accessing ext hard drive for different pc

wayne170534

is it possible to be able to read and write to an external hard drive?

Desktop has Hard drive connected to it via USB is there a way a laptop can read and write to the hard drive as well even if not connected to it?


thanks


wayne

wongataa

It is possible. The desktop needs to be on and file sharing needs to be allowed on the drive in question. The computers need to be on the same network.

As long as the relevant permissions are correct then you can access the shared drives on the desktop via the laptop.

GunJack

why not just plug it into the lappy ????

wayne170534

thanks wongataa,


Gunjack, didn't want to keep swopping round leads/power supplies if I don't need to as want hard drive accessible on both computers.

fenlander_uk

I found I had to kludge the registry to make it possible to share an external drive on Windows 8.1. No trouble with 7 or 10, though. There are also issues if your desktop uses Linux and the external drive is NTFS. All solvable via your favourite search engine.

AndyPix

Ok, so on the host computer , RIGHT click on the drive you want to share - in this case , mine is called "Recovered" ..
Then click "properties" followed by the sharing tab and then click advanced sharing ..



Then, put a tick in the box that says "share this folder" and give the share a name . In this example I will call it "MSE" ..





Then click "OK"


You will then see the network share name (ringed in the pic below , with my computer name obscured)
Make a note of this name , including the backslashes ..







So that's it - It is now shared .. To access it on the other computer, simply click start and then type the network share name you noted above and you will have access to the drive ..


Note, when setting up the share, you may want to edit the permissions as the default ones are read only.


Hope this helps
Andy

wayne170534

thanks all will give this a try tonight