Got digital pictures and music? Maybe it's time for network attached storage. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. With digital cameras and music players everywhere these days….and multiple PCs in many households….companies that make hard drives see a new market in selling what's called network attached storage to consumers. The idea is to have an external hard drive connected to a home network….where pictures, music, documents and other data can be stored and shared. Ken Higgins, senior director of Maxtor's branded products group, says the company's new shared storage plus solution….adds new capability as well…

"The biggest use for a network today is what, it's for broadband access. Well as people download things like media files to watch videos or they want to download music files or rip CDs, or they want to take a lot of pictures, there's also that need to share those files over a home network. And so this allows you to have kind of a central station in your home and have the ability to view it from any PC. Now the software we upgraded, the MSS Plus software, takes to the next step. And that is it allows you to basically share this on a network if you have one of those DMA devices attached to your TV set or your home stereo."

Maxtor, the number two maker of hard drives, isn't alone. Larger rival Seagate last month acquired Mirra….a company that has pioneered network attached storage devices for consumers.