Building NAS help

[Kyonkanno]

Hello guys, I'm planning to build a NAS for home use, I don't need anything crazy, just a file server to hold my photos and videos in a safe way. Only 3 persons will be having frequent access to the files. I'm thinking like 3x2TB drives.

 

So I have an old Netbook lying around (HP Mini 210 Intel Atom 450) that I want to turn into a NAS. I've already figured out a way to connect 4 drives into it, I'll just pull out the wifi card, slap a miniPcie to sata adapter (2 ports), another adapter to the mSata port and the built in sata port gives me a total of 4 sata connectors. SO the only thing that I'm still having trouble with is what filesystem to use? I know ZFS is out of the question since I can only have 2 GB max of ram (1 GB currently). But I still want to have some parity in order to keep things a little "safer". I was thinking that maybe RAID 5, but then the flaw thing with drives failing to recover information and killing the whole pool in the process.

 

What can you guys recommend to set it up with?

 

 

[scottyseng]

Hello guys, I'm planning to build a NAS for home use, I don't need anything crazy, just a file server to hold my photos and videos in a safe way. Only 3 persons will be having frequent access to the files. I'm thinking like 3x2TB drives.

 

So I have an old Netbook lying around (HP Mini 210 Intel Atom 450) that I want to turn into a NAS. I've already figured out a way to connect 4 drives into it, I'll just pull out the wifi card, slap a miniPcie to sata adapter (2 ports), another adapter to the mSata port and the built in sata port gives me a total of 4 sata connectors. SO the only thing that I'm still having trouble with is what filesystem to use? I know ZFS is out of the question since I can only have 2 GB max of ram (1 GB currently). But I still want to have some parity in order to keep things a little "safer". I was thinking that maybe RAID 5, but then the flaw thing with drives failing to recover information and killing the whole pool in the process.

 

What can you guys recommend to set it up with?

 

Ah, I think Intel RAID performance wouldn't be too great in a laptop with that CPU. You might look at FlexRAID, Drive pool, or unRAID. Does the netbook have Windows on it?

 

I would be very careful and make sure the drives won't be bumped or knocked over. All it takes is one careful misstep with all of the cables sticking out of that laptop to send all three drives crashing into the ground...

[Kyonkanno]

thanks for the reply, I'll check what you just mentioned.

 

And regarding the drives, they will be safely screwed to a multi HDD enclousure with some good ventilation on them. I will run the sata cables to the netbook that will be secured somewhere around the enclousure.

[Kyonkanno]

oh and the laptop doesn't have windows on it. I will be using NAS4Free

[Vitalius]

Hello guys, I'm planning to build a NAS for home use, I don't need anything crazy, just a file server to hold my photos and videos in a safe way. Only 3 persons will be having frequent access to the files. I'm thinking like 3x2TB drives.

 

So I have an old Netbook lying around (HP Mini 210 Intel Atom 450) that I want to turn into a NAS. I've already figured out a way to connect 4 drives into it, I'll just pull out the wifi card, slap a miniPcie to sata adapter (2 ports), another adapter to the mSata port and the built in sata port gives me a total of 4 sata connectors. SO the only thing that I'm still having trouble with is what filesystem to use? I know ZFS is out of the question since I can only have 2 GB max of ram (1 GB currently). But I still want to have some parity in order to keep things a little "safer". I was thinking that maybe RAID 5, but then the flaw thing with drives failing to recover information and killing the whole pool in the process.

 

What can you guys recommend to set it up with?

 

To avoid the issue with RAID 5, get WD Red drives or Seagate NAS specific drives. They have a TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) set to less than usual RAID drive drop-out time, so they are fine to use with Parity Raid (RAID 5, 6, & 7). They also are rated at less UREs (Unrecoverable Read Errors) than the typical drive. 

If a URE does happen with a drive that has TLER, the drive will give up on that bit in less than the time it'd take for the drive to be considered "dropped" from the RAID. So you will have 1 corrupt file at worst vs a lost RAID array.

Plus, those are only 2TB. Again, less likely to have a URE to begin with. And only 3 of them.

As @scottyseng mentioned, unRAID, and FlexRAID are good choices. I haven't heard of Drive Pool before and know nothing about it.

I recommend disassembling the entire laptop then reassembling it outside of the chassis. Get some plywood and screw two sections together at a right angle (angle brackets for reinforcement). Screw the motherboard & such to the plywood and maybe cut a hole for ventilation. Add mounting screws for drives & such. 

Sounds like a lot of work but could probably be knocked out in 10-15 minutes if you go buy everything you need (plywood, screws+brackets, and have or buy a saw for the hole) and Just Do It.

The purpose of doing that? Better ventilation, Stability (as in, HDDs not hanging from a laptop chassis) for the system, and access to things if you need to tweak/replace something.

 

oh and the laptop doesn't have windows on it. I will be using NAS4Free

Another option is Amahi (just sayin)

[scottyseng]

oh and the laptop doesn't have windows on it. I will be using NAS4Free

 

Yeah, I would also second getting Reds or other RAID ready drives, even if you're using ZFS based systems (FreeNAS / NAS4Free). My experience is more with hardware RAID. I just recommended what I see people on the forums recommending for software RAID within Windows.

 

Yeah, make sure that enclosure is secured to that table or desk...My aunt's killed numerous external drives by accidently shifting her laptop and sending the external drive to its death when it hit the floor.

 

Hmm, if you can disassemble the laptop and assemble it on a open air piece of wood as mentioned above, it's worth it.

 

Or if you want to keep it in the case, I would try to get to the CPU socket / heatsink and replace the crappy stock thermal paste and sand the cpu heatsink surface to make it smoother. I dropped the temps on my Acer laptop by 15C by cleaning up the OEM crappy thermal paste job (Man, they plastered the CPU thermal paste).

[Kyonkanno]

well I'm not dead set on using NAS4free, it was the only option I knew about. I'll look more into the alternatives you mention here.

 

I was also thinking about disassembling the laptop but was thinking that maybe I just strap it inside an old computer case with the drive inside there, without all the dissasembly process. I'll see if it works out, and if it fails, I'll have to dissasemble and just use the motherboard.

 

On the other hand, Never thought about the thermal paste, I'll definitely do it.

[Vitalius]

You can use FreeNAS as long as you set it to use UFS instead of ZFS. 

If you strap it into a PC case, what will you use for a video out? Cut a section out of the side panel and mount the laptop monitor? That'd be cool, but just realize that if the motherboard of the laptop doesn't have a VGA or HDMI connector, you won't have a way to output video from the server.

[braneopbru]

Don't do it. 

 

You're cooking up a recipe for complete data destruction. Building a NAS is not something you do with a bunch of hacked together parts you have laying around. 

 

Spend the money and buy a prebuilt solution from Synology, Qnap or WD. Or spend the money and buy the proper hardware to do it right.

 

If you go ahead with that hacked together pile of parts, you WILL be back here eventually asking for help to try and recover your data.