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    Accessing hard drive by two computers at same time (non-networked)

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by jmsnyc, Jul 22, 2009.

  1. jmsnyc

    jmsnyc Notebook Consultant

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    I was wondering if it would be possible to connect an external hard drive to two computers using the usb port and the firewire port of the drive? One device does not have an ethernet or the possibility of ethernet so network is not an option.
     
    jmsnyc, Jul 22, 2009
    #1
  2. KimoT

    KimoT Are we not men?

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    KimoT, Jul 22, 2009
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  3. jmsnyc

    jmsnyc Notebook Consultant

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    I thought about switches. But I want to be able to have drive access from both devices at same time.
     
    jmsnyc, Jul 22, 2009
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  4. iGrim

    iGrim Notebook Evangelist

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    The answer is no.
     
    iGrim, Jul 23, 2009
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  5. N4n45h1

    N4n45h1 Notebook Consultant

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    I don't believe it's possible. I tried with an older drive, but I can't say anything about if it would work with a more recent one.
     
    N4n45h1, Jul 23, 2009
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  6. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    Well, think of it this way: there's only one drive head - and it can't be in 2 places at once.

    I guess if you used some special software that prioritized reads between the 2 computers, it might theoretically be possible...
     
    Lithus, Jul 23, 2009
    #6
  7. jmsnyc

    jmsnyc Notebook Consultant

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    But how does a dvr work? It can record a program. yet you can still watch it from the beginning while it is still recording another part of a program
     
    jmsnyc, Jul 24, 2009
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  8. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    by jumping forward and backward on the drive, reading a bit for showing, writing a bit for saving all the time.
     
    davepermen, Jul 24, 2009
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  9. bense

    bense Notebook Geek

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    the same way that you multi-task on a computer. The easiest way that this would be remotely possible is something like mounting through NFS volumes. Which is networking.
     
    bense, Jul 24, 2009
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  10. highlandsun

    highlandsun Notebook Evangelist

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    To do this without networking would require very specialized device drivers; each computer would need to be made aware of writes performed by the other computer otherwise they would trash each other's writes and corrupt the filesystems.

    Hardly anyone writes such sophisticated drivers these days, certainly none exist on Windows. The only major OS I know of which routinely allowed multipath access to hard drives from multiple CPUs was VAX/VMS. The only other OS I knew of was Atari MultiTOS, and I wrote the driver for that...
     
    highlandsun, Jul 24, 2009
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  11. jmsnyc

    jmsnyc Notebook Consultant

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    This would never work for what I want it for. I actually want to use it for a computer and dvp5992 dvd player that can read a usb drive and play divx and a few other types of media files files (it has usb 2.0 port). So what I want to do is record with the pc and play the files on the dvd player.

    I know the more sensible option is to just to play from the same pc I am writing to but the processor is not that strong so I figured this was a workaround that would put off my need to get a new computer for the purpose.
     
    jmsnyc, Jul 24, 2009
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  12. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    As the others have said, it won't work; in all likelihood, the internal firmware on the enclosure itself will disable the firewire port if the usb port is plugged in first, and vice-versa, precisely to prevent the sort of problems this would cause.
     
    Shyster1, Jul 25, 2009
    #12