Using USB hard drive as NAS without adapter

[adcx64]

Hi,
is there any way to use my 500GB external hard drive as a NAS?

I could have it plugged into an older computer and have tht computer plugged into my router, how can i make it show up on the network?

thank you,
Anthony

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Buy something called a "LAN enclosure" - search on google or amazon. You'll save a lot of space and electricity costs compared to having another PC running just to drive your external HDD.

 

[adcx64]

Thanks, that will be an option, but for a temporary standpoint, can I just map the USB drive as network drive in windows explorer? Is there any software that will do this?

 

[Completely Bonkers]

i'm not sure if you can formally "share" a USB external in Windows, but what you can do is this:

1./ Setup a windows workgroup on your regular PC and/or laptop. (Do you know how to do that?)
2./ Name your old PC as "NAS" with the same workgroup name as 1
3./ Plug in the external HDD, see what drive letter is assigned, e.g. D:/
4./ From your regular PC and/or laptop go to explorer and type \\NAS\D$ (This is what is called an Administrative share and so long as you are logged in as an administrator, and the admin has the same password across your PCs then it will work)
5./ You will then be able to read/write to that drive
6./ If 5 is working, you can then try using Windows "Share as..." and great a shared name and set administrative permissions as you wish