Computer Hope

Hi there,

I have put an external drive into my server.
How do I share it through out the network so each user machine can access it on their computer?

Which Server OS are you running?
Are you the system admin for this network?
Why is the server using an external drive which is slower than internal drive for people to access a share on?

Hi Dave,

We are using Windows 2008.
Yes I am the systems admin.

I have no idea, i am new to the company as well as learning on the job... But i think it is because we can't add another internal at the moment because we dont have time to shut it down.

Create a folder on the new drive and than share it like normal. It will show up as a normal share to all of your users.

That said this is not a best practice way of doing things. I would make the time to down the server and add an internal drive.

Hmm okay, for some reason it does not come up under network locations on the user computers.

Thank you, we will in due course add an internal.

http://www.omnisecu.com/windows-2008/server-core/how-to-create-and-manage-network-shares-in-windows-2008-server-core-computer.php

Link above might be of help to you. Its very easy to do... I agree with Spoiler that at some point the server should be brought down and drive be installed internally especially if its a USB connected external hard drive. If its a eSATA its not the same as internal SATA

QuoteeSATAp throughput is not necessarily the same as SATA, many enclosures and docks that support both eSATA and USB use combo bridge chips which can severely reduce the throughput, and USB throughput is that of the USB version supported by the port (typically USB 3.0 or 2.0). eSATAp ports (bracket versions[clarification needed]) can run at a theoretical maximum of 6 Gbit/s (bits per sec) and are backwards compatible with devices such as eSATA 3 Gbit/s (SATA Revision 2) and also at 1.5 Gbit/s (SATA Revision 1). The USB port is fully compatible with USB 5 Gbit/s (USB 3.0), USB 480 Mbit/s (USB 2.0) and USB 12 Mbit/s (1.1); USB 3.0 devices are compatible, but will operate at USB 2.0 speed if internal USB 3.0 connector is not connected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATAp

This should really be a temporary solution and a drive installed internally or drive internally upgraded to larger capacity for the data to be shared. Additionally, a data share like this is high risk of data loss. Its not run in RAID, and maybe if your lucky shadow copy would save you if the external died, but the shadow copy would be only recently deleted files. Its very dangerous for anything important.

Worth mentioning... The USB stack and the TCP stack are different. So there is a slight additional software overhead in system that has a USB device linked to the Ethernet. One reported failure was a stack overflow due to the extra software load.
Sorry, I lost the reference.

Gonna let this one roll awhile but it's borderline out of bounds for us to advise on workplace setups here...

If i have had put an external one in what would I need to do to map that one also?

If your goal is to have this new share show up on your users machines when they login than you have to add it to the login scripts. You can also use a GPO to place the share on the users computers.

I am not sure how you are setup now so I can't say which is the best way to do this. You should google this to get a "how to" page. Or you can go to Microsoft and check for help. They have a lot of pages to walk you though this setup.

yeah i have googled but can't see anything which seems to work.

http://www.techrepublic.com/forums/discussions/how-to-map-network-share-using-group-policy-based-on-ad-group-solved/

First one on a very long list

yeah did that but didnt work :/

I have switched the drive to an internal. i have added a new shared folder which i have mapped onto a domain, for some reason it doesnt show on the client computers under Network Locations.... Is there a cache i need to do to make it work ?

Doing a Google on sharing folders on a domain, I found  this:
Best Practices for File Sharing in a Domain Environment
Among other things, it said:

QuoteNote: Do not make users local administrators on their computers unless you understand the consequences of doing so. One consequence is that they will be able to share folders and open firewall exceptions on their computers. Sharing folders from desktop computers in a domain environment may mean that important documents are being stored on computers instead of on network file servers, and since desktop computers are not normally backed up, this can mean lost work. Educate users to store files instead within shared folders on network file servers where their work can be centrally backed up regularly.

More tips from Technet are here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd310316.aspx
Hope that is of some help.