Using My Passport as a public folder

I have two desktops at work.  One is acting as a server and has a public folder that has files both computers are accessing.  The “server” computer is running really slow since the hard drive is almost maxed out.  Instead of buying a larger hard drive or new desktops I want to switch them both to laptops.  My question is can I use the My Passport drive as the public file?  I would have both laptops running there own programs and the Passport connected to both of them via usb cables where all the files would be saved.  Is this a feasable idea and can anybody forsee any problems?  I know that any files being accessed on one computer would not be accessable on another at the same time.

You can do it, but you’ll need to manually assign the permissions and have the computer on at all times unless your router has a USB port and is compatible with the drive. If I were you, I’d go for a real NAS as they were amde just for what you would like to do.