[X-Newbies] Sharing External HD

[Steven Rogers]

On Jul 12, 2005, at 4:41 PM, Tony Johansen wrote:

> On 13/7/2005 1:26 AM, "Michael Winter" <winter at mac.com> wrote:
>
>> On Jul 12, 2005, at 10:00 AM, Morland, Chris wrote:
>>
>>> Have a question about external HD: Can you share an external HD
>>> with two computers via firewire ports?
>>
>> If you're asking can you just plug two Macs into the same external FW
>> drive and have it work, the answer is probably -but its a dangerous
>> thing to do. At least I wouldn't do it.

Probably????   The answer is emphatically NO. Do not plug multiple  
controllers into the same device.

> This brings up the obvious, what then are the 2 firewire ports for  
> on the
> external hard drive? I've wondered about that myself. Is there some  
> use
> other than connecting to another computer?

Yes - there are 2 plugs so you can plug another device into the  
"chain". You can tell a Mac to be a client device (i.e. "target  
mode") by holding down the "T" key during startup. Then you can plug  
it into a firewire chain and it will act like another drive. This is  
useful for "docking" laptops to desktops.

SR