Share hard drive over network Windows 10
If you’re an old-school PC user like us, then chances are good that you’ll have a huge amount of media, such as pictures, music, and movies, stored in local hard drives. If that's the case, then you’ll also likely find yourself wanting to access your hard drives from computers other than the one they’re attached to. For example, all your hard drives may be at your main desktop, but you also have a PC attached to your home theater and also a laptop. In this article, we’ll review how you can share your desktop’s hard drives over the network to your other Windows PCs. Show
We’ll go into all the steps in detail, but they can be roughly summarized as follows. Choose the drives on your computer that you want to share, and expose them to the network using Windows Advanced Sharing.Connect your other computers to the shared drives using Windows' “Map Network Drive” function.Add an exception in Windows Internet Options to prevent Windows from warning you when you move data to and from the network drives. There is one thing to note before we get started: The methods described in this article require that the Windows account on the computer that your shared drive is physically attached to must be both an admin account and password protected. If your account is not password protected, you will still receive prompts to enter a password when connecting to the drive over the network. Because you cannot enter a blank password, you will be effectively gated from connecting to the drive. Sharing a drive without password protection is possible, but it can be finicky. The easiest method is to have a password on the account of the computer hosting the shared drive. Image 1 of 3 On the computer that the drive you want to share is attached to:
2. Map A Network DriveWe suggest using IP address to reference the computer that the drive you want to share is attached to. Often times, computers on your network will appear automatically under their device name. Device names can be used in mapping network drives, but we find that using an IP address is less likely to cause issues, especially when sharing drives across Windows 10 and Windows 7. Instructions for finding the IP address of Windows 10 and Windows 7 computers can be found here (opens in new tab) and here (opens in new tab). Image 1 of 4 On the computer that you want to access the drive from:
3. Add Exception To Windows’ Internet OptionsWhen you map a network drive through IP address, you may receive the above prompt when you try to move data to and from the network drive. To remove the prompt, add an exception to Windows’ Internet Options as follows. Image 1 of 3 On the computer that has the network drive mapped:
To remove access to a shared drive on a specific computer, on that computer:
Image 1 of 2 To stop sharing a drive with all computers that currently have access, on the computer that the shared drive is attached to:
To Modify The Login Credentials Of Your Network DrivesIf you change the login information on the computer that your shared drive is attached to, you may need new login credentials when you try to access the shared drive on other computers. A prompt may occur when you log in and Windows finds that it can no longer access the network drive. The prompt may be inconsistent, so you can always manually change login credentials for network drives as follows. Image 1 of 3 On a computer that has the network drive mapped:
Alternatively, you can always disconnect the network drive and re-map it using the new credentials. Considerations For Sharing Drives Between Windows 10 And Windows 7This article’s examples use Windows 10, but the process of using Advanced Sharing and Map Network Drive is similar in Windows 7. Sharing drives across Windows 10 and 7 using the above method works, but you may encounter the following issue when sharing a drive on a Windows 10 computer to a Windows 7 computer. Image 1 of 5 On the Windows 7 computer you want to access the drive from:
How do I share my hard drive on a network?Share a folder, drive, or printer. Right-click the folder or drive you want to share.. Click Properties. ... . Click Share this folder.. In the appropriate fields, type the name of the share (as it appears to other computers), the maximum number of simultaneous users, and any comments that should appear beside it.. How do I share files between computers on the same network Windows 10?Sharing files using basic settings. Open File Explorer on Windows 10.. Navigate to the folder you want to share.. Right-click the item, and select the Properties option.. Click on the Sharing tab.. Click the Share button.. Use the drop-down menu to select the user or group to share a file or folder. ... . Click the Add button.. Can you use an external hard drive as a network drive?If you choose to use a wired external hard drive, plug it into your router's USB port. From there, use your browser to sign into your router's firmware, typically via an IP address of 192.168. 1.1. If that address doesn't work, and you don't know your router's IP address, open a command prompt and type ipconfig.
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