Does a simple USB A/B switch exist?

[swbsam]

I have my PC and my Mac in the same room and often use a USB hard drive to copy files from one to the other, since USB is much faster than using the network. Unplugging and re-plugging the hard drive is particularly annoying - does a simple A/B switch exist? I don't need both computers to access the drive at the same time.

 

[alyarb]

the network really is the best way though. does everyone have gigabit controllers running cat5e? because gig switches are like $30.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Agreed. Buy a cheap router and your good to go. I suspect you may already have a router so that both systems can access the internet right? Its just a matter of configuring the network so that one system is able to access the drive threw the other system.

 

[corkyg]

Just set that drive up as a network attached storage (NAS) with an IP address available to both computers.

 

[JackMDS]

There is a switch like this for other USB peripherals, but I would Not use it with hard drive.

Switching Hard rive this way would Sooner or later result in Trashing the Drive and probably losing the content.

If you are "sacred" of Networking get yourself some thing like this.

http://www.usbgear.com/link/index.html

 

[0roo0roo]

nas or shared network.
usb is dog slow and a pain.

 

[RebateMonger]

If you switch to a Gigabit network, the speed will be comparable to direct-connect USB.

Weird. I figured there'd be lots of USB switches, but a quick check of Newegg doesn't reveal any that folks have successfully used to share hard drives.

 

[alyarb]

should be a good deal faster than USB

 

[0roo0roo]

way faster than usb.