Things always have worked properly when all my files have been on my computer. We just got an external network drive that we are moving all our files to...not a seperate computer, just the drive hooked up through a router. Now when i start a new do***ent and do something as simple as place a graphic that is located on the network drive, almost immediatly the link gets the yellow "!" icon...the one saying the file has been modified and needs updating. Well Ill update it and seems to work but will come back soon after saying it needs updating again. Ill even update it, then go to print, and it will say again my links need updating. This problem has never happened when im linking to graphics on my own computer. Any reasons for this? Im using Windows XP but not using a server. Just have two computers, several printers, and the new external drive hooked to a single router.

bjorn_ost

This is usually caused by time differences, (between the computer with the stored files and yours). But since this is only a networked drive I guess that doesnt apply unless there is some timesetting in the router?

Or maybe the router keep changing the drives ip-number?

dont think its changing the IP number. In the setup, it found the IP nnumber and told me what it was. There is a time setting with the drive, havent looked into on on the router yet. I remember for the drive, i told it to match the time on the computer. It did that but was off by a couple seconds. Could that be it?

davidt

Hi

These network drives are accessed (for purposes of configuration etc) through a web browser usually; can you do that? If so, you will probably find a section where you can specify something like 'use local time settings' or 'use network time settings'. You need to make the appropriate choice there.

You can fix your ip address there too - this is recommended. We have our Macs set up for 'use dchp' and a fixed address. Make sure any fixed addresses are not the same as networked printers. In summary, all devices currently attached to our network have fixed ip addresses.

Yes it does have that setting for the time. When i first set it up last week, i told it to match the time but it was off by a second or two. I just checked it again and some how the drive gained 15 minutes past my computer, no clue why. So for now i think i need to work like normal and see if things are still affected. If they still are, ill try making the drives time below the computer to see if that makes a difference.

eric_

Some of them can be made to look the time up off a server (eg time.apple.com) or, if you have a "local" time server configured that all computers can sync to, that's a plus as they don't have to rely on the internet to be sure they're all in sync.

Well im still having the problem. These are things i have tried...

-Ive changed the time on the drive to be faster as well as slower than the computer time.

-Ive match the time to the computer but always seems to be off by a second and the drive seems to get ahead in time more and more every day.

-turned off the time on the computer that was set to update from the internet...the drive doesnt seem to have a way to access the internet for time

-the drive was set to work as a DHCP Server (or something like that). I changed it to Static

-Ive also noticed i get the same problem losing links with PageMaker too

Im running out of ideas, anyone else know of anything?

dave_saunders

Both PageMaker and InDesign use absolute paths for linked files. If your network connection is dynamic and generates a different pathname each time you connect to it, then I'm afraid it is inevitable that you will keep on losing links.

Does InDesign say they need relinking or updating? The latter will happen if the clocks are off; the former if the address has changed.

Dave

davidt

We use these network storage devices and never encountered a problem like this. All our Macs are set to set date and time automatically (time.euro.apple.com) Greenwich Mean Time and the storage is set to GMT also. Does that help at all?

Not having had the problem, we can only stab at it.

I dont see where its regenerating a new path name each time it connects. I dont even see why it would do that. Its InDesign saying they need updating. Either by the yellow triangle by the filename in the links, or when i go to print or PDF it will tell me that links need updating first...even if i had already done that.

After thinking about it, at my other job we saved all our files on a network server and never had this problem before. Dont know if that being a server makes a difference since this is just a networked external HD.

emailed support about that drive to see if they have any ideas or if there is a way to set time automatically online though Im not expecting an answer for it. Currently my only option is to embed all the graphics that i work with right after i update them. This creates some major file sizes though but I dont want to have to keep doing that