NAS from Old PC

[RyeIII]

I have an old PC lying around, Im planning to make a NAS. can someone give me instructions on how to make this possible.thanks

[Electronics Wizardy]

System specs?

 

Just install a os like freenas or open media valt and boom its a nas.

[ChalkChalkson]

Ok, so:

1. collect all HDDs in your house that aren't essential
2. connect them all to the old PC
3. make an unraid bootdrive USB stick
4. plug the USB drive in and boot from it
5. select the largest drive as parity and all others for the array
6. if you have an SSD mount it as the buffer drive (don't know how unraid calls it from the top of my head, but it should be the 3rd block)
7. create a few shares (like Movies, Ryelll's Data etc.) and select SMB export
8. click the format all button
9. mount the array (this is a button on the bottom too)
10. enjoy

[RyeIII]

8 minutes ago, ChalkChalkson said:

Ok, so:

1. collect all HDDs in your house that aren't essential
2. connect them all to the old PC
3. make an unraid bootdrive USB stick
4. plug the USB drive in and boot from it
5. select the largest drive as parity and all others for the array
6. if you have an SSD mount it as the buffer drive (don't know how unraid calls it from the top of my head, but it should be the 3rd block)
7. create a few shares (like Movies, Ryelll's Data etc.) and select SMB export
8. click the format all button
9. mount the array (this is a button on the bottom too)
10. enjoy

thank you

[RyeIII]

11 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

System specs?

 

Just install a os like freenas or open media valt and boom its a nas.

intel dual core

2gb ram

its an old acer pre-built ssytem

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, RyeIII said:

intel dual core

2gb ram

its an old acer pre-built ssytem

what hdds does it have?

[RyeIII]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

what hdds does it have?

i have 3 500gb drives

[Electronics Wizardy]

7 minutes ago, RyeIII said:

i have 3 500gb drives

id chuck freenas on it then.

[ChalkChalkson]

28 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

id chuck freenas on it then.

freenas is great, but for someone getting started in the world of servers, it might not be the easiest options

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, ChalkChalkson said:

freenas is great, but for someone getting started in the world of servers, it might not be the easiest options

What do you suggest then? Freenas is failry easy to use.

[ChalkChalkson]

13 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What do you suggest then? Freenas is failry easy to use.

I'd either go with unraid or (often overlooked) plain windows (pro). You can easily open your folders to the home network (i think it even gives you a popup) and you can remote into it if you spend the few extra bucks for a pro version. 

Unraid is also a paid solution, but it is really easy to use and is well supported

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, ChalkChalkson said:

I'd either go with unraid or (often overlooked) plain windows (pro). You can easily open your folders to the home network (i think it even gives you a popup) and you can remote into it if you spend the few extra bucks for a pro version. 

Unraid is also a paid solution, but it is really easy to use and is well supported

but neither unraid or windows has a good parity raid solution build in with checksumming and other feautures. 

 

Unraid isn't any easier to use

 

Id save the 100 bucks and just run freenas(or something else like open media vault)

[ChalkChalkson]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

but neither unraid or windows has a good parity raid solution build in with checksumming and other feautures. 

 

Unraid isn't any easier to use

 

Id save the 100 bucks and just run freenas(or something else like open media vault)

the whole thing about unraid is that it is not a raid, but a parity system. A dual parity unraid setup is not equivalent to raid 6 since you can read the files from any of the main drives individually. 

Windows has classic software raid but the performance is pretty good. 

As I said FreeNAS is good, no questions, but I really think the start with unraid is easier and I also assume that OP has eperience with windows allowing him to experiment more easily

[grimreeper132]

3 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

System specs?

 

Just install a os like freenas or open media valt and boom its a nas.

I prefer xpenology/synology far easier to use