Best way to map Windows network drives on OS X?

[keogh]

Howdy,

I'm hoping someone can help here... well I'm just hoping there is a better way to do this?

I work from home as a Web Developer, and I have been a Windows user for years now, but recently converted to Mac OS X, and am loving it! But there is one VERY annoying thing that I cannot solve, and I am hoping it can be sorted on OS X, otherwise this is something Windows wins hands down with

What is the best way to map network drives on OS X? I have a Windows 2003 server running at home that has all my websites etc on, so I use this everyday. On Vista/XP etc its very simple, you just map the drive and it will appears as X/Y/Z etc in your "My Computer" and I can just use Z: in all my apps to find the files there. The drive stays the forever unless I tell it not to or the server is not running!

Well in OS X I have found the drive on the network I want to connect to, once I authenticate, it appears on my desktop as a server icon. Double clicking this takes me to that drive, great!

Well upon rebooting it disappears, kinda expected, so I reconnect to the server, get it on my desktop, then I drag it to my "Login items" in System Prefs -> Accounts. Now whenever I reboot, enter my password, the drive appear (slowly... but they appear!). My problems are below:

1. Everytime I reboot the folder open up on my desktop and its annoying! I check the "hide" checkbox next to the items in my "Login Items" screen, but this does absolutely nothing? The windows still appear on login? And the drives connect on login? Whats the point in that checkbox?

2. This is the must annoying thing, whenever my MacBook Pro goes to sleep, so do those connections? When I wake the laptop up, blam, all my networked icons gradually disappear from my desktop... I see them doing it? Why is this? I have to then go thru the tedious process of bring them back?

3. I draged the icons to the dock, and I can connect to them there, but I will still have to do this after number 2 happens?

Does anyone else here use Windows drives on their mac? And use them a lot? What is the best way to do this? I just want them to appear on the desktop when I login and stay there no matter what? Can this be done?

Any help/advice on this would be appreciated!

ta

Steve

 

[keogh]

i need it all the time though, i may sound VERY lazy, but I dont want to have to keep reconnecting to it on boot?

I mean the way I said above with the login items works well, just the drives keep disappearing when my mac goes to sleep? Its odd, as Im sure its not suppose to do that... right?

 

[keogh]

Its most likely because the network/wireless card is going to sleep, which is causing the link to drop.

Not 100% sure if its possible but can you set your network cards to not sleep when the computer does ?

Hmm could be that? I'll have a look and see if I can stop it going to sleep!

 

[keogh]

I was going to help but I just have to point out that a question mark does not equal a full stop.

Also I think there's nothing you can do about this.

... And you tell me you where going to help, and then go on to tell me you think there is nothing I can do about this? How where you going to help me then, before the "?"'s changed you mind?

 

[keogh]

Beepcake, your a legend! Im actually formatting my mac at the mo, once its down and I have everything installed, Ill give that a whirl... if that works, then it should do EXACTLY what I wanted!

cheers dude!

 

[keogh]

Ok that script worked... to a degree, but everytime I login I get the "Script" icon appear in the dock bouncing at me, I have to click that and I see a prompt that says "Press Run to run thsi script, or Quit to quit"... do you get this beepcake? I checked the hide checkbox in the login items, but as before, this does nothing different, Any ideas?

 

[keogh]

Ok I fixed that problem, got the script working like a beaut... but sleepwatcher WILL NOT remount them on wake. I tried your example above, and I also tried: osascript scriptname.scpt but this also refuses to work, any ideas why this isn't working?

EDIT: I decided to whack the osascript command i mentioned above, straight into the /etc/rc.wakeup file using vi, and it works like a dream now! for some reason, it would appear the sleepwatcher was not running scripts *.wakeup/*.sleep in my home directory, this was the only way I could see around it!

 

[keogh]

It's not *.wakeup it's just .wakeup (you probably need to make it with vi as it's a 'hidden' file).. glad you got it working anyway

Yep my bad, i renamed it to .wakeup and vi'd it... as im new to mac, I didn't realise the rubbish that textedit lobs in there... its not like notepad on PC, so I had to vi and remove all that gunk and it works a treat now!

I have had to do two scripts though, I dont have the "delay" issue on my mac, so I can run the script instantly and it works a treat.

But upon waking up after a sleep, i ALWAYS see my mounted drives for a few seconds, then they gradually disappear. So upon waking sleepwatcher runs the script immediately, well at this point the drives are mounted so it doesn't do anything.. then a few seconds later they unmount.

So I have created a replica script, but just added "delay 5" at the top. Not tested it yet though, cos oddly if my mac is only a sleep for a few minutes, the drives remain mounted... only if my mac is asleep for a while do it do the unmount thing.

I hope Leopard fixes all this mounting/sleep probs!

Thanks for your help though Beepcake, its worked very well!