Using a network hard drive is an easy and cheap way to share have a great file backup method.
currently a 500gb network hard drive costs around £80 which is great value for money.
What is a network hard drive?
A network hard drive is basically an external hard disk drive that has an Ethernet network port, this means it can plug into your router like any other device.
There are even wireless versions of then available which are ideal if you want to hide the disk.
There are two types of network hard drive, Ethernet and Wireless.
Ethernet types also come with USB ports to use them as a simple external hard drive if needed.
Wireless types also have Ethernet and USB ports making them very versatile.
Food for thought
If you’re thinking of purchasing a wireless type and you will be copying lots of large files make sure your wireless network is fast enough or you could be in for painfully slow file transfers, if this is the case stick with Ethernet
Using a network hard drive – Getting started
Once you have decided on the interface you want think about storage space, in this case more is better and even if 250gb seems a lot you May fill it up quicker than you think.
Get the biggest you can
Setting up and using a network hard drive is very straight forward.
Connect the network hard drive to your router via the Ethernet cable that it should come with, plug it into the mains outlet and power it on.
Once it’s all connected pop in the CD that the drive comes with.
This will find the network hard drive for you and allow you to give it a name and setup any usernames or passwords if needed.
Once done you just need to create a network shortcut for it.
From the Start run menu type \\ and the name of the network hard drive – for example
\\computer-advisers-disk
Once the disk pops up on the screen you can either create a desktop shortcut or give it its own unique drive letter.
Desktop shortcut
Drag whichever folder you wish to create the shortcut with directly onto your desktop – this will create a folder icon with a little white box with an arrow and name the folder Shortcut to **
Driver letter mapping
If you want to create a drive letter share right click on whichever of the network drives folders you wish to do this with and select Map Network Drive now choose your drive letter
(you will only be able to see drive letters that are not in use as no two devices can use the same)
Looking after your network drive
- Ensure the network hard drive is kept in a cool dry environment.
- Don’t leave the drive on forever (many external hard drives comes with an auto power off function which work well, just ensure it’s enabled, this can be checked from drive web admin interface, to access this open your chosen web browser and type http://drivename)
- Like any hard drive it can suffer from disk errors or fragmentation, ensure you run CHKDSK and Defragment the drive every month or so if you use the drive a lot.
Find out more about other methods of how to share files between two computers or more..
Search for more on using a network hard drive
computer adviser using a network hard drive article