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I want to connect 3 windows computers (2 XP, 1 windows server 2003) to an external USB hard drive via USB. I would like each computer to be able to directly read and write to the HD as if it were directly connected to each computer. Using special file transfer software isn't a viable solution. Sharing the HD over the network also won't work for me. Is this possible?

Thanks for any advice!

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why is standard networking not an option? you clearly have a server. – horatio Dec 30 '10 at 18:37
Our IS department disabled windows file sharing. And the connection to institutional network file shares are too slow for my application. – wsk Dec 30 '10 at 18:44
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2 Answers

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No, it is not possible to accomplish this via the setup you are proposing. A USB connected hard drive cannot simultaneously be connected to multiple computers. You can share them via a port device such as this one, but the device can only be connected to one computer at a time.

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up vote 2 down vote

Nope, USB operates on a tiered-star topology with one and only one host controller.

One possibly feasible solution would be to use USB Bridge cables to connect two of the computers to a third, where the hard drive would be plugged in. You would essentially be creating your own USB network with the middle computer presenting the USB drive as a shared resource.

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