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My laptop only has a 30gb HD, so at the moment I'm considering an external hard drive. I'm planning on getting a USB 2.0 compliant hub so that me and my roommate will both be able to access and write to the drive, but I've never used USB hubs. I was curious how it would react with 2 computers, a hard drive, and a printer hooked together. I've read some complaints about external hard drives, how bad are they exactly? I'm gonna try and get an old computer from my family's business up and running strictly for file storage, but it's only running at 133 mhz right now. I was gonna try to put Win 2k on it and then figure out permissions so that I can write to it from my laptop through a router. Is it worth even trying to get the computer working because I'm gonna buy a bigger HD either way, I'm just not sure which way would be the best at the moment.
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Maybe use that old desktop as your gateway and avoid a router all together. If you use WinXP even the printer will be accessible over a network. Hell, just put 2 or 3 network cards in it(very cheap).
If that PC is for storage than you won't need any external hard-drives. They would be accessible on your network. Besides an external drive will cost more money(power supply and all).
I'm sure others will have more suggestions tho.
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I got the old computer today and I'm probably just gonna buy an external hard drive and a USB 2.0 card for my laptop. One thing I don't understand about hubs is how will they react if there are 2 computers and 2 peripherals plugged into it. Right now I want to try having the HD I'm thinking about getting and my roommates printer shared between both of us, but will it be okay to plug both of those along with both our computers into one USB hub?
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I don't see how you can share 1 USB hub with multiple computers.
Still, you're doing it the hard way.
Put a large hardrive in that desktop. Put a network card in the desktop. Connect the printer to the desktop. Connect PC to you colleges' network. Enable file and print sharing. Network your laptops to the PC. (your CPU is inconsequential)
In essence, make that PC one big, badass router/print server/music library for you and your roommate.
But, if you insist on using USB read this info.
