I just got a WD external drive and I want to use it to back up several machines on my home network. It’s a Windows network, so the machines are part of the HomeGroup.
I have installed the WD software on tow of the machines, in addition to the machine that the hard drive is connected to. I can’t see a way to “find” the hard drive, to configure backups to it.
Is this possilbe?
Welcome to the Community.
WD SmartWare will only work over the network with WD NAS devices. If you have a USB device it will not work even if connected to a router.
I own a 4 TB WD … bought it for network backups … i’ve plug it directly on my router USB 3.0 … it’s a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 Every computer and even cell phone can see it and use it in the network by using an apps called Netgear Genie … for windows/mac and iphone or android. For automatic Backups … my router had me install a program called ReadySHARE Vault … it monitors my computers and tablets and does automatic backups of the files that’s been modified … once it has done a full backups of course 
So like he says … the WD are not working on a network setting … check what is possible to do with your router … the answer to your problem is there.
If it’s a good router … it should have option like mine has … I’ve paid $149 on Amazon for it.
