Making a home server/NAS

Pugsicle · January 4, 2016

I didn't know where to post this so I posted it here in hopes that it would at least be semi-relevant. I have an old computer that I do not use anymore and I want to use it for a home server/NAS but I have no idea how to go about making one. I have looked up how to make one I did not find anything that was super useful. Also once make it how would I put everything I want on it and transfer things back and forth between it and wherever I am transferring to?

79wjd · January 4, 2016

Pick an operating system, I chose FreeNAS (although I also didn't try the alternatives). You throw it on a USB stick and use that as your boot device and then just add drives to use as storage and the you can import data onto the storage you've added if you already have the data somewhere. And then you would create a share (an access point to the drive that's seen over the network) that you can access over your network via the local IP address (which you can assign statically from within your router).

With that said, if it's a really old computer (pre core i series), it's going to be cheaper in the long run to buy a new system as the lower idle power draw of new hardware compared to older hardware can make a big difference depending on what specific hardware is in your old system.

Belgarathian · January 4, 2016

I have used FreeNAS, it's easy for basic shares and such. Probably worth checking out UnRaid that Linus uses... I haven't used it yet, but it looks good (and simple).

Pugsicle · January 4, 2016

Pick an operating system, I chose FreeNAS (although I also didn't try the alternatives). You throw it on a USB stick and use that as your boot device and then just add drives to use as storage and the you can import data onto the storage you've added if you already have the data somewhere. And then you would create a share (an access point to the drive that's seen over the network) that you can access over your network via the local IP address (which you can assign statically from within your router).

With that said, if it's a really old computer (pre core i series), it's going to be cheaper in the long run to buy a new system as the lower idle power draw of new hardware compared to older hardware can make a big difference depending on what specific hardware is in your old system.

How would I create a share point?