "Security" tab. (If you
don't have a Security tab, then you probably have Windows Home and
have to boot your machine to Safe Mode to get the Security tab).
After clicking the Security tab, click "Advanced" and then click
"Add" and add the user "Everyone". Edit the permissions for
"Everyone" as you see fit, then check the "Replace permission
entries on child objects.." box and "OK" your way out.

The other method is to reformat your drive as FAT-32. If your drive
is more than 32 Gigabytes, then you must use a 3rd party tool.
FAT-32 disks can't store individual files greater than 4 GB
in size.

See article:
"Formatting a Large Drive Greater Than 32GB with a FAT32 File System
Using Seagate DiscWizard"
<http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=200895&NewLang=en>

HTH,
John
 
John Wunderlich said:
Making the assumption that you are talking about an external USB
Drive that at one time was attached to one machine and shared on a
network and you now want to remove it from the network and walk
it around to other machines ...

There is probably two ways you can do this. One way is to connect
it to the computer that recognizes it then right-click on the drive
and select "Properties". Then click on the "Security" tab. (If you
don't have a Security tab, then you probably have Windows Home and
have to boot your machine to Safe Mode to get the Security tab).
After clicking the Security tab, click "Advanced" and then click
"Add" and add the user "Everyone". Edit the permissions for
"Everyone" as you see fit, then check the "Replace permission
entries on child objects.." box and "OK" your way out.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a USB drive. OS is XP Pro w/SP3. It's formatted as NTFS and I'm
unlikely to change that unless someone's got a gun to my child's head.

Thanks for method #1. I'll be testing it tomorrow, unless I can stop a
complete stranger on the street this evening. :)
 
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