i set up a hard drive connected to my network

[dubdees]

ive set up a hard drive thats connected to my router to save files directly to my network. i was wondering if anyone knows if in order to play games if they have to be physically connected to the pc, or if i can just access the game files and play them from my networked hard drive. if anyone has any clue please lmk! thanks in advance

 

[Kitty]

In theory, if you have everything set up properly, you can at the very least use Windows (file) Explorer to browse to your PC (where it lists drives and devices) and Map a Network Drive, giving it a local drive letter.  You can then install games directly to that drive letter (with proper sub-folders), and should be able to add new (secondary) library folder to Steam, etc.

 

Once it's mapped, again assuming everything else is set up properly, it won't act any different than any other drive on your PC, aside from possibly increased latency with large data read/writes.  You may notice a little lag or load times depending on your network speed and the demands of the game in question.

[dharvinia]

The advantage of using your router instead of just creating a shared drive on any computer is that it doesn’t depend on the machine it’s connected to, meaning as long as the router is working, you can connect to the drive from any device. In fact, the router’s web administration panel usually includes a specific section to configure shared resources, allowing you to make disk drives as well as printers available to anyone connected to the network.

  Just make sure that it is protected from outside access, because it can be accessed by "anyone" with access to your WiFi.

 

[Grey Cloud]

1 hour ago, Kitty said:

Map a Network Drive,

The OP is not talking about a mapped drive but Network Attached Storage.

 

1 hour ago, dharvinia said:

The advantage of using your router instead of just creating a shared drive

The OP is not using the router, it is a regular hard drive attached to the network.

 

On 4/14/2021 at 6:24 PM, dubdees said:

if i can just access the game files and play them from my networked hard drive.

Why would you want to?

[landess]

30 minutes ago, Grey Cloud said:

The OP is not using the router

 

Hey Grey - read again.

 

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As for playing games, I guess they could be shared as long as they have no need of something like Origin/UbiConnect/Steam - although Steam already has features for sharing with 'family'. I say that because to play those type games, the launcher acts as DRM so it wouldn't matter where the actual games files were accessed from. Otherwise, still one must recognize Windows' need for registrations - so a player could install the game on their own system, then have the system point to the .exe on the outside drive and be able to clear the local disk of the files manually while keeping a short-cut active. This is how I handle my Modded Bethesda games so Steam couldn't auto-update them. (I just rename my original game file folder though instead of deleting for archival reasons)

[Grey Cloud]

1 hour ago, landess said:

Hey Grey - read again.

Why? You don't save files to a router - you save them to a hard drive. The hard drive is connected to the network. The router deals with the connections.

 

[landess]

1 hour ago, Grey Cloud said:

Why? You don't save files to a router - you save them to a hard drive. The hard drive is connected to the network. The router deals with the connections.

 

 

Nevermind - he said he's using a router, and you said he wasn't. Thought you mighta' got caught up in the tech side instead of the written word.

[dubdees]

yeah i set it up on my network. just needed to figure out how to map the network drive on my PC. so im all good

[steelpanther24]

On 5/10/2021 at 3:48 PM, dubdees said:

yeah i set it up on my network. just needed to figure out how to map the network drive on my PC. so im all good

Be careful, before you know it, you will set up a server farm in a RAID style.  It will start looking like your very own Steam server.

Spoiler