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Old laptop NAS

RedWulf
By RedWulf
in Servers, NAS, and Home Lab
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Couple questions about freeNAS

I have an old Toshiba satellite, 2.3ghz| 2gb ram| 250gb hdd 

http://www.cnet.com/products/toshiba-satellite-c655-s5123-15-6-celeron-925-win-7-home-premium-64-bit-2-gb-ram-250-gb-hdd-us/specs/

Its had a cracked screen for awhile, and recently my amazing relatives ruined the keyboard and track pad via Dr pepper. 

I was thinking about just putting FreeNAS on it, adding a 500gb external hdd, and hooking it to my switch. Mostly just for holding my movies, music, and ISOs. 

Is 2gb enough memory for FreeNAS? it recommends 8gb but I'm thinking thats for multiple TB of data. FreeNAS vs NAS4Free? I've heard that FreeNAS also blocks you from storing data on the OS disk, could I run the OS from a 8gb sd or partition the internal disk? 

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[i7-7700k@5Ghz | MSI Z270 M7 | 16GB 3000 GEIL EVOX | STRIX ROG 1060 OC 6G | EVGA G2 650W | ROSEWILL B2 SPIRIT | SANDISK 256GB M2 | 4x 1TB Seagate Barracudas RAID 10 ]

[i3-4360 | mini-itx potato | 4gb DDR3-1600 | 8tb wd red | 250gb seagate| Debian 9 ]

[Dell Inspiron 15 5567] 

 

 

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I wouldn't recommend using freeNAS or another ZFS-based OS for putting your old pc/laptop into a NAS. I' ve had good experience with OpenMediaVault and Xpenology.

You can install the OS on a USB-Stick so you don't have to waste HDD space. I don't know if it also works with SD cards.

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NAS4Free doesn't even NEED an OS disc.  You can have it install to a 2GB USB key and it'll happily run off that (Assuming your laptop supports boot from USB)  I've literally built NAS4Free boxes for a small VFX company where Kinsgton USB keys were the OS media while all SATA ports and drive bays were free for the storage drives.


You could totally install NAS4Free to a USB key,  then use the internal drive and any number of USB drives to build a ZFS array.  Your only problem will be if you only have USB2, that'll be slower than gigabit, so if you have any high bandwidth demands then you'll hit a wall.  If you're just using it for TV shows and movies, that'll probably be okay.

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30 minutes ago, spion319 said:

I wouldn't recommend using freeNAS or another ZFS-based OS for putting your old pc/laptop into a NAS. I' ve had good experience with OpenMediaVault and Xpenology..

For system limitation purposes or just for intended uses?

29 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

You could totally install NAS4Free to a USB key,  then use the internal drive and any number of USB drives to build a ZFS array.  Your only problem will be if you only have USB2, that'll be slower than gigabit, so if you have any high bandwidth demands then you'll hit a wall.  If you're just using it for TV shows and movies, that'll probably be okay.

I'm mostly just going to use it to store larger files until needed, but I'm hoping to stream movies to my Pi.

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thanks! 

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                   _/ V\
                  / /  /
                <<    |
                ,/    ]
              ,/      ]
            ,/        |
           /    \  \ /
          /      | | |
    ______|   __/_/| |
   /_______\______}\__}
Spoiler

[i7-7700k@5Ghz | MSI Z270 M7 | 16GB 3000 GEIL EVOX | STRIX ROG 1060 OC 6G | EVGA G2 650W | ROSEWILL B2 SPIRIT | SANDISK 256GB M2 | 4x 1TB Seagate Barracudas RAID 10 ]

[i3-4360 | mini-itx potato | 4gb DDR3-1600 | 8tb wd red | 250gb seagate| Debian 9 ]

[Dell Inspiron 15 5567] 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, RedWulf said:

For system limitation purposes or just for intended uses?

I'm mostly just going to use it to store larger files until needed, but I'm hoping to stream movies to my Pi.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

thanks!

It would be ugly and a spiders web of external HDD USB wires and power cables, but there's no reason it wouldn't technically work for that purpose.

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1 minute ago, AshleyAshes said:

It would be ugly and a spiders web of external HDD USB wires and power cables, but there's no reason it wouldn't technically work for that purpose.

Well It's going on a shelf that I use for my slaves/gophers, so looks are the last concerns, beyond that I do fairly well with cable management.  

                     .
                   _/ V\
                  / /  /
                <<    |
                ,/    ]
              ,/      ]
            ,/        |
           /    \  \ /
          /      | | |
    ______|   __/_/| |
   /_______\______}\__}
Spoiler

[i7-7700k@5Ghz | MSI Z270 M7 | 16GB 3000 GEIL EVOX | STRIX ROG 1060 OC 6G | EVGA G2 650W | ROSEWILL B2 SPIRIT | SANDISK 256GB M2 | 4x 1TB Seagate Barracudas RAID 10 ]

[i3-4360 | mini-itx potato | 4gb DDR3-1600 | 8tb wd red | 250gb seagate| Debian 9 ]

[Dell Inspiron 15 5567] 

 

 

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Just as a follow up, I gave freenas a try just because I already had the bootable drive. Over wifi it took right at 3 minutes to copy a gb from the external hdd. Not crazy about that, but it's better than nothing.  

                     .
                   _/ V\
                  / /  /
                <<    |
                ,/    ]
              ,/      ]
            ,/        |
           /    \  \ /
          /      | | |
    ______|   __/_/| |
   /_______\______}\__}
Spoiler

[i7-7700k@5Ghz | MSI Z270 M7 | 16GB 3000 GEIL EVOX | STRIX ROG 1060 OC 6G | EVGA G2 650W | ROSEWILL B2 SPIRIT | SANDISK 256GB M2 | 4x 1TB Seagate Barracudas RAID 10 ]

[i3-4360 | mini-itx potato | 4gb DDR3-1600 | 8tb wd red | 250gb seagate| Debian 9 ]

[Dell Inspiron 15 5567] 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, RedWulf said:

Just as a follow up, I gave freenas a try just because I already had the bootable drive. Over wifi it took right at 3 minutes to copy a gb from the external hdd. Not crazy about that, but it's better than nothing. 

With a 2.4ghz 802.11N connection being that things BEST possible connection, that's kinda the speed you should expect. o.O

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1 minute ago, AshleyAshes said:

With a 2.4ghz 802.11N connection being that things BEST possible connection, that's kinda the speed you should expect. o.O

true, not sure what I expected (blonde). 5hz btw, too much interference on the lower frequency  

                     .
                   _/ V\
                  / /  /
                <<    |
                ,/    ]
              ,/      ]
            ,/        |
           /    \  \ /
          /      | | |
    ______|   __/_/| |
   /_______\______}\__}
Spoiler

[i7-7700k@5Ghz | MSI Z270 M7 | 16GB 3000 GEIL EVOX | STRIX ROG 1060 OC 6G | EVGA G2 650W | ROSEWILL B2 SPIRIT | SANDISK 256GB M2 | 4x 1TB Seagate Barracudas RAID 10 ]

[i3-4360 | mini-itx potato | 4gb DDR3-1600 | 8tb wd red | 250gb seagate| Debian 9 ]

[Dell Inspiron 15 5567] 

 

 

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Just now, RedWulf said:

true, not sure what I expected (blonde). 5hz btw, too much interference on the lower frequency 

I tried Googling the best I could and could only find that the adaptor with that model of laptop was 2.4ghz only, but the info I could have been incorrect.

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14 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

I tried Googling the best I could and could only find that the adaptor with that model of laptop was 2.4ghz only, but the info I could have been incorrect.

The Toshiba is connected to my switch via ethernet, the computer I copied to is the one on wifi.  

                     .
                   _/ V\
                  / /  /
                <<    |
                ,/    ]
              ,/      ]
            ,/        |
           /    \  \ /
          /      | | |
    ______|   __/_/| |
   /_______\______}\__}
Spoiler

[i7-7700k@5Ghz | MSI Z270 M7 | 16GB 3000 GEIL EVOX | STRIX ROG 1060 OC 6G | EVGA G2 650W | ROSEWILL B2 SPIRIT | SANDISK 256GB M2 | 4x 1TB Seagate Barracudas RAID 10 ]

[i3-4360 | mini-itx potato | 4gb DDR3-1600 | 8tb wd red | 250gb seagate| Debian 9 ]

[Dell Inspiron 15 5567] 

 

 

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