1 usb into 2 computers?

joemorris86 · 4 Mar 2006 at 20:05

Is this possible, I have an external hard drive, a laptop and a pc. Is there anything i can buy which allows me to have the HD plugged into both my laptop and pc at the same time?

Six6siX · 4 Mar 2006 at 20:32

Possibly a USB switch?

One of those things commonly used for non-LAN printers shared between several PC's. You can get manual switch ones and automatic ones (but I think they are quite expensive).

Otacon · 4 Mar 2006 at 20:56

And probably quite unsuitable for disk I/O. I don't think you can do what you want (how you want it) - best bet would be networking the two and sharing it from one machine

Six6siX · 4 Mar 2006 at 21:00

Not saying that you're wrong, but why would it be unsuitable for disk I/O? Just curious...

BigDom · 4 Mar 2006 at 21:10

Six6siX said:
Not saying that you're wrong, but why would it be unsuitable for disk I/O? Just curious...

Both PC's trying to access the same data at the same time or write data to the same part of the disk would be the main problems. In a networked environemtn the server software would handle it.

chaparral · 5 Mar 2006 at 01:28

This is what i use..

You can see the manual switch on the top for switching the four USB ports between two pc's.