Cannot view network drives

[mrhappywi]

I have installed Sage on a Windows Home Server and it is working fine. I am trying to add a netork drive outside of the home server which is located on another PC. I am simply trying to add a Video Recording Directory and I click Up Directory until I see the following:
C:\
D:\
I:\
X:\
Network

and everytime I click on Network I get the following message:
Current: smb:////

Invalid Directory.

It will not allow me to see the Workgroup section that it normally showsme so I can choose the network drive.

I have tried everything. Please help....

[gplasky]

Choose the SPECIFY menu.
Then the path you specify will be \\Servername\share\directory

If you get it wrong it will ask you if you want to create it. Here's an example: My server name (machine name) is MAIN. I have shared a drive called VIDEO and on that drive are two folders called DVD and SageTV. So for an import folder I would specify \\MAIN\VIDEO\DVD. For a recording directory I would specify \\MAIN\VIDEO\SageTV.

Also, drilling down in Network Places and checking out the address bar in Windows will help you with what path you should specify.

Your names would be different of course. Hope that helps.

Gerry

[mrhappywi]

That's the problem as soon as I go and try to click on network it says invalid directory instead of displaying my workgroup and pc's on my network. It use to always display 1st the workgroup (which is what I call mine, instead of MSHOME) and then it would display the pc's that are part of the workgroup but now it only says invalid directory when I click on Network to try and assign a share. Don't know what I did wrong...

[gplasky]

You need to make sure whatever workgroup your WHS sever is using that all other PCs on your network is in that workgroup. Also make sure you have the same user ID (and with WHS it may require it to have password)on the other PCs you want to access.

Gerry

[mrhappywi]

They all are in the workgroup. Also I have WHS set with the login and password. It initially worked and when I clicked on network I seen workgroup but wasn't finding the drive I installed and then remembered I hadn't shared the drive yet. Went back and shared the drive and then when I went back into Sage and clicked Network it no longer showed Workgroup but just keeps giving the Invalid Directory message. I am going nuts trying to figure out what is going on. Have 4 tuners working fine now with WHS but can't set my recording drive to what I want outside of the WHS pool of drives.

Please someone help with a possible solution.
Thanks

[DOS64K]

Originally Posted by mrhappywi

They all are in the workgroup. Also I have WHS set with the login and password. It initially worked and when I clicked on network I seen workgroup but wasn't finding the drive I installed and then remembered I hadn't shared the drive yet. Went back and shared the drive and then when I went back into Sage and clicked Network it no longer showed Workgroup but just keeps giving the Invalid Directory message. I am going nuts trying to figure out what is going on. Have 4 tuners working fine now with WHS but can't set my recording drive to what I want outside of the WHS pool of drives.

Please someone help with a possible solution.
Thanks

Couldn't quite tell from your posts what you've tried or eliminated so I'll ask.
1. Is the PC with the share XP Pro? Is simple file sharing disabled?
2. Have you tried accessing the share from WHS alone, meaning with Sage totally shut down? What do you get?
At this point you should be sure you can access the share from WHS first, then we can tackle Sage.

[mrhappywi]

I just un-installed Sage on WHS several times but still get the same error message. Anyhow to answer your questions:

1. The PC with the share I am trying to utilize with Sage is running XP PRO.
2. On WHS the share drive is there both in MY COMPUTER as a valid drive and in Network drives.
3. And with Sage totally uninstalled I can click on my computer on WHS and access the drive just fine and read and write to it.

The Invalid Directory just doesn't want to go away no matter if I uninstall Sage and totally delete the Sage directories it still comes back as
Current: smb://// invalid directory.

[DOS64K]

WHS does occasionally have SMB issues, but it mostly manifests itself as WHS shares that disappear to the clients, not the other way around as in your case. Since you say that you can see (and write to) the client share in WHS, I'm stumped as to the problem.
If I get a chance tonight I'll test a couple of things with my WHS box and a client to see if I can duplicate your problem.

[gplasky]

When you go into Sage to add the directory make sure you DO NOT try to browse but immediately choose the SPECIFY menu button and type the path in the form \\Server\Shre\Directory. It's not clear to me if you're doing that. It sounds like you continue to try to browse the network to find the share.

Gerry

[mrhappywi]

I've tried that too. If I immeditely choose specify directory and enter the UNC path it says does not exist do you want to create.

[gplasky]

If you can browse to it in Network Places then you should be able to specify it without an error. Go in Network Places then browse to the actual share and right into the folder you want to be in. Check out the Address line near the top of the Network Places window. That is the line is you need to type in exactly as it appears. Use that as a reference to ensure you have the path correct. One error in typing the path and you'll get the error you are seeing.

Gerry

[jaminben]

Is the WHS in the same workgroup as the XP PC ? (WORKGROUP)
Are they both on the same subnet ? (255.255.0.0)

Those where the two things that stopped mine from working. I'd also setup a new user on the XP pc with the exact same login details as the WHS box.

I also had problems when installing sage logged in as an administrator and not as a user which in my case is the same username/password as the xp pc.

[mrhappywi]

Yes all my PC's are part of the WORKGROUP as far as the network configuration goes. Also all PC's are on same subnet. It is definitely some issue internally to Sage. I have access to the network drive from all PC's on the network including the WHS. I have deleted the sage installation at least 6 times and started fresh each time but can never enter the network drive or go up in the directory and be able to click on network without it saying invalid directory....Current: smb:////

Where the heck is it getting this directory from ->>> Current: smb://// ??? Is it stored somewhere in sage properties???

[jaminben]

As gplasky said do not use the browse feature to locate network shares. You MUST type the address in manually via the specify tab.

You could also try using SageTVServiceControl.exe from within the Sage folder on your WHS and change the run service as a user to what ever your username and password is on the xp pc.

[rosemary]

I'm having a very similar problem and have followed the instructions here without much success. But maybe I'm missing something.

I have an XP Pro machine (simple file sharing definitely off) that has a couple of drives shared out. I have the SageTV Media Center 6.3 trial on a Vista machine, not set up to run as a service. We'll call the first machine xppc and the second vistapc. They are both on the same workgroup and subnet. However, on logs in as a username with one password, the other logs in as the same username, only with a different password.

In explorer, I mapped a drive to \\xppc\drivee\media. I mapped that to O:. I told it to log in as a different user and gave it "xppc\username" as the username and the password. In explorer, I can open O:\ and I can also go straight to \\xppc\drivee\media without a problem.

I have tried this many ways just to cover my bases. Here are my scenarios.

1) I run SageTV (having previously completely shut it down).
2) I click on Setup->Detailed Setup->General->Media Center Import Directories->Modify->Add New Directory
3) I click Specify... and enter \\xppc\drivee\media
It turns a while and then says it doesn't exist, do I want to create it?

Another attempt:
1) I run SageTV (having previously completely shut it down).
2) I click on Setup->Detailed Setup->General->Media Center Import Directories->Modify->Add New Directory
3) I click Specify... and enter O:\
It turns a while and then says it doesn't exist, do I want to create it?

Another attempt:
1) I run SageTV (having previously completely shut it down).
2) I click on Setup->Detailed Setup->General->Media Center Import Directories->Modify->Add New Directory
3) I click Up directory enough times to get to My Computer. I only see my local drives and then Network. The mapped drive is not listed.
4) I click Specify... and enter O:\
It turns a while and then says it doesn't exist, do I want to create it?

Another attempt:
1) I run SageTV (having previously completely shut it down).
2) I click on Setup->Detailed Setup->General->Media Center Import Directories->Modify->Add New Directory
3) I click Up directory enough times to get to My Computer. I only see my local drives and then Network. The mapped drive is not listed.
4) I click Network.
5) I click Specify... and enter \\xppc\drivee\media
It turns a while and then says it doesn't exist, do I want to create it?


I really think I've exausted almost all the possibilities here. Can anyone see something I'm doing wrong? Can SageTV normally see mapped network drives as their mapped drive letters? If not, then when I enter the UNC path is it choking because it doesn't know how to log onto the share as a different user? Does it use its own independent Net Use commands are does it share the existing connections that are already made by the OS?

[gplasky]

Same user with different password is not considered the same user. From the service you want to use the same user with the same password and that user is in the Administrator group and also exits on the other PC. You want to use the UNC path and not map a drive. I'm assuming the "drivee" is the share name you gave it when you shared it out. And you also set it so other users can modify the files. (You don't want to share out the $driveletter-those are administrative shares and not a good practice to share those.)So on mine I have an Administrative user with a password on all the PC's that I want to share out a drive from. (Same user with same password). That's the user that runs the SageTV service. All of my recording directories (2 of them) and Import directories (8 of them) are UNC paths to the Sage server and another Media server.

Gerry

[rosemary]

Yeah, I see now the problem being that the SageTV service is only using it's credentials to hit the share. That's really unfortunate, as I'd like to not use the same user and/or password on the media PC as I use on my desktop. I wonder why they didn't bother coding it so you could specify the username and password.

[gplasky]

As long as both ID's exist on those PCs is all you need. You can log in as someone else on your client PC. The ID you use on your desktop can be different.

Gerry

[sfisher]

I can't see/connect to any other computer's shared drives on my home network. They are all running XP Pro. I can view and mount any of them via windows networking, but even specifing the UNC Path to Sage TV it doesn't find the drives and directories.

I'm open to suggestions. Please help.

-Steve

[lordmeatball]

I'm having the same problem. I'm using the same username/password on both machines. I specify directory \\computername\share and it says "Directory does not exist, would you like to create?"