Ok maybe you guys can figure out just where I went wrong here. My roommate bought an external drive and hooked it up to our router. All was good the first day and I could access the drive etc. Today (day 2) I get on my computer and for some f'd up reason it has a windows media connect icon attached to the drive in my network section and if I click on it..............windows media player starts up????? No idea how to fix this and I'm sure I've got something boneheaded going on. Any ideas?
We are sharing a drive so that 2 xbox's, 4 computers and our friends computers when they are over can all access it and we can watch it from any location instead of using the flash drives all the time. Our friends can then download whatever they need anytime also when they are over. We've got around 3-4 terabytes of t.v. shows, movies etc. It also cuts down on us downloading the same file twice.
Did you try mapping it permanently to your computer? Meh. I'll need to know more about this network. You mentioned 4 computers, and 2 Xboxes. Are these computers connected to the network wired or wirelessly? What OSes are they running? What OS is your machine runnning? Are you sure the drive is hooked up directly to the router? Is it a NAS? I think for what you're doing, you were better off just getting one of these (considerably cheap): http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3952307&Sku=D700-2364
Wired and wireless. The ones having problems are on Vista and Windows 7. Doesn't happen on XP machines. It's directly hooked up to the router, but I couldn't tell you if it was a NAS. It works on any non Vista/Windows 7 computer.
If it’s a run of the mill external hard drive, then it is not Network Attached Storage. Basically, you bought the wrong thing. It won’t work the way you intended. Believe me, I’ve tried. Bite the bullet, cough up the money, and get the real thing and an appropriate drive. Or at least a better facsimile. Hook that up to your router via ethernet cable and your computers should recognize it as network storage.
But I just said it's working on every non vista/windows 7 computer in the house. The very first day I accessed it just fine. Day 2 though it somehow became linked to windows media center and wants to launch windows media player everytime I click on it. So basically somewhere, somehow a permission got screwed up and I can't detach it from windows media center.
You mentioned Media Center. That operating system has some capabilities that aren't included with a Vista or 7 install. Are the other XP machines running MC as well? Just riffing but could be the problem.
I'm pretty sure it is the problem, just don't know how to solve it. It's treating the hard drive likes it's media....hence the windows media player pop up instead of accessing the drive. Just no idea how to make it stop seeing it as such
My understanding is that you bought the external and attached it to the USB slot on your router. Right? I’m just saying I’m not surprised at the trouble you’re having with that method, because it’s a hack and generally doesn’t substitute for a true NAS, no matter what router manufacturers say. Because you’re not actually running a file server on the external hard drive, yeah, Windows thinks it can just hijack the drive. Your options are to get a new device or uninstall Windows Media Connect in Add/Remove Programs, if Microsoft still allows that. If not, find a way to deactivate Windows Media Center if you don’t use it.
Center can't be uninstalled on the computer. However I can remove it from the xbox and then disable it in services. Hopefully that will break the link between the 2.
It's a stupid thing with Windows Vista/7. Finally got around it by right clicking on the start button and choosing "Open Windows Explorer" and then copying the link there to my desktop. Wish I had figured it out a couple weeks ago though. A surge somehow got through my APC power bar and killed 3 of my harddrives (and the rest of the computer is barely holding up). Lost about 1.5 tb's of shows/movies before I could transfer them over.
By the way it is a NAS drive...did check into that since it was my roommate that bought/hooked it up. That Dlink box though....bad idea. It has issues with the new 2TB drives which is the base size of what we are using. Anyways it's all sorted now, might look into the Dlink box if they ever solve that issue...since it would save us about $50 to go with a box and 2 TB standard drives over 2 2TB NAS drives.
