How to Share Files between Mac and PC — Leopard and Vista

Macs are becoming more and more prevalent, and there can be times when you need to be able to share files between your Mac and your PC.

As a follow up to my articles on setting up a small home network, let’s talk about sharing files between Leopard and Vista. Today we’ll discuss accessing shared files from the Mac, and from the PC.

 

Configuring Sharing in Vista

First we need to make sure file sharing is turned on in Vista. To check your settings click Start, type “network and sharing center” and press Enter.

 

You should now be at the Network and Sharing Center.

 

Make sure you have the File Sharing option turned on.

 

Now we need to figure out what folder we want to share or create a new shared folder. Open Computer and browse to where you would like your file share to be. Create a new folder and give it a name.

 

Right click on the new folder and select Share.

 

That will take you to the File Sharing window. Select the users you want to share with and click Share.

 

When you are finished, write down the path to your file share as you will need this so you can access your shared files. In my example the path is \\VISTA64\Windows File Share.

 

So now you have a shared folder setup on your PC. Let’s move on to configuring your sharing options in Leopard.

 

Configuring Sharing in Leopard

Believe it or not, Macs and PCs play together pretty well on the same network. There can be some issues from time to time but for the most part they work pretty well together. Our PC is setup and ready to go, so let’s get the Mac configured for file sharing.

From the Apple menu, click System Preferences

 

Then click Sharing

 

Check the box to turn on File Sharing. Also take note of the path that it gives to access the files. For this example the path is: afp://192.168.1.111 or browse for “Eric Mac”.

 

You can add folders to share by clicking the plus sign under Shared Folders. So let’s create a new folder for sharing. Open Finder, and browse to where you would like the share to be. Create a new folder and give it a name.

 

Let’s add the folder to be shared by clicking the plus sign under Shared Folders. Browse to your newly created folder and click Add.

 

Now we need to enable SMB for easier file sharing for Windows computers. Click the Options button, and then check the box Share files and folders using SMB. You might be prompted for your password. Close this window when you’re done.

 

You can set specific permissions for the folders and for each specific user, but it’s probably easier in a home environment to give the Everyone group read and write access. To do this, click the up and down arrows next to Everyone and select Read & Write.

 

Now your Mac should be configured for file sharing.

So what’s next? Let’s work on connecting to our Mac from Vista and vice versa — connecting to our PC from Leopard.

 

Connecting to a Mac Share from Vista

To connect to our new Mac shared folder we need to click Start → Computer.

 

In the address bar type the path to your Mac file share but instead of using afp:// just use \\. For example, my address is afp://192.168.1.111 but I type in: \\192.168.1.111.

 

Now you can access the shared folders on your Mac. So how do you access the shared folders on your PC from the Mac?

 

Connecting to a Windows Share from Leopard

You’re now be able to connect to your Mac share from your Windows PC, so let’s discuss how to access your Windows file shares from your Mac.

In this example I’m using Leopard but the steps should be fairly similar for earlier versions; both operating systems use SMB for file sharing.

From the Go menu click Connect to Server.

 

Now we need to refer back to the notes we made when creating the Windows file share. We need to use the path for the share we created earlier or to another shared folder you want to access. For this example the server address is smb://vista64/windows file share. Enter the path to your shared folder and click Connect.

 

Now you have successfully connected to your Windows file share from your Mac!

 

Other Options

There is another option you can use when sharing files between PCs and Macs. You can purchase a network storage device or NAS and set it up on your network for file sharing. Most of these devices are formatted in FAT32 straight out of the box. FAT32 is compatible with both PCs and Macs so that makes it a fairly quick setup.

What other ways can you share files between your PC and your Mac?

 

 

Related Posts:

• How to Setup a Small Home Network — Part 2
• How to Backup Vista with the New Backup Utility
• Pando: Sharing Big Files The Easy Way
• My 5 Favorite Windows Vista Features
• Vista is for Suckers and Mac Users are Better Than You
• Don’t Fear the Vista!
• Server 2008: Configuring Distributed File Systems (DFS)

 

24 Responses to “How to Share Files between Mac and PC — Leopard and Vista”

• Nariman Riahi Says:

  May 28th, 2009 at 9:19 am

  for sharing MAC (10.5.x) folder from PC (Vista) if I want to not allow read and write access to everyone, how do I set it up?
  So far whatever I do I can not pass the authentication. I go to Network (in Vista) and see my Mac. I double click it and see the share folders but basically whatever is shared with Everyone I can access. I can not access for example Pictures folder with read, Write access given to myself (nariman user). I get an error in Vista when I try to open that folder.

• MamaJJ Says:

  June 22nd, 2009 at 3:05 am

  Thank you so much! You are great, your explaination was spot on and very easy to understand, 100% success.

• Truman Says:

  June 28th, 2009 at 6:18 pm

  I have a Question. I want to share large files from a Vista Server to a Mac OS X Leopard Laptop. I want to share movies and video’s from this Windows Vista server and have it go to my Mac OS X Leopard and have it go into the Front Row in order to play the Movies.

  I have been told Fat32 does not allow for large files over the size of 4Gb. I am wanting to share files up to and over 8gb a file.

  Do you have any recommendations.

  Thank you

• Caesar Wong Says:

  August 1st, 2009 at 4:28 am

  Hi,

  I’m appreciate for your detailed walkthrough guide showing us how to share file between PC & Mac. However, I think my scenario would be very much different, which I don’t wish to let anybody else except “David” to get access to my share folder on my mac. Thus, I put “everyone” to “no access”, and I created a new username and password for “David” on my mac.

  On David’s PC side, my share document is visible to him, but whenever he attempt to double-click and get access to that folder which I specifically share it to him only, without any authentication asked, he was prompted and be told that he has not been granted access to this folder and he is required to seek for the network administrator.

  So, I wonder if there is anything which I have missed… I’m pretty sure that my file sharing service has been enabled, included him into my sharing ACL, and as well as having my SMB service enabled. All I wish is just to let the assigned user to be able to authenticate into my sharing folder, and those whom are not, remain unaccessible.

  I’m looking forward to read your revert Thank you very much.

  Regards,
  C.W.

• Laura Says:

  August 7th, 2009 at 11:32 am

  Hello! I am trying to connect to the shared network on the PCs at the office from my MAC so I can get to office files, etc. I followed your instructions for my leopard, up until the last bit which is the most important part! My Macbook pro does not have a ‘Go’ menu, and I can’t find anything anywhere of that discription, can you direct me further please?

• Dave Says:

  August 31st, 2009 at 7:56 pm

  Thankyou!!!!!!!!!

• Habu Says:

  September 1st, 2009 at 12:46 pm

  You’re da man. I’ve spent weeks trying to connect my wife’s new iMac to my Vista network without success. I follow your instructions and …bingo. Success! It even put nice little icons on the macs screen for the wife to simply instant connect to music and photo files on my PC. All hail Eric.

  Now to see if I can get the mac to print to my printer.

• Aditya Says:

  September 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 pm

  Thanks this was pretty helpful.

  Initially after setting up the mac share i was not able to access it from windows. Windows was saying i dont have permission contact my network my network administrator (I am the one :)).

  While doing the connect to server on my mac to connect to my windows share it asked for my windows logged in user cred. after i provided i was able to access files both ways.

  Its pretty easy and smooth. By the way I am using Windows 7.

• Joe Cotton Says:

  October 20th, 2009 at 9:28 am

  Thanks for posting this. The instructions were clear and on-point.

  Joe

• Jim Waldron Says:

  October 21st, 2009 at 9:12 pm

  U DA MAN DUDE!!!!!!

• Julie Says:

  October 27th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

  Thanks! Your walk-through worked for PC to Mac when nothing else did. For some reason Mac to PC is still not working, but PC to Mac is great. Thanks! (P.S. The PC isn’t seen on the network… I believe it is a larger issue than poor typing skills)

• Joe Says:

  November 16th, 2009 at 3:20 am

  When I tried to access a folder from my mac it said “this drive could not be mounted”. Any suggestions? Joe.

• David Says:

  November 22nd, 2009 at 1:50 am

  I really appreciate this walkthrough. It worked like a charm after I had been searching the Interweb high and low for some help. I could easily connect to shared folders on my new iMac from the PC but seeing my Vista folders from the Mac was a challenge. Next up is connecting to my XP machine. Not quite the same but you’ve givin me enough to go on that I’m sure I’ll get it. Thanks again!!!

• Floris Says:

  December 1st, 2009 at 11:21 pm

  Tried your suggestions and got nowhere – I had set up the Mac to run SMB per the above instructions (PC claims it has no idea what the afp:// protocol is – nice move, Microsoft!).
  In my configuration I was trying to connect a PC running Windows 7 with a Mac running 10.5

  I found a post somewhere else that suggested my security settings might be the problem.

  Sure enough – when I opened Norton 360, I could add my Mac as follows:
  Norton 360 Settings -> Trust Control -> Configure
  Click on the [+] to add a new machine; give it a name (myMac) and the IP address (if it’s static; or the MAC address if it’s dynamic). I gave it “full trust” since both devices are behind a router/firewall.

  Then I went to Explorer, typed in \\192.168.1.105 (happens to be the IP address of the Mac on my home network) and a window opening showing all the shared folders on the Mac.

  Networking is magical when it works…

• Floris Says:

  December 1st, 2009 at 11:24 pm

  It turns out that even the more restrictive security setting “use network trust” in Norton 360 is good enough to get the PC to see the Mac. Might be a safer alternative in case aliens take over your Mac. Not that that is likely.

• Rob Says:

  December 2nd, 2009 at 11:49 am

  First, thanks for publishing these instructions. Second, just moved to a MAC and I found 1 additional thing via Apple Support that needed to be done to get the files to share between Vista PC and Snow Leopard OS X (10.6.2). I still haven’t been able to get onto my PC from my MAC but I now am able share files in the designated MAC folders using my iMac Hard drive, which is perfect.

  TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN ACCESS THE FILES ON YOUR MAC FROM YOUR PC PERMISSION MUST BE SET AT THE FILE LEVEL ALSO.

  What this means is: once you have set up your sharing settings in your MAC for files and have chosen for the folders you want so it is all Read & Write etc, the files you are sharing must have the PERMISSIONS set right so it is also Read & Write, as well as those files and all sub-files you want to be sharing.

  To do this open Finder, right click or control click on the folders you are sharing and go to Get Info. At the bottom of this is Sharing & Permissions. If the privilege for the users you want is not set to Read & Write, or the setting you want, you must click the unlock and change it under privilege. Then, if you chose a folder that has sub-folders in it you should click on the ‘Gear’ shaped box next to the + /- boxes below that, left of the lock, and choose ‘Apply to enclosed items’. This way everything will be all set.

  I hope this helps as I was ready to throw my new iMac through the wall before I realized i could contact support for the first 90 days of having my Mac and got this solved.

• maclover Says:

  December 11th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

  this is great!

• Kirk Says:

  December 15th, 2009 at 8:57 pm

  This helped me get me to see my files from my MAC on my PC. Thank you! IS there a way on the MAC to go into the Network area and it automotically show you everythign on the network that is shared? This is on my home network…

  On my PC I can go into the network and it automatically sees everything even my shared files on my MAC. I don’t like having to connect to a serber each time from the MAC unless I have to.

  Thoughts?

• wayne Says:

  December 17th, 2009 at 9:52 am

  Hello

  The problem is that my Pc is windows XP and i get stuck straight away as the control panel has NO “Network and sharing centre”

  can you point me anywhere
  thank you

• Sharmin Says:

  December 19th, 2009 at 1:10 am

  I followed the instructions (10 times to make sure) and I can see my mac share file on my PC but not my PC shared files on my Mac – what am I doing wrong?

• wayne Says:

  January 17th, 2010 at 9:36 am

  I had some success by using the method below on an XP machine

  Went to -
  My Network Places > Add a Network Place > Browse > Entire Network > Microsoft Windows Network > Workgroup > (my iMac’s name) >

  You should then be able to access the file or disk (yes you can share cd/dvd drive with a pc that hasnt got one) /file from Windows using a username (or guest and no password as you would when accessing normal network share)

• Trevor Says:

  January 20th, 2010 at 6:09 pm

  Thank you. Your site helped me immensely. I have one problem though. After completing your instructions, I am unable to see my PC on my Mac. I can see and use my Mac files perfectly on my PC.

  On the Mac, in the Finder window, I see my PC. But when I try to connect it says “Connection Failed” and when I try the Cmd-K and input the address as indicated in your post, I get a message that says “Server Unavailable.’

  I am using Snow Leopard and Vista.

  Thanks again.

• Dipak Says:

  January 30th, 2010 at 10:59 pm

  Thank you so much for thing informations. It was easy to understand.

• Monica Says:

  February 3rd, 2010 at 9:50 pm

  WOW, you are my hero… This was so easy and worked the first time…
  My deepest gratitude.

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