Coding Y info

How to share a hard drive on a local network

You must first configure a series of parameters if you want to share a hard drive on your local network and make it accessible from other computers. This way, it will be possible to access all the files easily, modify them, create new ones or perform any action on them.

As long as you have all these actions allowed, something that we will explain later. First of all, it is essential to keep in mind that the PC that is going to share that hard drive must be on while the other computer accesses that shared resource, otherwise it is not possible.

In addition, both computers must be within the same local network, both from the one from which the hard drive is shared and the PC or other device that you will use to access that disk, which means that it is necessary that they are connected to the same WiFi network or to the same router if it is by cable.

And it would also be advisable that both computers, in the case of 2 PCs, were on the same work computer. And, as if that were not enough, the PC from which you are going to share the disk needs to have a file sharing parameter activated.

But we are going to go through all of this step by step so that you don't miss a single detail. Taking into account what we have told you so far, which is important, follow these simple steps:

- The first thing to do is to start both computers and connect them to the same network. To do this, connect to the same WiFi on both or by cable, both to the same router, or even one by cable and the other by WiFi.

- Next, go to the PC that has the hard drive you want to share on the network. Press the Windows + Q keys, type “manage advanced sharing settings” and enter that option.

- Now you will see a lot of text, locate a section called “Private (current profile)” or a different one, the important thing here is that it has the name “current profile”. Open the drop-down menu and check the box “activate file and printer sharing”. This is an important first step so that the hard drive can be shared. Save the changes and exit the window.

- Next, we need to create a user with a local account type and a password, which is the one we will use to access the disk on the other PC, so press the Windows + Q keys again, type “users” and enter where it says “add, remove or edit other users”.

- Go to the “other users” section and go to “add another person to this computer”.

- Go to “I don't have this person's login details”.

- Now click on “add a user without a Microsoft account”. In this case we are not interested in adding a user with a Microsoft account, something that is becoming more and more complicated in Windows 11, but rather a local account just to access the shared hard drive, so a local account is more than enough.

- Fill in the fields corresponding to the username (we will call it jonay2) and set a password (write them down on a piece of paper that you will need later), as well as the security questions. Here we recommend that you put a name that allows you to quickly identify that it is for this task if you prefer. Once the data is entered, click on “next” and that's it.

- We are going to see the work groups of each computer, that is, the one of the PC from which the disk is going to be shared and also the one of the computer that is going to access it. From both, press the Windows + Q keys, type “group” and go to “change the name of the work group”.

- In the new window, check if both PCs have the same name for the “work group” parameter, in our case it is “workgroup”, but if they do not match, go to the PC that you are going to use to access the hard drive and click on “change” in the same window.

- Below in “work group” put the same one that the other PC has and click on “accept”, the point is that both have the same name. Save the changes and exit the window, it is likely that you will be asked to restart the PC, do it.

- We have almost everything set up, we just need to share the hard drive. From the PC you are going to share it from, press the Windows + Q keys again, type “computer” and go to “this computer”.

- Find the hard drive you are going to share, right click and go to “properties”.

- Go to the “share” tab and click on “advanced sharing”.

- Check the “share this folder” box and leave everything else as is. Then, go to “permissions”.

- Then click on “add”.

- Now we have to add the user we created before (remember? It was called jonay2), which will be the one that allows us to access this hard drive from another computer. Here click on “advanced options”.

- Click on “search now”. From the list you see below, look for the user from before, in our case it was called “jonay2” and double click on it. Now click on “accept”. 

- Select the user you just added and check the “allow” boxes for the “full control” and “change” options, so that this user can have full control over the hard drive and can create files, modify them, etc. In this case, we want them to have that control, but you can also choose to only read the files and nothing else, you can play with this.

- Once the boxes are selected, click “accept” twice and leave the last screen open because we will need the data where it says “network path” later. That is, leave the hard drive properties window on the “share” tab, which you will see now. On this screen, the address that appears under the “network path” option is important, we will need it later.

- Everything is now configured, now we go to the other PC, press the Windows + Q keys, type “computer” and enter “this computer”. In the top ribbon, click on the “computer” tab and then click on “connect to network drive”.

- Where it says “folder”, now write the information we told you before, the “network path” that is on the other computer. Then, click on “finish”.

- Now you will see a login screen, where you will have to enter the user name we created before and its password, write them down and click on “accept”.

- If everything has gone well, you should access the hard drive that we just shared before and see all the files, it will appear as a new drive on this second computer from which you access that resource.

All the steps we have indicated not only serve to share a network drive, but also folders or files. And something else, the steps to follow to do all this in Windows 11 are practically the same, so you have no loss.