can you create a virtual file server with a combination of different laptops excess storage

[ScriptKiddo]

hey there. i just had an idea id like to bring to my boss for the stem camp i work at. we have about 10 student laptops we use to do things like block coders and bits and pieces of written python. all the students save there work on individual flash drives and it can be annoying to hunt for them. i had an idea, what if we used the excess 20 to 30gbs on each of these laptops and somehow combined it all into one big virtual data store on our network. is there a free or open program i could use to acomplish this? thanks.

[tkitch]

If you hunt enough?  There's probably a way to make that work.

 

But, no, don't do that.  There's no way to make that reliable enough to not completely suck ass to work with.

 

If you want a cheap and small server, use an old desktop and put in two drives.  

[Lurick]

And what happens when a laptop is put to sleep or is shutdown? You lose access to the entire filesystem?

[spellmanuk]

im sure there is software that does this but its most likley expensive and propitroty youd be much better off if you have an office pc you would be better off putting a second hard drive in there and shareing that on the network so its always accessible