Hello. I have 1 PC( linux and windows dual boot), 1 Laptop (Linux and windows dual boot) and several android mobile devices at home. What i want to do is, I want to have a shared SSD storage which can be accessed by any of above devices. But the condition is, I don't want any of my pc or laptop to keep on like a server for that shared SSD. I want to know if there is any light-weighted electrical hardware that keeps the shared SSD awake so I won't need any pc for that SSD and waste electricity for it. Thanks Edit: This red square is an unknown hardware I want to know which is light-weighted and consume less electricity. It should keep the SSD online 24 x 7.
Most routers provide a high speed USB port for shared storage. I use mine for that and it works well. You can get thumb drives with performance comparable to an SSD like the SanDisk Extreme. May be possible to plug in a portable SSD like the Samsung T5 and get high speeds that way. Though one thing about Win10 is it has anonymous logins to shared media disabled by default. There's a reg tweak for that. My router provides several access methods for the shared media so there should one that will work with other devices besides Windows computers.
Thanks for the reply. I didn't quite understand the topology you are suggesting. Are you suggesting that i should use my D-Link internet router for file transfer. Yes. Actually I am already using "Windows Home Network" through which I have shared some local disks that are useusally displayed in "My computer". But my point is there should be a centralized hard disk/SSD which should not need any computer to be active like 24*7. The SSD should be accessed from any OS like windows or linux.
NAS is kind of overpowered for what it seems the OP is looking for. In any case most home routers support USB network storage which provides access through Windows file sharing, FTP, and sometimes additional protocols. I have a TP Link router I'm pretty happy with for network storage. Linux can always run samba which provides support for Windows file sharing. Most distros have it configured as a base package. Should work for you unless you need something special for the phones.