How to Set up a Network Drive (with Pictures) – wikiHow

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1

Make sure that your computers share a network. Each computer on which you want to use the network drive must be on the same Internet network for the network drive to appear on any computer other than the one on which you create it.

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2

Enable network discovery. If your computer isn’t set to discover other computers on the network, you’ll need to enable network discovery. To do so:

• Open Start

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• Type in control panel
• Click Control Panel
• Click Network and Sharing Center (you may first have to click the Network and Internet heading).
• Click Change advanced sharing settings in the upper-left side.
• Check the “Turn on network discovery” box.
• Check the “Turn on file and printer sharing” box.
• Click Save changes at the bottom of the window.

If your computer isn’t set to discover other computers on the network, you’ll need to enable network discovery. To do so:

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7

Click the

Map network drive

icon. This option is in the “Network” section of the toolbar. Make sure that you click the icon resembling a flash drive and not the Map network drive text here.[1]

This option is in the “Network” section of the toolbar. Make sure that you click the icon resembling a flash drive and not thetext here.

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8

Select a drive letter. Click the “Drive” drop-down box, then click a letter in the drop-down menu. This will assign to your network drive a letter that you can use to identify it later.

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10

Select a folder to use for your drive. Click the computer on which you want to create the drive, then find the folder that you want to use and click it to select it.

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11

Click

OK

. This option is at the bottom of the window.

• If you receive an error, the folder that you chose is not shareable. This may happen because the folder is read-only.

This option is at the bottom of the window.

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12

Click

Finish

. It’s at the bottom of the window. Doing so will create your network drive and enable it for any networked computers.

• If your computer ever changes to a different channel on your network, you’ll need to reestablish the network drive.

It’s at the bottom of the window. Doing so will create your network drive and enable it for any networked computers.

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13

Access the drive on other network computers. As long as the other computers on the network have network discovery and file sharing enabled, you’ll be able to open the drive by going to This PC and double-clicking the network drive folder below the “Devices and drives” heading.