Question Network Storage

[WSUAudi]

I am a PC user (games) and mac (for photography) and am looking to set up network storage available to both. I am hoping to avoid having an external hard drives lying around by installing a hard drive into an empty bay in my PC... is this possible? I'm fairly tech competent but haven't found anything on the internet that makes it clear if this is possible or not.

 

[Alabalcho]

You can install an extra HDD in your PC, format / share it and access it from the Mac. Unless you're transferring terabytes of info while gaming, you'll notice no difference.

 

[kanewolf]

I am a PC user (games) and mac (for photography) and am looking to set up network storage available to both. I am hoping to avoid having an external hard drives lying around by installing a hard drive into an empty bay in my PC... is this possible? I'm fairly tech competent but haven't found anything on the internet that makes it clear if this is possible or not.

I always recommend a commercial NAS. They are low power, handle PC, Mac, and linux without any fuss. With a commercial NAS you don't have to leave your PC running to have network storage.

 

[WSUAudi]

Thanks guys, figured that was the route I needed to go but wanted to make sure before I bought the HDD.

 

[hotaru.hino]

There's a few ways you can set up a network attached storage

• Using an external drive through your router. A lot of routers these days have a USB port for this reason
• Buy a pre-built NAS unit. They're easy to setup and you can basically leave them on all the time since they sip power if they're not in use. Most of them are bring-your-own-drives.
• Building your own NAS. If you value customizations, not being vendor locked, etc. This is the way to go. It's not that much more expensive either, but obviously you're going to be your own support
• If you don't need something always on and this is something you do like once a week, you can find a way to set up a network share folder between the computers.