Need help setting up a work place network, please!

[mickking]

I have the task of getting 3 computers on the same network and to be sharing a external hard drive which will be used for a backup. All 3 computers once on the network and sharing correctly will be able to send a backup to the external HDD which is connected to one of the pcs. I have spent countless hours trying to get this to work and i just keep digging a bigger hole it seems. Can anyone give me a step by step guide or something? lol

1 pc has windows 7 ( has external attached)
other 2 are using vista (eewwwww)

They all have their own user accounts and all being admin accounts, e.g Name: John Password: blah


I know how to map a drive using a path and such but its no longer working due to login permissions. I have set the permissions of the external to be able to share, atleast i think i did this correctly. If someone could post how to delete and create a network starting from the ground up so that i can atleast get all 3 systems linked together correctly, i should just have to map the external and setup the backup software to send the backup to that disk... getting all the account information and permissions seem to be a task i cant figure out.

Thanks

Michael

 

[thrussst]

If your version of Windows 7 is home premium, then there isnt a feature within windows to backup to a network location. I believe you could in Vista if I'm not mistaken. I would suggest upgrading your version of windows or looking for a separate backup program that allows to back up to a network location.

 

[mickking]

Yea the thing is this system worked previously except the backups were not getting overwritten so the disk space was used up in a week, thus the reason for me redoing the setup. When i am on the vista system it tells me the backup HDD is accessible but the user name and password i am logged on does not have permission to access it... thats the windows error when i try to access it. I can't map to the drive or anything but i set full permissions on the external, unless im missing that part some how. At this point, this problem has become personal... The external is a seagate freeagent 500gb and i reformatted it in an attempt to fix it. I'v noticed there are backup files not on the HDD after reinstalling the drive and disc wizard, and regarding the files that are missing i mean they were seagate files that look like software from seagate had put them there to maybe set that external up as a network drive???

 

[mickking]

anyone have any ideas? im still trying to fix this and take 2 steps backwards for every 1 i take.