I've looked over the topics here, and didn't see anything.

I have 3 PC's connected to a router.

I'd like to set them up to share an external USB drive recenly purchased.

Two of the machines run XP, the 3rd runs XP Pro.

How would I go about setting them up to share this external USB drive?

TIA

Install the External USB Drive to one of your computers.
Confirm that it is functioning correctly with that machine, by saving a few files to it, and retrieving a few files from it.

Your local network apparently is working just fine for your 3 computers, so no problem there.

For the other machines to be able to "see" the USB External Drive, the machine it is attached to must be running.
For other machines to be able to see and access the USB External Drive you will have to set permissions for file sharing.


My computer->right click hard drive (your USB External Drive)->properties->sharing & security tab->select "share this folder on the network."
Also select "Allow network users to change my files."

Keep us posted with your progress.

Doug

Thank you very much for your prompt response.

After I connect the drive to one of the PC's, and do the things you've described, how do I get the other machines to "see" the drive?

OK.

That part is done.

Now, how do I connect the other PC's to it?

I had to run the Network Setup Wizard on the machine the drive is connected to before I could get to the settings you described. Gosh I hope I did that right.

Maybe I should say that all the machines are connected to the router, which is connected to the Internet.

That's how/what we use the router for.

Does that make a diff?

Hi Javanini1221,

Here's an MS Knowledge Based information and instructions for what you wish to do:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

Keep us posted with your progress.

Best Regards

I don't quite see where that gets me just yet.

None of the other machines even know the drive is there yet.

That's where I'm stuck at.

Do I need to run the Network Setup Wizard on the other two machines now?

OK, I got it.

I've run the Network Setup Wizard on PC number 2, although I'm not sure I had to. I'm going to try to setup the 3rd machine without doing that to see if it works without that step.

I had to find the IP addresses of the three PC's. This can be found by going to the control panel, networking, and right clicking on your network connection and choosing the status option. On the support tab will be the IP address.

On the "HOST PC" (the one connected to the external USB drive), I had to open up the firewall (Zone Alarm), and added the IP addresses of the other PC's into the "Trusted zone". And in Zone Alarm on the machines I want to "see" the drive I had to put the HOST IP address in the "trusted zone".

Then, on the machines I want to "see" the external drive, I opened an explorer window.

I went to Tools --> Map network drive

In the "folder" box I put: \\xxx.xxx.x.xxx\HAL (The x's are the IP address of the HOST PC and HAL is the name I gave to the external USB drive on the HOST when I setup networking as you described).

And, VOILA!

I'm a networking fool...


This post has been edited by Javanini1221: Dec 2 2007, 10:59 AM

i see that you got your issue taken care of...but...for informational purposes (and for anyone coming behind you with a similar issue)...it's my opinion that in today's environment...the conventional "file sharing workgroup" (what you basically just set up) is dead....completely useless.....if you've got a bunch of computers and a router in your house...just get a NAS (network attached storage) device....it's basically a hard drive with a NIC card in it.....NAS's control their own security and authentication locally...so you don't have to worry about the junkie security that workgroups give you, most of them have built in FTP/web servers so you can host an FTP or web site directly from the device...you're not dependant on keeping a computer on all the time to keep the thing available (like you are when you share a device from a host computer)...and many many other advantages...

what if you've already got the USB drive or enclosure and you don't want to shell out the cash for a NAS....well just get something like this (not neccessarily this one...there are many on the market)....it basically turns any USB drive into a NAS...even a USB flash drive (if you've got one big enough to make it worth it) you can also use them as print servers

just something to think about

For informational purposes , I got what I wanted and didn't have to spend a dime...

INDEED! which is always the best way.,....just offering other methods

In case anyone is interested....

If you plan to do a lot of "file sharing", I'd go with DSenette's method.

I've noticed that since I'm going thru the one machine to get to the USB drive, it slows it down during access (understandable).

All I wanted was something to replace the USB "Thumbdrive" method of transfer from PC to PC.

I had an external drive I wasn't using, so I thought I'd put it to good use.

Again, if you plan on doing a lot of sharing, go with the other method.

I'm sure it's faster.