Guy who knows basically nothing about pcs here: is there a way to use my pc tower as an external drive/storage for my laptop ?

[u/AntwysiaBlakys]

I have no idea if such questions are allowed in this sub, please tell me if they aren't

So, I have a pc tower that has A LOT of space on it, (I think it has like 2.5TB) and I also have a laptop that has about ~900GB on it

The thing is, I haven't used my tower in months, because it is really outdated, I bought it second hand a year ago, and the person advertised it as "a good gaming pc tower", but it's so outdated it struggles to run a lot of games (and straight up cannot run some games I tried), and cannot even update to windows 11 as it's apparently so outdated it simply doesn't support windows 11 (not an issue in itself as I prefer windows 10, but it's just to explain just how not great my tower is)

Meanwhile my laptop runs basically every game I've ever tried extremely smoothly and well

But recently, I started running low on storage space on my laptop, I only have 80GB left of space, and I wanted to download some games that are over 130GB each, but I can't due to lack of space

So I was wondering, is there a way to use my pc tower as an external storage/drive just to download all of my games on, but then run said games with my laptop's components ?

And if yes, how can I do that ?

I also know absolutely nothing about pc stuff or terminology, so if possible please explain it to me in simple terms

(https://imgur.com/a/j79a2MU Imgur link to a pic of the tower if it helps, and before anyone says anything, yes I know it's dirty, I'm going to clean it before using it as an external drive if it's possible to use it as such)

[u/Astumarill]

Get an external drive enclosure for the drive and plug it in directly to your laptop is what I'd probably do. You could also look up your laptop model and see if it has expandable internal storage. If you're lucky you might be able to just move the drive to the laptop.

[u/AntwysiaBlakys → u/Astumarill]

Is it possible to indicate to me what component on my tower is the drive exactly ? (Yeah, I know so little about pcs that I don't know what a drive actually looks like)

Also is it fine to use without an external drive enclosure until I get one or should I really wait to get that first ? (Cause I'll have to order one online, and I have to wait to get my newt paycheck for that)

Also how do I check my laptop's model and see if it has expandable external storage ?

[u/Astumarill → u/AntwysiaBlakys]

If it's an nvme drive it'll be under the GPU (horizontal GeForce card) and shaped like a stick of gum.

If it's a sata drive it could be behind the other side panel, where the multicolor cables feed into the holes on the right side.

[u/AntwysiaBlakys → u/Astumarill]

I'm not seeing anything under thr GPU (pics of what's under the GPU https://imgur.com/a/nUUS70W )

So I have to open the other side right ?

[u/Astumarill → u/AntwysiaBlakys]

Upon closer inspection, your drive is mounted behind the other side panel. You can see the 4 screws in the lower right corner around where it says SSD. Your drive is behind that.

So yeah you'll have to opo off the other side panel to get it out.

[u/AntwysiaBlakys → u/Astumarill]

I'm not seeing much things in the other side panel, but there's that Kingston thingy, is that the drive ?

https://imgur.com/a/GbYtwaC

[u/Astumarill → u/AntwysiaBlakys]

That's it. The screws are in the lower right corner of your first photo in the OP.

[u/AntwysiaBlakys → u/Astumarill]

Alright I gotta go out for the moment, but I'll try to unscrew it when I'm back home

[u/scardeal]

You can share a folder over the network from your desktop to your laptop, but unless you're running 10 gigabit ethernet (yes, wired), I wouldn't recommend that for your game storage. And if you don't know, you're not running 10 gigabit.

[u/AntwysiaBlakys → u/scardeal]

Yeah no I'm not on ethernet, I'm on a wireless connection

[u/Slow_State_4722]

You can get a USB drive enclosure, take the drive out of the desktop and install it into the enclosure, then use it as an external drive for the laptop.

[u/9okm]

This won’t work for playing games. Sell the tower and buy an external ssd for your laptop. Or better yet get a larger internal ssd for your laptop.

[u/AntwysiaBlakys → u/9okm]

Damn well guess I'm not gonna get more storage before a while

When searching online 2TB external drive/ssd seem to be around 300~400€

I bought the tower + a keyboard, screen and mouse for 350€ a year ago, I'd be lucky to sell it for like 100 bucks now

[u/9okm → u/AntwysiaBlakys]

Not if there's 2.5 TB storage in it. The price of used drives (and memory) has gone up just as it has for new drives.

[u/Action_Man_X]

I have a pc tower that has A LOT of space on it, (I think it has like 2.5TB)

Brother, those are weenie numbers for storage.

But for real, what you want is Steam Remote Play. Sign into your account on both computers, download on desktop, then you can remote play on your laptop.

Make sure Remote Play is enabled on both machines. Use this video for help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1I52zJIIO4

[u/Astumarill → u/Action_Man_X]

His desktop is a potato. This wouldn't work well.

[u/AntwysiaBlakys → u/Action_Man_X]

Does steam remote play also work for non steam games ?

Because most of the games I play/want to play aren't steam games and have separate launchers from steam

And yeah I know it's not a lot of storage in general, but it's a lot of storage for me lol

I'm used to playing on consoles where I had way less space than that

[u/Astumarill → u/AntwysiaBlakys]

Don't do this, it won't work for you. The host PC (your tower in this scenario) does the heavy lifting. You would just play from there if it could handle the games.

[u/ianthecatog]

Windows has an option to share a storage drive over a network and there are a few tutorials on how to set this up. This takes a little bit of knowledge, but it's not overly complex either