Connecting to Buffalo network-attached storage

To connect to shared directories through CIFS/samba, you need to setup and configure first a samba server, is the samba server running and well configured?

JC8 put me on the path to progress; I followed this link:
https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/install-samba-server-file-share
and got to the following series of steps:
Automatically Mount Samba Share From Command Line on Linux
Note: Automatically mounting the Samba share is done on clients.
These commands should be run on a Samba client,
if the Samba client runs Linux. You should not do it on the Samba server itself.
Continuing ...
If you need to automatically mount the Samba share at boot time, you can use command line
to mount and then add an entry in the /etc/fstab file.
Will that be in the 2.0TB drive's Debian OS or in the T420's Etiona OS ?
In order to do that, you need to install the cifs-utils package.
Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
Then create a mount point for the Samba share
sudo mkdir /mnt/samba-private
Now you can use the following command to mount a private shared folder:
sudo mount -t cifs -o username=george //192.168.1.7/private /mnt/samba-private/
It will ask you to enter the Samba password.
Saved password accepted without complaint...
But there's an error message:
mount error(2): No such file or directory
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs)
The error has to be here://192.168.1.7/private but advice about where to look
in the 2.0TB HDD will be helpful, because I'll have to take the enclosure all apart to
re-install my USB adapter to gain access the the drive's files. That was originally
accomplished by cutting a clearance hole in the side of the enclosure with a jeweler's
saw and final fitting with a mechanic's file.
USB works fine, but when I navigated the file structure yesterday I didn't know my old
credentials. What I need to know is where in the Buffalo file structure the original
samba setup is located. There's stuff on the 2.0 TB drive that's protected by my old
access credentials from 2013.
-[quick flurry of unscrewing & reinstalling different components]-
OK. Buffalo 2.0TB NAS is now a Buffalo "USB-attached" storage to track down config files.
Question: The Buffalo 2.0 TB drive has its own Debian OS; should I be modifying that or
the Trisquel Etiona OS in the Lenovo T420 ? I'm leery of adjusting the Buffalo's OS for
fear of losing access to the secure mail files that I can't examine with the USB connection.

Again, why not SSH/SFTP?

On the server (to which is the hard disk connected), mount it under somewhere the user account could access (e.g. somewhere under /home/username).

The Buffalo 2.0TB disk runs very hot when assembled with the network access hardware,
but stays quite cool while USB-connected. Access through USB/FileManager is easy. The
only remaining question is whether the presently inaccessible email data is already
there in my manual backups of all the different computers that were in use when I stopped
using the Buffalo network-accessed storage.
GParted says that 1.1 TB are in use on the data partition; and File Manager's Properties
function has counted about 90% of that so far, so I think I'm going to be safe in not
attempting to access the drive through Buffalo's former login protocol. I'll just reformat
the useless partitions and install Trisquel Etiona in place of the Debian OS that was in
place on the Buffalo 2.0TB drive.
I'll also abandon any attempt to boot the Debian OS, as it's about ten years out of date
and would be a security issue.