How to Access the Hard Drive From a Computer in Another Room

Setting up a home network will help streamline the efficiency of your home computing process, allowing you to access files and folders from any computer in your home. While setting up a home network might seem difficult, once accomplished you will be able to access any hard drive in the house from any other computer, something that will make the setup time well worth it in the long run. The process itself will take between 30 to 60 minutes.

Connect both computers to a router using Ethernet cables (Skip this step if you will be using a wireless network).

Open the "Start" menu on the first computer, click on the "Control Panel," and open the "Network and Sharing Center."

Choose the option to "Connect to a Network."

Input your computer's information when prompted, including the name of the machine. When setting the workgroup, leave it as the default option, which will be either "MS-HOME" or "WORKGROUP." In Windows 7 make a note of the Homegroup password. This can be used to connect to other Windows 7 computers. Enable file sharing when configuring the network.

Repeat the process on the other computer, ensuring that the workgroup name of the second computer matches that of the first computer exactly. In a Windows 7 Homegroup, enter the password created on the first computer.

Double click on "My Computer" or "Computer" on the computer with the shared hard drive. Right click on the drive letter of the hard drive (usually "C"), select "Share" then choose the option to "Share" the drive on the network.

Reboot both machines and you will now be able to access the shared hard drive by going to the "Start" menu and clicking on the "Network" tab.