Can I use my laptop as an external drive?

[jonreeves2000]

Any geniuses able to help me with this question?? I have a desktop and I now need an external hard drive. Can I use my old laptop as one? If so, how do I connect the two?

Thanks!

 

[cboucher]

If the laptop still works, you could set up a local network and share out a folder on the laptop for storage. An easier way would be to just pull out the laptop hard drive and put it into a USB external enclosure. this would give you more storage space as well (you could just format the drive and use the full capacity for storage), but then your laptop wouldn't work anymore. How to set up a local network for the first option would depend on what OSes you're running on the two PCs.

 

[jonreeves2000]

Great, thanks. Both machines work on Vista. You think connecting with a USB cord would do the trick or would I need another kind of cable?

 

[cboucher]

Are these two PCs already sharing an internet connection? If not, you'll probably need two Cat5 network cables and a small network switch. USB cable will only work for the external hard drive enclosure option. Let me know about the internet connection and we can go from there.

 

[Air]

you can use a crossover cable, maybe a regular cat5

 

[TitanMATRIX]

you can use a crossover cable, maybe a regular cat5

You wouldn't be able to use a CAT5 with a direct connection between the PCs you would have to use a cross-over cable. I would recommend what cboucher said. If you don't mind the space being used then use your laptop sort of as your file server on your home network. Plus you could then really expand on ideas for those geek moments

 

[Air]

i have a question for TitanMatrix.

i share my internet from my ibook G4 to my desktop using a regular cat5. my laptop shows up in the network of my desktop. is it because of the internet sharing? if i wasn't would i need a crossover?

 

[jonreeves2000]

Thanks for the help. cboucher, the 2 machines do not share a connection, both being separate. Sorry I am not too savvy, so need further input as to how I would connect the two. Thanks again.

 

[cboucher]

Do both PCs have network cards? That's where you'll need to start. Both PCs need network cards and Cat5 patch cables. Then you'll need a switch. You could use a crossover, but then you wouldn't be able to add to your network in the future. Once the hardware is in place, then it's just a matter of setting the appropriate TCP/IP settings, enabling Network Discovery and File Sharing and setting up the shares.