Finding NAS on Windows 7

flogen

Hey folks,

I've got a LaCie Network Space NAS and am trying to map it on my Windows 7 PC.

The device is hooked up to the network and the LaCie software is identifying the drive once everything is switched on, but for whatever reason it's not turning up in my 'Network'.

Oddly enough It does sometimes turn up as a Media Device but not as something that would allow me to map it as a drive in My Computer.

Does anyone know how I can do this manually?

I've tried disabling the firewall and so on but it does nothing - I have an IP address for the drive and know it's definitely working properly but my computer simply refuses to find it for whatever reason.

Thanks in advance.

Adam

Big Lar

When you map the drive you will have to do it manually,

\\ip of drive\ whatever folder

That's more or less it as far as I can remember

flogen

Thanks for that - doesn't seem to be working so am seeing if I can change the IP address and try again.

flogen

This seems to be an issue purely with my Windows 7 laptop.

My XP netbook can find, access and map the drive without any hassle at all while the Win7 can't.

Putting in the IP address and folder name as suggested above just gives me a network error and adding the laptop to the same workgroup as the netbook does nothing either (in fact the netbook cannot see the laptop and vice versa).

Network discovery etc. is on so that can't be the issue and the LaCie software I've installed on the laptop tells me it detects the NAS... it's just Windows itself that can't.

No amount of restarts seem to solve that.

Any ideas as to what it might be?

Shane O' Malley

Have you identified the IP address it is using.

Can you Ping it Ping IP_Address

Can you view it from a CMD prompt Net View \\Ip_Address

Big Lar

Your going to have to set a static IP address on the drive by logging into it via an internet browser or using the software that came with it and then map the network drive manually.

Here is mine

flogen

Thanks for that all.

OK, here's the latest.

I've given the NAS a static address and put my laptop (Win7), netbook (WinXP) and NAS on the same workgroup.

My netbook is finding the laptop and NAS no problem in the workgroup and when I map the address it does so without any issue.

The laptop, on the other hand, does not show the netbook when I view the 'Network' folder nor does it show the NAS up as a device on the network - it does identify it as a media device, however, which gives me very limited access to some of the videos and music on there.

When I try to map the drive by its IP it says it cannot access the address (which comes up almost instantly as if it hasn't even tried to find it). Network discovery etc. is switched on so I'm not sure why that's happening.

So the problem seems to be the Win7 laptop, which seems to be refusing to identify anything in the workgroup or even map to an IP that definitely exists on the network.

I'm at a loss as to what the solution is.

Overheal

Interesting.

I got a Seagate GoFlex network drive for xmas and it has been painless, it's plugged directly into a port on the router and 7 picked it up over the wireless as a media device right away:



Once I double-clicked on the UPNP device Windows began installing it as a new plug and play device like any USB gizmo or printer, found the driver online and bam. The other 2 network locations on the top-line just showed up after that and allow me access to the files. The UPNP device can still be used as a media player for the music library. When i actually ran the CD on the laptop they showed up as physical network drives, too.

as well as network discovery all of your sharing settings (public folders, printer sharing) are all enabled right?

flogen

Yep, file & printer sharing on, public folders on, tried both settings for the encryption settings just in case.

Really odd - had the NAS a while and never had an issue with it (while using it mainly on WinXP devices). I'm certain it worked on my Win7 laptop before but has just decided to stop for some reason.

jimmycrackcorm

I'd nearly bet that the problem has to do with user permissions access on the NAS from windows 7. Can you add specific userss on the NAS - if so then you need your windows 7 user and password to the NAS user list.

Have you tried from file explorer going to //ip_address/share_folder which should ask you for the user credentials?

Try also accessing it from the W7 guest a/c which should work automatically.

flogen

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I'd nearly bet that the problem has to do with user permissions access on the NAS from windows 7. Can you add specific userss on the NAS - if so then you need your windows 7 user and password to the NAS user list.

Have you tried from file explorer going to //ip_address/share_folder which should ask you for the user credentials?

Try also accessing it from the W7 guest a/c which should work automatically.

I changed the name of the user account on the NAS to the same as my Win7 log in - so far nothing though.

When I try to access the drive from the file explorer I just get the same 'Windows cannot access...' dialogue box as when I try to map it via Computer.

Will try to access it from the guest account now...

flogen

I can't get network access on the guest account so couldn't find the NAS and couldn't find it after setting up a new user account.

Any other ideas what the problem could be?

Big Lar

I know that this sounds a bit simple, But are you logged on as administrator ?

murphaph

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I'd nearly bet that the problem has to do with user permissions access on the NAS from windows 7

I bet is is a permissions issue too. W7 is weird compared to previous versions in this regard. There is no full admin user afair, there's a "hidden admin account". Perhaps try opening windows explorer as admin (instead of just clicking on it in the start menu, right click and select "run as administrator", then see if the ip address allows the NAS to be seen. I've had a couple of things that wouldn't work (command line things) unless I opened my dos terminal as admin this way (mySQL things).

Overheal

flogen wrote: »

My netbook is finding the laptop and NAS no problem in the workgroup and when I map the address it does so without any issue.

Ah ha Ha ha Ha?

What is the workgroup name of your XP and windows 7 computers?

AlmightyCushion

I've noticed before that windows 7 doesn't seem to like networking with devices that don't have a password. Try putting a password on your windows machine and the nas(if you can).