Windows 7: share well pc is off

is there a way to leave my pc running without shutting it down

only leaving my shares on to be accessed on my otheir devices

i want to to access my shared folder but at the same time shut down the non used hardware/software

You can leave it running or shut it down, not both. Think of it like a light switch On or off.

You can have your network card wake the computer so you can have access to the share, but the share is on your HD and if it isnt turning you cant access it.

how would i go about setting that up

think i might have found my answer
Access Your Computer Anytime and Save Energy with Wake-on-LAN
haven't read nothing on this one yet but thought i would add it
Windows 7 Issues: Wake-on-Lan (WOL) for Windows 7 Made Easy!

from link 1
how big would the errors be

Errors?

yes in link 1

This probably would not do what OP wants - this would make accessing the share a case of "do something to make the network card wake up the computer. Wait for it to boot. Access share. Go shut down computer, or wait for it to shut down on it's own"

If the OP wants a fileserver without having to have a whole computer running 24/7, they should consider a standalone NAS box - they're only like $50-60 plus the cost of the drive now, for a basic one, and you plug it into your network and stick it in a corner, and it acts like a shared drive. They use very little power when not being actively accessed. I've had great results with them.

Good idea but I dont know many home users that would want to spend 100+ and the setup for simple file sharing.

OP asked for a solution to his current problem

It all really depends on what he's willing to spend, and how graceful/rigorous of a solution he wants - I'd certainly say that the NAS box is the ideal solution for him, if he's willing to spend the money on it.

Another approach would be to use a cloud storage service - everyone and their mom is running one nowadays, with varying pricing, software support, etc. This would of course only be practical if the data you're trying to share is small and you don't mind it being on someone else's server, and don't care that you won't be able to access it when the internet is down - but it would completely eliminate the need to run a file server yourself.

I don't think the wake-on-lan solution is realistic. I couldn't make WoL work, and I'm pretty good with this stuff. And there would still be a 30-60 second delay waiting for the system with the share on it to boot (and how does it get turned off when he's done accessing it? Is there a way to remotely shut down a machine, other than remote desktop -> shut down? His problem was that he didn't want it running all the time, not that he couldn't get to the machine to turn it on, as I understand it).

I have a laptop computer handling media playing, buried behind the monitor it displayed said media on, on a shelf. The power button was only accessible with the lid open, so accidentally shutting it down meant disassembling the whole mess to turn it back on. And it liked shutting down for various reasons. Wake on lan was the natural answer, but I wasn't successful making it work. Eventually I gave up on WoL, and brought wires from the power button out to an external button and put that somewhere I could get to. Had to take the laptop completely apart to get to it, too, they buried it good. My point here is, making WoL work was such a pain that completely disassembling and reassembling a laptop was easier than making it work. Incidentally, since I did that, it hasn't shut itself down once.

You're entitled to your opinion of course and your knowledge seems adequate but the idea here is to help provide a simple efficient solution to the question the OP asked.

With over 2 decades in Enterprise Networking, I have used WOL frequently and I haven't had a problem with its use.


Good luck with your SMB

Ken