Linux - Network Sharing a local NTFS usb drive

Question

I have an external hard drive formated in NTFS which I would like to be able to access by the network. I want to make a network share out of it.

I also have a Debian machine running in my house and I then got an idea.

I want to plug in my external hard drive (usb) into my Debian machine, and make a windows share with it, maybe with Samba, so I will be able to access it from my Windows 7 laptop and see it as a network share.

Additionally, how can I restrict specific folders of that network share, and allow only specific folders to specific users? For instance, I would like to give my girlfriend access to a folder of her name so she can put her files and so she wont be able to see the stuff in my folder...

Solution

Samba is exactly the tool to use. With Samba you expose directories as NTFS shares, and they are accessed just as you would a native Windows share.

If the share in Samba is not configured as accessible by guest ok then the user must provide credentials to access the share. In a basic setup, these credentials map to linux user accounts, and so you can use standard linux permissions to control access to different directories.

There are many tutorials available, this one should help you get started.

Comments

[Jonathan Rioux]

I dont have the graphical interface :(