Another Mac Question (Mounted Drives)

[follicle]

Okay, I think this will be my last Mac question. I'm still going through the transition from PC. It's definitely a learning experience.

On a PC, if you map (mount) a network drive, it stays mapped until you unmap it. For example, if I mapped our shared drive here at the office, I could shut down, boot up, and it would still be mapped.

I've mounted several of these drives on my Mac; however, every time I shut down or restart, I have to remap these drives because they disappear after a shutdown or reboot. Is there anyway to keep mounted drives mounted!?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

- Jon

[Craig B]

Hmm, I've never done that (I'm fine with just quickly mounting them again by leaving alias' to the mounted drives in my dock.

This web site has some info: http://www.bombich.com/mactips/automount.html
as does this one: http://sial.org/howto/osx/automount/

I hope those help.

[SpugNothuson]

I always stick a shortcut to my network drives in my Dock. Just drag the little sucker once mapped into the Dock and click to resurrect it anytime you start your machine.

I also believe you can ctrl and click on the shortcut and get your machine to activate the network on startup. Not 100% sure as I'm not sat near my mac at the moment.

[Craig B]

It also appears that you can add folders (such as the root or some other folder of your network drive) in the startuo items of your users in your accounts (system prefs).

I've never tried it so I can't vouch for it.

It also looks like you may be able to just add the drive itself, sans folder.

[doubting_thomas]

It also appears that you can add folders (such as the root or some other folder of your network drive) in the startuo items of your users in your accounts (system prefs). This is what I do. It works really nicely as long as the drive is available when you
boot. If not it'll hang your start up until you cancel out of the dialog box.
Otherwise, it's pretty slick. You just need to log into each one as the dialog
box comes up. Of course, it's not like Windows XP that reconnects automaticly.
That's one of the things I like with Windows.
Remember that you need to be logged into the server(s), then go to your System
Prefs and drag the mounted share into the Start Up que for your account. I don't
think it works correctly if you aren't already logged in.

[Craig B]

Doubting, that's interesting. Definitely don't want to hang up during boot if they're not available. I wonder if the "netinfo manager" route in my link is more stable and less likely to cause a hang up?

[Virgo Nightingale]

My computer automatically connects to the office server on startup. No prompting, no logging in. I just get an icon on my desktop and a finder window open to the main level of the server. I don't know how it was done, I didn't set it up.

[SpugNothuson]

netinfo manager
Have you tried playing with that fella in Tiger?

The swines at Apple tried to hide it.

[follicle]

Thanks for the answers thus far. Very helpful. I never thought about putting the drives in my dock.

For now, I've also put the drives to open on start up. We'll see if this causes any problems when I go home tonight and the drives aren't available. If it does, I'll live with clicking the icons in the dock and waiting a few seconds for the drive to connect.

Again, thanks for the replies!

[doubting_thomas]

My computer automatically connects to the office server on startup. No prompting, no logging in. I just get an icon on my desktop and a finder window open to the main level of the server. I don't know how it was done, I didn't set it up. You might be using Keychain to log in. You'd never see a prompt then, iirc. I don't
use it.

Craig, it doesn't hang like it would in a crash, but you do need to hit the Cancel
button. I usually hear about an off line server before I even get my coat off in
the morning, so It's not that bit of a deal for me.

[Craig B]

That's good doubting (that it doesn't crash). And no spug I haven't tried finding netifnfo in Tiger ... s it still there, just well hidden?

[SpugNothuson]

You have to do some really stupid stuff where you need to log the user out and log the administrator in.

Even though you've never set up a user or administrator.

The standard user of the mac is not the be all and end all admin guy. You need to physically call up a log in page and insert Administrator as your name. Now you have the privaledges to screw about with the netinfo manager, which is also hidden away from prying eyes through a few sub windows.

I really don't know why they've done this. For the people that use netinfo, let them bloody use it. For those that don't, they wont open it. Simple.

[SpugNothuson]

I have a proper more detailed description of how to adjust the netinfo settings in Tiger if anyone needs them.