[MicroCow]

Okay so, this question has probably been answered dozens of times, but I cannot seem to find a straight up answer here.
I have the standalone install of xbmc on my spare pc, which of course is connected to my network.
I would like to be able to copy files to the drives connected to that spare pc via windows through the network. Can anyone give some detail on how this is achieved?

[clubwerks]

I think you're going to need to explain/ask your question a little more clearly. The title makes it sound like you want to watch videos in XBMC. The question you ask makes it sound like you want to do a simple file transfer from one computer to another.

Maybe give an example of what you're trying to do.

[MicroCow]

I'd like to perform a transfer. TO give some more detail, I have 2 1.5gb drives, and a 500gb drive hooked up to the pc that is now my htpc. I'd like to be able to download videos like I normally do via my laptop, and transfer them to the drives hooked up to the htpc. I should mention, I do not want to STREAM, I'd like to actually copy the file.

[Ned Scott]

You do know that files played over the local network are in full quality, exactly as if they were played on a local hard drive, yes? As far as playback is concerned, there is no difference between transferring a file from one computer to another vs playing a file from one computer to another. No transcoding happens, no quality loss, just network accessible data.

If all you want to do is transfer files from one computer to another, then that's not really an XBMC question. Use a USB HDD, use a network share, burn files to DVD-R.

[MicroCow]

You do know that files played over the local network are in full quality, exactly as if they were played on a local hard drive, yes? As far as playback is concerned, there is no difference between transferring a file from one computer to another vs playing a file from one computer to another. No transcoding happens, no quality loss, just network accessible data.

If all you want to do is transfer files from one computer to another, then that's not really an XBMC question. Use a USB HDD, use a network share, burn files to DVD-R.

My reason for doing this is because 1) I have much more storage on the media center than my other computers and 2) I'd like to be able to have both me, my wife, and our roommates videos all in one location without having to depend on the other pc's being on. It also keeps our media safe, in case one of us need to re-format,etc.

I was hoping there was a simple method through file sharing, as there are with normal pc's. Surely there must be some way to do this without additional drives or disks.

[clubwerks]

My reason for doing this is because 1) I have much more storage on the media center than my other computers and 2) I'd like to be able to have both me, my wife, and our roommates videos all in one location without having to depend on the other pc's being on. It also keeps our media safe, in case one of us need to re-format,etc.

I was hoping there was a simple method through file sharing, as there are with normal pc's. Surely there must be some way to do this without additional drives or disks.

So, you want to download them to one location and then move the same file to three locations? That's nut, but hey if you've got nothing but time....

First, you don't have to download them to your laptop. Not sure what you're using to download, but if you're on a network, you can use your laptop to find the files and start the download, but save them to a final destination. That would eliminate one file transfer to start with.

Then, like somebody else already pointed out, your question is not related to XBMC in the least. Simply go the computer that has the original file and open the file location. Using windows key + E, open another explorer window and navigate to the computer and folder where you want to put a copy. Then drag and drop the file(s) from the original location to the next computer. That will copy it over. Simply repeat for as many places as you want to copy the file.

I'm going to tell you this and then you're on your own. That is a crazy waste of time. Just put all the hard drives in one computer and leave it turned on. Shares those hard drive through your network and use XBMC to access the files from each remote computer.

[MicroCow]

So, you want to download them to one location and then move the same file to three locations? That's nut, but hey if you've got nothing but time....

First, you don't have to download them to your laptop. Not sure what you're using to download, but if you're on a network, you can use your laptop to find the files and start the download, but save them to a final destination. That would eliminate one file transfer to start with.

Then, like somebody else already pointed out, your question is not related to XBMC in the least. Simply go the computer that has the original file and open the file location. Using windows key + E, open another explorer window and navigate to the computer and folder where you want to put a copy. Then drag and drop the file(s) from the original location to the next computer. That will copy it over. Simply repeat for as many places as you want to copy the file.

I'm going to tell you this and then you're on your own. That is a crazy waste of time. Just put all the hard drives in one computer and leave it turned on. Shares those hard drive through your network and use XBMC to access the files from each remote computer.

I think you misunderstood again.. I don't wish to have the content copied to all 3 computers, I just want to be able to copy the content onto the xbmc server. That's it. I want all my files on the htpc itself, not streaming from another drive, etc.

I believe the technical term of what I would be looking for would be to access the xbmc box as a NAS.
Also, I cannot drag-and-drop files as you suggested, as the only way the xbmc box is showing on my network, is the read only media stream. I can login to ssh fine, but that hardly is a newbie-friendly way of transferring the movies for the others. I've also heard you can FTP into the box, but again, this is probably beyond their level of understanding. I'm simply looking for a drag-and-drop solution for moving files from a pc to the xbmc drives via the network.

[Dobyken]

I think you misunderstood again.. I don't wish to have the content copied to all 3 computers, I just want to be able to copy the content onto the xbmc server. That's it. I want all my files on the htpc itself, not streaming from another drive, etc.
.

All you need to do is share the drive on the XBMC computer. Let's assume it's the D: drive and you have a folder on it called Movies. Go into windows explorer on the XBMC computer and right click on the Movie folder then select "Share" from the menu. You'll be asked to give it a name and whether other people can modify the files. From the other computer go into Windows explorer and on the menu choose "Map Network Drive". Enter //servername/Sharename, give it a drive letter, choose "reconnect at login" and your done. The Servername is the name of the other computer. Once your networking is done open explorer on the system containing the file you want to copy/move to the XBMC computer, right click on the file and select copy then select the network drive as the destination.

[Ned Scott]

Accessing your videos over the network IS the same thing as a NAS. XBMC isn't a server. The OS XBMC is on does the sharing. Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, whatever. Put all the videos on one computer, turn file sharing on. This is what I was trying to tell you in my first reply here.

[BigO]

If the computer that is running XBMC is the live version, what i do to get files to a Live install is use WinScp (freeware), login in with my credentials and then move the files over to the correct location on XBMC machine.

You could set up a share on the XBMC machine then just move the files over that way but i dont know how to do that on Live and WinScp works fine for me and i get good transfer speeds over SSH so i just use that method.

[darkscout]

SCP, FTP, NFS, AFP, SFTP, WebDav.

Pick your poison.

[MicroCow]

I found to how to solve my problem by googling elsewhere. There really should be a how to on this somewhere.

For others, the solution is this:
SSH into the box using the login created @ installation.
run sudo apt-get upgrade
then, follow the guide linked below.
http://www.debuntu.org/guest-file-sharing-with-samba

The exception being, of course, since we wish to copy content to the drive remotely, would be to replace
read only = yes
with
writeable = yes

[darkscout]

This really isn't part of XBMC's core functionality. The "How To" would be better suited to "how to share files with a linux machine".

I think OpenELEC also just has this built in. Worth checking out.

[Ned Scott]

I found to how to solve my problem by googling elsewhere. There really should be a how to on this somewhere.

For others, the solution is this:
SSH into the box using the login created @ installation.
run sudo apt-get upgrade
then, follow the guide linked below.
http://www.debuntu.org/guest-file-sharing-with-samba

The exception being, of course, since we wish to copy content to the drive remotely, would be to replace
read only = yes
with
writeable = yes

There are several guides for file sharing on the forums.

Not to be rude, but this was a communication problem. No one could understand what you were trying to do, let alone what OS the "XBMC Server" (XBMC itself isn't a server) was running. I assume you're running XBMC Live? That also would have been good information to know.