Share a network hard drive

Set up and share a network hard drive

Network hard drives are great for making files and folders accessible from any PC in your house – and are easy to set up in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Unlike normal hard drives, or external USB hard drives, which connect directly to your PC, a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive connects to your network. NAS drives connect to your network router via an Ethernet cable – as though it were another computer.

By connecting a hard drive directly to your network it means that any PC or device that’s also connected to your network can access the NAS drive and the files stored on it. This means you can share music and photos, or work files, between computers without all the PCs needing to be turned on. Although it might sound complicated, setting up a NAS drive on a network doesn’t take long at all.

Step-by-step Set up and use an NAS drive

1 Which NAS drive?
There are lots of NAS drives on the market, so think carefully about which one is right for you. NAS drives come in many sizes – as large as 1TB – so make sure the NAS drive you go for has enough space to store all the files you need. 1TB of space holds around 1,400 movies or 300,000 songs and photos.

2 Connect and install the NAS drive
Your NAS drive should come with instructions on how to set it up and plug it in, and although different makes and models of NAS drives vary, the process should be similar. You need to connect it to the power supply, and then plug the supplied Ethernet cable into the back of your router.

3 Install the supplied software
Your NAS drive should come with a CD of software for setting up the sharing features, and some come with free backup and restore software. Insert the CD into your PC and wait for the set-up screen to load. Follow the instructions. The screen may look different to the one above, depending on the make of drive.

4 Configure the drive
Once the software is installed, you need to set up the drive so you can access it from Windows. The software should make it easy to enter a password, so only you can change the settings in the future. You can also access the settings from the Start menu, or by right-clicking on the drive’s icon in the taskbar.

5 Access the drive
You can view the NAS drive’s files as though it were a drive in your PC. Click Start ➜ Computer and then click Network in the bottom-left. This displays all the computers and devices (such as Xbox 360s) connected to your network. Your NAS drive should be identifiable by its product name (networkspace2 here).

6 Add the drive to Windows
To use it as though it were a normal hard drive, go to Start ➜ Computer and click Map Network Drive. Specify the drive letter it uses, then click Browse to find the NAS drive. Select the name of your NAS drive, select a folder if necessary, then click OK and Finish. Repeat this for each PC you want to access the drive.

7 Use it as a drive
You now see the icon of the drive along with your PC’s hard drives and DVD drives when you click Computer. If you want to copy a file or folder over to the hard drive quickly, you can right-click the item and select Send to, then select the NAS drive, as you would with a USB stick.

8 Use your NAS drive as a backup
Keep your files safe by getting Windows to back up your important data to the NAS drive. Click Start, type backup into the search box and then select Backup and Restore. Click Set up backup and then on the next window that appears, click Save on a network…

9 Complete the backup
Click Browse… and select the NAS drive. You may need to enter the user name and password you set in step 4. Click OK and then click on the NAS drive, which should appear under Backup Destination. Click Next twice and then select Save settings and run backup.

10 Schedule a backup
It’s a good idea to schedule the backup to run automatically so the most recent versions of your files are saved. From the Backup and Restore window, click Change settings to set a time that’s right for you. Ideally it should be when your PC is on but not being used.

11 Restore your files
The great thing about storing your backup on a NAS hard drive is that if anything happens to your PC or files, you’re safe in the knowledge that a copy is kept on drive. If a virus deletes the files on your PC, you can easily restore them by going back to Backup and Restore and selecting Restore my files.

12 Add files and folders to share
Sharing your files and folders between the different computers on your network when you have a network attached storage drive is extremely easy. All you need to do is copy the files you want to share over to the NAS drive, so they can be accessed by all the computers. You can either do this by right-clicking the files (as mentioned in step 7) or by just dragging and dropping the relevant files and folders into the NAS drive. It couldn’t be easier.

13 Add shared music to Windows Media Player
If you store music and videos on your NAS drive, you can get Windows Media Player to play them straight from the drive. Open Windows Media Player and click Organize ➜ Manage Libraries ➜ Music. Click Add… and browse to the folder on your NAS drive containing your music, then click Include Folder.

14 Enjoy networked storage
Congratulations! Once you’ve followed these steps you’ll have a fully functioning NAS drive that gives both your network and your PCs more functionality than ever before. Not only can you share files and play music through your house, but you can also make sure your irreplaceable files are safely backed up.

Source: Official Windows Magazine