How to Install an External Hard Drive on a Network

If you have an external hard drive attached to one of the computers on your home network, you can instantly share the contents of that hard drive with every other computer you are connected to. That way, instead of constantly transferring files from one machine to the other, you can just save any file you want to the external hard drive to give everyone else immediate access to it. To do this, all you have to do is turn on "Drive Sharing" in Windows Explorer.

Instructions

1. Plug your external hard drive into any one of the computers on your home network. Connect the USB or Firewire (whichever applicable) cable that came with the external hard drive into both the drive and the appropriate port on your computer.

2. Click "Start."

3. Click "Computer."

4. Right click on the icon for the external hard drive that you'd like to share on your home network.

5. Click "Sharing..."

6. Click "Share this Folder on the Network." Then, click "OK." The contents of your external hard drive will now be available to any other computer that connects to your home network (both wired and wireless network users).

References

• Microsoft.com: Sharing a Folder on a Home Network