Using LiibreELEC on Raspberry Pi 5 to access external hard drives connected to Windows 10 PC

    Hi all,

    I'm using LibreELEC on a Raspberry Pi 5 to set up my own media server. I've got four external hard drives connected to my Windows 10 PC, which I can't disconnect as they are in frequent use on said machine.


    How can I use LibreELEC to access these drives via Ethernet connection to my Internet box - the PC is also connected by ethernet. Some people have recommended using Plex on both systems but I was hoping to use LibreELEC on it's own.


    Many thanks

    Depending on the brand/type of wifi router you use some offer a USB port to share on your network. Not exactly what you're looking for but worked well in my setup. A powered HD or array connected would be available to your entire network with a minimum of fuss and additional software.

    Quote from zeropolis79

    How can I use LibreELEC to access these drives via Ethernet connection

    Share the drives to the network using Windows, then configure sources for them in Kodi. You will need to use authentication as on the Windows side you either share to a specific user (that you must authenticate as) or if "guest" shares are still a thing it means "any username/password can access" but you still need to access and authenticate using a username/password. I personally find it easiest to do this from the SSH console (editing /storage/.kodi/userdata/sources.xml and passwords.xml). Go read the Kodi wiki, it has all the "how to use Kodi" help you need.

    Quote from chewitt

    Share the drives to the network using Windows, then configure sources for them in Kodi. You will need to use authentication as on the Windows side you either share to a specific user (that you must authenticate as) or if "guest" shares are still a thing it means "any username/password can access" but you still need to access and authenticate using a username/password. I personally find it easiest to do this from the SSH console (editing /storage/.kodi/userdata/sources.xml and passwords.xml). Go read the Kodi wiki, it has all the "how to use Kodi" help you need.

    This is exactly how I have my Windows 10 media server to RPi5 LibreELEC setup and it works perfectly!