Is it possible to use a laptop as an external storage device?

I want to use my laptop as an external storage device with my PC. Is this possible? Is there a way to keep a backup of a file on my laptop hard drive and is there any software that can keep the backup on the laptop in sync with the PC?

2 Answers

First you need to share your laptop drive to the network:

Then you need to map it to the desktop PC:

Then use a tool to keep them in sync. SyncToy from MS is a decent enough solution:

edit I should note, that it is not totally necessary to map the laptop drive on the desktop, it just makes it a bit easier to access

If you want to use the hard drive directly, you want an enclosure.

If you're looking to do a backup, check out Crashplan. Free version will do it.

If you're looking to use it as "live" storage on a running other machine, you'll need to create a share and map a drive.