Problem with saving to NAS Drive

[JHC]

Bear with me, I think I have this one.

How do you "see" your NAS unit in your Explorer? Usually, you would have 
(in Windows) "mapped" a specific folder (or subfolder), also called a 
network "share", (technically a "uniform resource  name, URN) from the 
NAS to an available drive letter that you use as an "alias", to simplify 
naming. Windows allows drive letters up to Z: for aliases. Commonly user 
systems only use C: and D:.

My NAS unit happens to be a Buffalo device. On it I have a collection of 
folders for various purposes, just as I might on any external drive. 
However, as a network device it does not automatically have a "normal" 
drive letter. Two of my folders are "music" and "downloads"; their 
shares are "\\Buffalo\music" and "\\Buffalo\downloads". A URN is 
cumbersome to type, so I "map" a "share" to an open Windows drive 
letter. I've mapped my two examples to M: ("music") and Z: ("downloads").

Here's the kicker: on many corporate systems, historically users were 
restricted to a small range of those identities, often to drive letters 
only from say J: through N:, because other letters (especially higher 
ones) were assigned for general systems uses. It appears that whoever 
designed GnuCash (at least on Windows, for networked drives) paid 
attention to that old habit. On my system I can save (and retrieve) 
GnuCash data on a location mapped to "M:", but NOT to "Z:". I haven't 
tested all the letters,  but it does seem that GnuCash cares about it.

Pick another drive letter to map your NAS location, and test the theory.

[ Short reminder tour: On the "Explore" program (the "file lister"), 
choose TOOLS | Map Network Drive, then on the working panel choose the 
open drive letter you want, and enter the sharename you want to 
associate with that letter ( or click the 'Browse" button to find your 
target in the "Microsoft  Windows Network" segment). Check the box for 
"Reconnect at logon" so Windows "remembers". ]


Howard Carmichael

===============================================

On 7/23/2013 2:27 PM, Adrian Sutton wrote:
> Hi Derek
>
> I'm not sure what you mean about the NAS drive being mounted - I am using
> Windows and it is just a wi-fi connection which if I use Explorer I can see
> as a separate disc.
>
> GNU not seeing it. - When I opened GNU it did not give me the NAS drive as
> location in the left hand pane as a place to find a file - it only gave me
> the C drive.
>
> If it helps I will try and post a screen dump.
>
> Adrian
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Derek Atkins [mailto:warlord at MIT.EDU]
> Sent: 22 July 2013 21:53
> To: Adrian Sutton
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: Problem with saving to NAS Drive
>
> Hi,
>
> Adrian Sutton <adriansutton97 at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Hi,
>>   
>> This is by first posting so please excuse any errors.
>>   
>> I have been using Gnucash for sometime and lkie it. My wife has been
>> using MS Money for many years and has had the occassional problem. I
>> have had some difficulties in resolving these. As she is self employed
>> her accounts are very important. So she has thought about using Gnucash.
>>   
>> We have just download it and laod her MSMoney files into it.
>>   
>> To do this I used the following stages:-
>>   
>> 1. Export her MSMoney file as a Loose Quicken file to the same
>> loaction as her MSMoney files (A folder on a NAS drive) 2. Started
>> Gnucash and tried to locate the Quicken file.
>>   
>> This is where we hit problem Gnucash would not 'find' the NAS drive.
>>   
>> I then copied the Quicken file and pasted it to a folder on the C
>> drive and used this to load into Gnucash. This seemed to work (we did
>> not fully check
>> it) as my wife wanted to be sure she could save it on the NAS drive,
>> as she has a couple of laptops depending on her working day. We could
>> not save to the NAS drive as Gnucash could not 'see' it. So for the
>> moment she will stay with MSMoney.
>>   
>> Please can anyone help - it would make my life a lot easier not having
>> to rescue her accounts again..
> I don't understand what you mean that GnuCash wont "find" the NAS drive.
> How do you have the drive mounted?  You are right that GnuCash does not use
> Gnome-VFS, so just a nautilus mount is not sufficient (i.e. if you go to
> Places -> Connect to Server).  Instead you need an actual file-system mount
> for GnuCash to see it (e.g., mount -t cifs /host/share
> /mountpoint)
>
>> Thanks
>>   
>> AdrianS
>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> -derek
>