Hi all,

I have 3 external hard discs with a total of 16 partitions (including the internal HD). After starting file sharing (to exchange files over Ethernet with my PowerBook), I want to share *all* the partitions, but on several partitions I get the error message "File sharing is preparing this disc. Wait a moment or two!" But I can wait forever, and the partitions will not be shared. I have no problems sharing the other partitions (the problem persists both under MacOS 8.6 and 9).

Is there a maximum number of shareable partitions or am I doing something wrong?

[Walter J. Ferstl]

Carbon,

as I had similar problems before, I suspect that there is a limit for the number of files and folders File Sharing can utilize for a given partition.

Does the partition that gives you troubles have significantly more folders and files (also keep an eye on a more complicated file structure built up by folders in folders, etc.) than the other ones?

Another idea of mine is the number of items on the top level of a partition - may be this one is limited (which would point into the opposite direction for a remedy).

Although I have been looking I could not find any explicit information about such a limit.

I do not think the total number of sharable partitions is an issue here.

Hope this may help you a little bit.

Regards,

Walter.

[This message has been edited by Walter J. Ferstl (edited 12-07-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Walter J. Ferstl (edited 12-07-1999).]

I have checked the partitions for similarities, but found nothing: they range from 700 MB to 2 GB, from one single top level folder to a dozen or so, from almost full to half empty.

I tried rebuilding the desktop file, zapped the invisible AppleShare files and folders, reinstalled System software, started with a minimal extension set, tried with OS 8.6 and 9.0, all with no success.

This is really weird and I remember that file sharing worked on a partition where it now refuses to work several weeks ago, but there is *nothing* major that I changed since then.

As this seems to be a rather common problem, I wonder what else I could do (besides reformatting the whole disc)?.

Thanks for your suggestions anyway!

[This message has been edited by Carbon (edited 12-13-1999).]