Yes, you can share an HDD via the internet by using a network connection to transfer its contents.
Yes, you can share an HDD via the internet by using a network connection to transfer its contents.
Hello everyone. My friend and I collaborate on similar projects, focusing mainly on audio and video work. We both have access to the same files. Right now, our process is quite traditional—bringing in a USB drive with the needed data, returning it, and then mounting it on the HDD for his viewing. I’m wondering if there’s a way to integrate that hard drive into my system as if it were a local network drive. He’s using an Nvidia Shield as his NAS, which runs Android instead of Windows.
A Google Drive or a similar service is likely the optimal choice
Information keeps shifting rapidly. And handling it in such large volumes is challenging. We prefer to keep our data secure.
Google’s upload speed will be significantly quicker and more consistent than what you have. You’d prefer not to rely on a service that stores important data for many organizations but is vulnerable to attacks from any device connected over your home network. For a secure setup, consider establishing a VPN connection on a local machine. Using Windows Server with SSTP would be ideal if both systems run Windows and you want to control access via Active Directory. There’s plenty of guidance on configuring VPNs through Windows Server RAS roles. If real-time editing is required, uploads must match download speeds; otherwise, cloud solutions may not be practical since files still need to be transferred locally before editing.
It wouldn't work well unless your data usage matched the upload speed, which is usually very low. The only real solution is using a VPN.
Some people mentioned a site-to-site VPN might be possible, but it depends on having quick upload speeds. Aim for at least 100 Mbps, ideally 250-500 Mbps, especially for video. Unless you're using fiber internet, you probably won't reach those rates.
We have several reasons not to move the data elsewhere. The upload speed will still rely on the local connection speed, which is acceptable. If I could access the HDD locally, it would be much more convenient.