DJameson

Hi, I was wondering if it was possible for hardwired access to one hard drive from two computers. For example, if you had a hard drive in an enclosure with both USB and eSata out, could you connect the USB to one computer and the eSata to the other, giving both computers access to the same drive?

Thanks for any help,

DJ

raptor_pa

Off the top of my head I'm going to say no. I can't see how the actual drive would determine which port /pc a read command came from. I also doubt it would respond to signals on two different ports. It would be a lot smoother to attach it to one, create a share, and then acces it across the network for the other...

DJameson

Thanks for the quick response...

Is there any way to have hardwired access? It would make it a lot easier for me if the access from all computers was quick, because I often need to transfer large amounts of data, and over the network it goes pretty slow.

Thanks

raptor_pa

Nothing I can think of - usb crossover is another option rather than running it through an intermediary drive. 100 Mit shouldn't be too bad of through put, speed is a relative thing, but I can't imagine you need to move more data across the wire than most businesses do everyday. The network will be a whole lot faster than stuff coming off the internet. The problem the drives would have no idea which port the request came from since it is expecting only one PC to access it at a time. On a network connection, the host PC provides the control for where the individual data has to go.

DJameson

Ok thanks very much.
Last quick question... could I possibly hurt the drive if I test connecting two computers? I'm gonna start with a blank drive so I'm not worried about data loss, just somehow messing up the drive itself.

Thanks again
DJ

raptor_pa

That's one I can't answer, the enclosure isn't designed to take two inputs simultaneously. Might work might not. I suppose it's one of those try at your own risk....