Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Backup using SMB Windows sharing

I'm trying to back up all my photos from the Mac to Windows.

I enable a share in Windows and try to connect to it from OS X by using the Connect to Server option in Finder. Connecting to smb://limpet/Music brings something up, asking for the workgroup (DHG), username and password, but when I look at the folder contents there is nothing. I can't copy anything into it, and also I know there are files there on the Windows PC that I should be seeing. I tried this also for another share and the same result.

I tried browsing at the bottom of the Connect to Server dialog. It finds me the group Dhg and the computer Limpet (with a capital now). The next box over says Connect... To see the avialable shares for server "Limpet", click Connect. I do, and after a while it asks me to select from the shares available on Limpet. There are Authenticate Again, OK and Cancel options. I choose OK, but it just returns me to the dialog. Oh, there is a folder on the desktop.

All the folders I have opened correctly tell me how much free space I have on the Windows drive, but they are empty and I can't put anything into them.

Actually, the easiest way to connect is from the Network in Finder.

I tried fiddling with the Windows Firewall. File and Printer Sharing is only enabled for computers on the local network (this is XP, Windows Firewall -> Exceptions -> Edit -> Change Scope), so I enable it for all computers. No effect. I turn off Windows Firewall altogether and it doesn't work still.

If you drag a connected share to the trash, it doesn't eject. But if you hit the eject symbol in Finder, it does. That's pretty shoddy.

It turns out that I was using the wrong username!! Now it works fine (and really quick). And dragging to the eject/trash icon works too.

So now I can connect to my work laptop and backup everything onto it - relief!

I had a problem where copying files from Mac to Windows stopped, saying I did not have the correct permissions to perform the operation. Turned out that some of the files I was copying OVER were read only, so it couldn't complete.

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