Connected locations & USB drives

Besides your own storage, Bitsmith can reach files in two other places: a share on another computer, and a USB drive you plug in.

Connected locations (remote shares)

A connected location is a network share on another machine (a desktop, another server, a router’s USB port) that Bitsmith connects to so you can browse it alongside your own storage. This is the mirror image of a network share: there you hand files out, here you reach in.

1. In the Files sidebar, choose Connect storage.
2. Enter the other machine’s address, the share name, and a username and password for it.
3. Connect. The location appears in the sidebar and you can browse it like any folder.

A connected location shows its status (connected or disconnected) and can be reconnected or removed from its menu. Removing it only drops the connection; it never changes files on the other machine.

Connected locations are also available as backup destinations, so a backup can land on another machine’s share. See Backups.

External USB drives

Plug a USB drive into the server and it appears under External drives in the Files sidebar within a few seconds. Browse, copy, and move files to and from it like any other folder.

Before unplugging a USB drive, use Eject safely from its menu so in-flight writes finish first. Pulling a drive mid-write can corrupt files on it.