This "recipe" is a re-hash of a Question I answered recently on Stack Exchange.
The key to setting up 'shares' with samba on Raspberry Pi doing is in the /etc/smb.conf file. Open this file with your editor (I'll assume nano here), and go to the section named #===== Share Definitions ====; or perhaps it's just marked as [homes]. In any case, you're safe going to the end of the /etc/smb.conf file.
For each share you want to add, you will add a "configuration block" to the /etc/smb.conf file.
And of course it's also necessary that the 'share' be mount-ed on the Raspberry Pi. We'll cover the mount setup below - after making the changes to /etc/smb.conf.
To add a USB drive, add a "configuration block" we'll call [usbshare]:
# Let's take care of creting the 'mount' point first:
$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/myusbstick
#
$ sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
#... editor opens file; add the following lines:
[usbshare]
path = /mnt/myusbstick
read only = no
public = yes
writable = yes
#... save the file, and close the editor
$ To add all the files from your Raspberry Pi's home directory, edit (or add) the following in your /etc/smb.conf file:
$ sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
#... editor opens file; add/edit the following lines:
[homes]
browseable = yes
read only = no
#... save the file, and close the editor
$ To add all the files from your Raspberry Pi, do this:
$ sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
#... editor opens file; add the following lines:
[root$]
path = /
create mask = 0755
force user = root
browsable = yes
#... save the file, and close the editor
# an extra step is required here to add privileges needed for 'root' access
$ sudo smbpasswd -a root
New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:
Added user root.
$NOTE: Be careful with this one (above); esp editing Linux files in a Windows text editor (i.e. don't do it unless you know what you're doing).
Before the samba server on your RPi can access the USB drive, the drive will have to be mounted (homes and root$ are already mounted) on your RPi. My usual preference is to set up all of my mounts in the file /etc/fstab, so we'll illustrate that here:
First, plug the USB drive into the RPi. Then, from the terminal on the RPi, let's use lsblk to get the information we need to create the appropriate entry in /etc/fstab:
$ lsblk --fs
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
sda
└─sda1 exfat 1.0 SANDISK16GB 5B00-9E5C
mmcblk0
├─mmcblk0p1 vfat FAT32 bootfs DDE5-BCDC 203.1M 20% /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 ext4 1.0 rootfs f877e440-e1dc-41e3-8cc0-62640c857595 48.7G 12% /The USB drive is at sda1. Note the entries for FSTYPE, LABEL, and UUID; i.e. exfat, SANDISK16GB and 5B00-9E5C, respectively. Your USB may be FAT32 aka vfat, ext<X> or some Windows-peculiar filesystem.
Add this USB drive to /etc/fstab, using our nano editor:
$ sudo nano /etc/fstab
#... editor opens file; add the following line:
LABEL=SANDISK16GB /mnt/myusbstick exfat rw,nofail,user 0 0 # note mount point from above
#... save the file, and close the editor
$Next, create the mount point in the Rpi filesystem:
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/myusbstick # from the smb.conf configuration for [usbshare]Next, actually mount the USB drive:
$ sudo mount -aAssuming all that went OK, your USB drive should now be mounted on your RPi, and the Samba server should allow you to access it from any laptop/desktop OS whose OS supports smb/samba - i.e. virtually all mainstream OSs.
In addition if you have chosen to add the 'share's named homes and root$, you will also be able to access /home/pi (or whatever user), and your / (root) file system folder.
Note that the Samba documentation is both wide and deep! However, it's there if you need it.