Linking to the User's Local Hard Drive

IE6 won't let me

[knighty]

On a site I am developing, content will be downloaded to the clients hard drive (lots of large images etc) to make put less strain on the server.

The link works fine on windows 98 and earlier browsers but nothing happens in IE6.

Is is disabled? If so how do I enable?

[joshie76]

Knighty I'm confused :s.

What are you trying to do? Do you have an example? How are you 'downloading' to the clients computer? So many questions...

[knighty]

I just want to link to pages on the persons hard drive as they will already have these files on thier machine.

i.e file:///C:/somedir/somesubdir/filename.html

the above and variations of it will not work in IE.

[joshie76]

I think you might have more luck if you put your slashes back instead of forwards.

I just tried it and it works fine for me both ways...

[Xuefer]

replace C: with C¦

[g1smd]

How do you know where on the hard drive the files are going to go? How do you know they even use Windows? Don't use absolute paths.

[Filipe]

Yeah, relative paths are the way to go. Code it just as you would for the web, but instead of linking to:

file:///C:/somedir/somesubdir/filename.html

Just link to

filename.html (if it's in the same directory)
or
somesubdir/filename.html (if it's a directory deeper)
or
../filename.html (if it's a directory higher)

[knighty]

Thanks for the response guys but I had already tried changing the format of the link.

BUT it does'nt work! :( Thats why I posted here :P

I have no problem linking to the hard drive from hard drive, the problem is linking from a website to hard drive.

I can even link from a site to a hard drive on previous OS's and browsers but with IE6 and win2k its a no go.

I'm thinking its more of a security issue or some setting.

Has anyone tried hosting a page on the web and linking to thier drive?

[RonPK]

Has anyone tried hosting a page on the web and linking to thier drive?

No problems with IE 6 / Win ME, even with security level set to highest.

[knighty]

wierd...other machines in office with 98/IE6 work - just not win2k

[Xuefer]

in my box
win2k ie6sp1
file://D¦\abc\def.html works
file://D¦/abc/def.html works

even file://D:/abc/def.html works

but i don't know what's your html/frame/script

[pixel_juice]

What you have to keep in mind is that you are not linking to a particular user's hard drive, you are linking to a path that you are hoping exists on their hard drive. Try changing your link to just <a href="file:///C:/">c drive</a> and see if it works. If it does the problem is with your particular link, not this type of link in general.

Because different people have different directory structures and drive letters, I can't see how doing this would ever be useful...

Hey let's try this now:

[url=file:///C:/]c drive[/url]

Darn, WW doesn't allow non-http links...

[knighty]

>>Because different people have different directory structures and drive letters, I can't see how doing this would ever be useful...

I'm basically doing an extension of our intranet so everyones machine is going to be set up in exactly the same way.

As for file:///c: etc I have tried every combination I can think of in a standalone test page - no frames,CSS - just plain HTML and still doesnt work. I do have a c: drive and the the link works fine locally and on other machines just not win2Kpro/IE6 :(

[Xuefer]

what i said is "file://"
but u guys said "file:///"

that may be the difference

but file:/// also works for me

and i think "file://" is standard as "http://"
the 3nd / just because on *nix system
everything start with /
it's not true in win

[Xuefer]

seems "file:///" is right :P
but it actually works on my win2k advsrv ie6sp1
with all patches done

[ricfink]

Sounds to me like a cross-domain security issue. There are features in IE6 to prevent pages from one domain to access pages in another domain.

check out MSDN for more info.

You may ultimately have to change to using an .hta page to get around the security restrictions for all users. With an hta, the user, in essence, gives permission on pageload for the site to access local files.

[joshie76]

from accessing maybe... but linking to? - that shouldn't be a threat.

[knighty]

Joy! Found a solution - added my site to "Trusted Sites" in under options and it works now :)

Still not sure why it works for other people though?

[ricfink]

There are gradations in security in IE6 - you've discovered one way of handling the problem.
But don't you have to make sure this works for everybody without having to issue special instructions?

[knighty]

don't you have to make sure this works for everybody without having to issue special instructions?

Ideally, yes but since I have no idea how to do that this looks like the only option.

[Brett_Tabke]

Both of the following work in ie/moz/opera.

file://localhost/c:/Program%20Files/
file:///C:/Program%20Files/

[g1smd]

Let's hope no one finds a way to do:
file:///C:/Windows\Command\Format%20C:%20/u%20/y

[ricfink]

Sounds like that would simplify everybody's life a little, g1smd.
Back to pen and paper. cool.