Can a NAS be treated like a normal drive?

[InfiniteZero0]

Title says most of it. Can I basically treat it like it's a normal drive?

[DXMember]

yes, just make sure that before every file transer you have enough pixie dust and think happy thoughts or else it won't work and the drive will get corrupted

[ShadowCaptain]

Title says most of it. Can I basically treat it like it's a normal drive?

 

Yep, if you map it to your PC it will work just like a local drive

 

You can install steam games on it, play music, drag and drop files etc etc

[Aereldor]

What do you mean a 'Normal drive'? Do you want to plug it into your system through SATA or USB? 

In terms of functionality, a NAS is a storage drive that's connected to one or more computers through the local area network. You could map it to just the PC you want to use it with rather than all of them.

[InfiniteZero0]

What do you mean a 'Normal drive'? Do you want to plug it into your system through SATA or USB? 

In terms of functionality, a NAS is a storage drive that's connected to one or more computers through the local area network. You could map it to just the PC you want to use it with rather than all of them.

Just to clarify, I was referring to a local drive connected by whatever data interface to a computer.

[PrimeSonic]

Just to clarify, I was referring to a local drive connected by whatever data interface to a computer.

 

If your drive is one of those external USB drives, it will function just like a USB stick as far as the OS can see it.

You can use it for anything you want from there.

 

If the drive is connected through the local network (like a NAS) then you map it to your local machine like this:

 

Right-Click Computer (or My Computer) > select the option "Map Network Drive" > select a letter drive and add the network path to the drive

From here on, the network drive will appear on your PC as if it were just another local drive.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there

 

When you plug a NAS in your router and configure it from its settings, it should be visible as a network drive and be used pretty much like another external drive. You should be able to play media and copy/paste data from and to that NAS through the network mapped place. 

 

As my fellow captain (hey @ShadowCaptain ) pointed out, even if the NAS doesn't have this as an out-of-the-box option, you should be able to do this from the PC. 

 

There are ways to connect a NAS directly to the computer with a crossover Ethernet (LAN) cable, configure your network setting and again see the NAS as a local drive. This will disable all other connections to the network adapter including the ability to access the internet.

 

Feel free to ask if you happen to have questions  

 

Captain_WD.