Sharing an external hard drive with other users in the house

[toolman]

Hi there,
I am wanting to create a space where my family can store and share things such as photos, documents etc.

What I would like to do is have an external hard drive that can be accessed by anyone's PC or laptop.

How would I do this? I am new to networking, but was thinking if I could plug the hard drive into something wit ha USB port (strange example, but a TV) or another laptop - would that work? If so, would that device with the hard drive in have to be powered on all the time for users to access it?

Any suggestions would be great, thanks!

 

[johnb35]

Do you have a router that has a usb port for external storage? That would be the best way to set it up. If not, then you would need to attach it to a pc and share the drive to the network. You can look at these articles/videos.

how to share an external hard drive on a network - Google Search

 

[toolman]

Thanks for the reply.

I don't think it has a USB port.

I've attached a photo of what it has.``

 

[johnb35]

You might have to buy an ethernet capable external drive such as the Western Digital My Cloud drive. Or you could try using a usb female to ethernet adapter such as this.

https://www.amazon.com/UCEC-USB2-0-Ethernet-Adapter-Connector/dp/B014UU7ZFI

 

[beers]

Plug device into a computer
Make a Windows share for the connected drive
Navigate to the windows share from another computer

 

[toolman]

You might have to buy an ethernet capable external drive such as the Western Digital My Cloud drive. Or you could try using a usb female to ethernet adapter such as this.

https://www.amazon.com/UCEC-USB2-0-Ethernet-Adapter-Connector/dp/B014UU7ZFI

Thanks, I will look into that

 

[toolman]

Plug device into a computer
Make a Windows share for the connected drive
Navigate to the windows share from another computer

Thanks, will the computer have to be on all the time to access the hard drive?

 

[beers]

will the computer have to be on all the time to access the hard drive?

 

[toolman]

Thanks all. I have ordered an Ethernet adapter to plug into the router which I can then plug the hard drive into (if that is all correct?)!

Thanks for your help! Will see how I get on

 

[toolman]

Ok, so I know have the adapter plugged into the router with the drive plugged into it. What would be the next step to set it up as a shared drive?

 

[voyagerfan99]

Ok, so I know have the adapter plugged into the router with the drive plugged into it. What would be the next step to set it up as a shared drive?

What adapter did you buy? Normally unless you have a USB port on the router you need to buy a network enabled external HDD like John said, or share it off a PC.

 

[toolman]

I purchased this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07GV7JVYJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

and plugged a normal external hard drive similar to this:

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/portable-drives/wd-elements-portable-usb-3-0-hdd?sku=WDBUZG7500ABK-WESN

 

[voyagerfan99]

I've never seen something like that. Do you see the device getting an IP Address on your network? Even if you did there isn't really a way to control sharing of the drive since your router doesn't natively support plugging in a drive to act like a NAS like some ASUS routers do.