Re-used old PC hardware for home NAS/server

[william444555]

I want to make a windows based server, for plex media and a NAS style storage system for family photos.

 

I take apart old, free, computers from my dads work, and a few other places, the computers I get are usually old workstation style computers. I recycle the broken hardware, sell the components I don't need and keep the highest end stuff I get.

 

I have a machine with:

AMD Athlon X2 260

Nvidia GT 240

4GB RAM

 

Storage:

Samsung 850 pro 128gb ssd

WD Blue 3tb

WD Blue 1tb

2x Seagate Barracuda laptop 1tb (Basically brand new)

Seagate Desktop 1tb

WD Blue 250gb

Samsung 160gb

Seagate barracuda 80gb

WD Caviar 40gb

2x Maxtor 80gb (IDE)

Maxtor 40gb(IDE)

 

 

Ideally what I want to do is use up all of these drives in some form of RAID system as the lower capacity drives are obviously worn quite a bit and are on their last legs.

I would like some of the SSD to be used as a chase sort of system too, for quick transfer of smaller files, if at all possible.

I would also prefer not to buy any additional hardware, I just want to mess around with NAS/server style systems before I spend a lot of money on a better system (All drives equal capacity and dedicated hardware). But in the meantime I would like to discover some of the NAS options I have.

 

 

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

[jaslion]

6 minutes ago, william444555 said:

I want to make a windows based server, for plex media and a NAS style storage system for family photos.

 

I take apart old, free, computers from my dads work, and a few other places, the computers I get are usually old workstation style computers. I recycle the broken hardware, sell the components I don't need and keep the highest end stuff I get.

 

I have a machine with:

AMD Athlon X2 260

Nvidia GT 240

4GB RAM

 

Storage:

Samsung 850 pro 128gb ssd

WD Blue 3tb

WD Blue 1tb

2x Seagate Barracuda laptop 1tb (Basically brand new)

Seagate Desktop 1tb

WD Blue 250gb

Samsung 160gb

Seagate barracuda 80gb

WD Caviar 40gb

Maxtor 80gb (IDE)

Maxtor 40gb(IDE)

 

 

Ideally what I want to do is use up all of these drives in some form of RAID system as the lower capacity drives are obviously worn quite a bit and are on their last legs.

I would like some of the SSD to be used as a chase sort of system too, for quick transfer of smaller files, if at all possible.

I would also prefer not to buy any additional hardware, I just want to mess around with NAS/server style systems before I spend a lot of money on a better system (All drives equal capacity and dedicated hardware). But in the meantime I would like to discover some of the NAS options I have.

 

 

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

1. Don't even think about putting already close to dead drives in a raid

2. Raid is not a backup

3. Raid works best with same size and spec drives/ only works depending on how difficult it's being

4. DONT DO RAID

5. Get yourself 2 big drives and one mirrors to the other and use a random ssd for boot

6. ALWAYS have THREE backups of your data (so original, backup to server, backup to second drive THAT IS NOT IN RAID 1, backup to cloud).

7. Have 8gb of ram

 

[william444555]

3 minutes ago, jaslion said:

1. Don't even think about putting already close to dead drives in a raid

2. Raid is not a backup

3. Raid works best with same size and spec drives/ only works depending on how difficult it's being

4. DONT DO RAID

5. Get yourself 2 big drives and one mirrors to the other and use a random ssd for boot

6. ALWAYS have THREE backups of your data (so original, backup to server, backup to second drive THAT IS NOT IN RAID 1, backup to cloud).

7. Have 8gb of ram

 

I am not looking at putting serious data on this, I want to get my head around the software and understand it. If the hard drives break then I couldn't care less.

 

I would prefer to RAID two almost dead drives with useless data on, with little knowledge of the system than two expensive drives, without knowing what I am doing

 

I know that to have a solid backup system I will need to spend money on dedicated good hardware, this is just something I can do to gain experience 

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, william444555 said:

I am not looking at putting serious data on this, I want to get my head around the software and understand it. If the hard drives break then I couldn't care less.

 

I would prefer to RAID two almost dead drives with useless data on, with little knowledge of the system than two expensive drives, without knowing what I am doing

 

I know that to have a solid backup system I will need to spend money on dedicated good hardware, this is just something I can do to gain experience 

Well then still instead of raid I'd grab your 2 biggest drives and let one copy itself onto the next without raid. As raid is adding more point of failure when it's not needed at all. Say use the 1tb drive as network storage and let it copy itself to the 3tb drive but with file history of lets say 10 changes a file. This way you can recover from accidental saves or edits easily as an older version of the file will be available. I use goodsync for that but there are plenty alternatives out there and the only reason I use that one is because I got it years ago for free and it does what it has to do well enough.

[IAmDarthMole]

I’m also very interested in this topic. Was actually going to post a nearly identical request. I’m repurposing my old machines and turning one into a file share and also maybe a plesk server. I have several HHD’s of varying storage size (3tb, 1tb x4, 500gb x3) and two are higher rpm then the others. I’m trying to figure out the best way to setup the HHDs. Thank you to the original poster and the replies!

[DogKnight]

 

For starters, I would ignore all the drives less than 1TB, especially the IDE ones. Just not worth it. You would also need a very big case and decent power supply to keep 12 drives running. 

 

Really, with such old hardware, you will get pretty lousy performance, especially if you are looking for some sort of Windows based setup. It may work a bit better if you go with a less power hungry OS. 

 

If it's an option, have a look at a the Synology site and find a model within your budget. Even the most basic model will give you similar or better performance for most tasks. 

Plex would be the most intensive process if you need the server to perform encoding. https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/series/home

[Nick7]

1st: ditch any disk below 1TB size

Now you have something to work with. However, Windows ain't as flexible as Linux, or other *NIX systems.

With 4x1TB drives, you van make RAID5. Even though they are not same size, same RPM, they will work fine for home-use.

However, I do see one possible issue, and that are 1TB Seagate laptop drives - it's highly possible they are SMR drives, which are unsuitable for RAID, especially in ZFS. Do check that.

Last, 3Tb drive - use it as 2nd copy (backup) of RAID5 (of 4 drives).

[Salacious B Crum]

Ha with that list of mix match drives build an unraid server