hard drive shared between two computers

R

runLoganrun

Gawd
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Jul 4, 2005
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I have an external enclosure hdd that i'm using to transfer files from one computer to another, one is e-sata, and one is usb connection. what i'm doing right now is powering down the drive, disconnecting usb, then hooking up e-sata to other computer, powering up and then copying files over.

Can i hook up both computers to external drive, one usb, one e-sata, and then read or write to it from either computer? although both pcs would be connected to drive i imagine that i could only access it with one or the other at a time, aside from that would this work fine?

thx,
rlr
 
Short answer: No, it won't work.

Longer answer: It could be made to work if the enclosure supported simultaneous access from both interfaces (I'm guessing it doesn't), and the drive had a clustering filesystem (GFS, OCFS), and both hosts were running Linux. If Linux isn't your thing, I'm sure Microsoft has some sort of clustering solution they could sell to you.

A better approach would be leave it connected to one machine, and share it via LAN. It's free and easy.
 
There is a few USB hubs that allow you to share USB items between two computers.
 
Well here is My question, are you just transfering files back and forth? Tried networking?

I have a 120 external that is shared on My network, I can access from My home theater just as easy as My gaming computer can access My 1TB internal in My home theater.
 
Cloud15x said:
Well here is My question, are you just transfering files back and forth? Tried networking?

I have a 120 external that is shared on My network, I can access from My home theater just as easy as My gaming computer can access My 1TB internal in My home theater.
Click to expand...

yes, just transferring files back and forth. i've never looked into networking so don't know what that would entail, but I have thought about that. thing is the second computer is just for downloading, and has a separate internet connection, so I want it as a separate pc. I want an easy solution to transfer files between the two computers, a flash drive is handy for some stuff, but not so much for blu-ray movies. might just get another external drive just for blu-rays, and get a big flash drive for everything else, that way I won't have to copy a lot of stuff twice.
thx
 
Two spare Ethernet ports (one on each computer) and a crossover cable are all you need for basic peer-to-peer networking.

A switch or router would be a tad fancier and one with a USB HDD port would allow the external drive to work as a cheap NAS device. The router would allow you to share the two internet connections, too.
 
Michael Daly said:
Two spare Ethernet ports (one on each computer) and a crossover cable are all you need for basic peer-to-peer networking.

A switch or router would be a tad fancier and one with a USB HDD port would allow the external drive to work as a cheap NAS device. The router would allow you to share the two internet connections, too.
Click to expand...

What's a NAS device?

So, all I need to do is connect both computers via ethernet cable for sharing files? I am worried about my doings on the second computer being visible to others, as far as downloading, already been pinched a couple times for that. would the ethernet connection just be a means of sharing files, or would it be like a networked computer?
Thanks!
rlr
 
NAS = Network Attached Storage - a device that allows disks on the network to show up on your computer. Basically a minimal server optimized for fast file serving.

You can't connect two computers directly with a regular Ethernet cable - a crossover cable is necessary. That lets two computers connect directly without a router or switch. The communication lines are "crossed -over" so that the two computers see the other as if it were on a switch.

Connecting computers this way is not exactly like connecting them on a network, however, it's similar. If both are running Windows, they will be peer-to-peer; neither acts as a server. Only drives and folders explicitly shared will be visible to the other computer. You should force logins to each computer to allow the connection. This is documented in Windows.
 
Michael Daly said:
Two spare Ethernet ports (one on each computer) and a crossover cable are all you need for basic peer-to-peer networking.
Click to expand...
That's how I'd do it, since both computers are on separate networks. Or, since they are physically next to each other, I'd connect them to the same router, have them on the same network, and share the files that way.
 
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