Network Harddrive

Hi, I was wondering if anyone tell me how to set up a harddrive so that everyone on my network can access it and view the files

 

Hi. Yes. I am assuming you have the network setup already. To share a hd, right click on it in My Computer and choose "sharing" then select a name for the drive and check the box saying share this dirve on the network and "allow users to change my files" if you want. Then, on the other computers on the network, open explorer and choose Tools - Map Network Drive. Choose a letter for it and enters its location on the network in the form of: \\Server\Share Name you entered earlier

This will connect it at startup of that computer.

Hope this helps.

 

hey thanks for the help. I am having a problem though... it says it can't find the network path. I'm am just using the drive letter Z and I called the share name Multimedia. I typed \\server\Multimedia and now I am getting this problem. Please help.

 

Might sound obvious, but are you sure the share name is Multimedia? Where you enabled sharing it will tell you.

Also, make sure the computers can talk to each other. On the server one go to start, run type cmd and press enter. Type ipconfig and get the IP of that PC. Then go to the other PC, open CMD again, and type ping (ip address of server). If you get a reply then they are talking, if not, there is something wrong with your network!

 

Hi. Yes, what you're doing is right. EXCEPT- don't type "server" you need to put in the NAME of YOUR server. For example. My kitchen pc is called "kitchen" so I would type: \\Kitchen\Multimedia

try that and let me know. Good luck

 

Yeah never thought of that, I just assumed the PC was called server!

 

no problem. that was my fault since I never told him that in the first post. I guess most people would call it "server". By the way, you can check your server name by right clicking on My Computer, choosing properties, and clicking the tab called "Computer Name."

Let us know how this works for you so we can finish helping you.

 

Alright I went to my Computer to find the name and I just name it "Something" without the quotes. I typed Multimedia into the share name. Then I went to the explorer and click on map network drives from the tools menu. I stayed with the defualt Z drive letter and I typed \\Something\Multimedia and the same error has popped up. So am I still doing something wrong or am I just not understanding something?

 

I know this seems obvious, but do u have a network connection?

 

To establish if the computers are talking to each other at all, go to start, run, cmd, and press ok, then enter "ping Something" (without quotes). If there is a response then we know the computers are talking. If not, you have some network issues which need resolving...

 

Alright I did the cmd ping talk and they are talking. I got it to work though. Instead of typing the name of the server, I just used the ip adress of the server and it worked. Thanks guys for the help.

 

No problem. Glad it worked for you. Remember for the future too, (and I didn't think of this), that your server's name is the ip address. You'll need this if you add a networked printer, etc. Anyway, I'm glad it all worked out.