Win 8 NAS setup

[TheGermanEngie]

Hi LTT -

 

So I have all the pieces to my NAS: the 3x 500GB HDD in RAID 5, a smaller hard drive for the OS, and Gigabit ethernet.

 

I do, however need help on deciding what OS I need. In terms of familiarity I want to do Windows 8 plus it natively supports RAID 5. Though many on the forum suggest a Linux based OS like openmediavault, I don't really know how to set it up... I'm not good at dealing with IP addresses and DNS and all those other terms... it's scary

 

So what should I choose. Windows or something like openmediavault? How easy is it to set up on either?

[aezakmi]

If the hardware supports W8 just install it, you should set up manual IP address for your NAS though, you'll need it.

 

[Windows7ge]

All of it is easy once you learn it. If you're not comfortable exploring with something different you can use a Windows 8 machine as your NAS.

 

You just have to deal with the consequences of:

• It's not optimized for that application so performance may suffer (hardware too)
• Make sure you have a backup of your data. RAID is not a backup. I'd say a windows 8 machine with desktop hardware has a higher probability of failure or data loss.

[TheGermanEngie]

2 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

All of it is easy once you learn it. If you're not comfortable exploring with something different you can use a Windows 8 machine as your NAS.

 

You just have to deal with the consequences of:

• It's not optimized for that application so performance may suffer (hardware too)
• Make sure you have a backup of your data. RAID is not a backup. I'd say a windows 8 machine with desktop hardware has a higher probability of failure or data loss.

Yes, I have an offline backup. I'm using RAID purely for the useage of having my media files available throughout my home network, it's not intended whatsoever for a backup. How would I set up something like a shared folder on a Windows 8 NAS? With user permissions and things of that sort?

[TheGermanEngie]

2 hours ago, aezakmi said:

If the hardware supports W8 just install it, you should set up manual IP address for your NAS though, you'll need it.

 

how would I set up a manual IP address?

[Windows7ge]

19 minutes ago, TheGermanEngie said:

Yes, I have an offline backup. I'm using RAID purely for the useage of having my media files available throughout my home network, it's not intended whatsoever for a backup. How would I set up something like a shared folder on a Windows 8 NAS? With user permissions and things of that sort?

Assuming the array isn't being used as the boot drive you should be able to go to My Computer(This PC) find the drive letter associated with the array then right click it > Properties > Sharing > Advanced Sharing > tick "Share this folder" > Give it a name > Permissions > As the group Everyone allow everything (Full Control = Allow | Change = Allow | Read = Allow) > OK > Apply > Security > Edit... > Add... > Type "Everyone" into the box > OK > Apply > Apply

 

It's been a while since I've used this method to share a volume with a network but this should make it so everybody on the network can add or edit files within the array effectively making it a NAS. A janky NAS but a NAS non the less.

[aezakmi]

27 minutes ago, TheGermanEngie said:

how would I set up a manual IP address?

navigate to control panel > network and sharing center > change adapter settings > right click on the LAN connection and click properties > find IPV4 protocol, select it and hit properties again > click Use the following address and fill the spaces, the local address depends on your router model, some possible addresses are 192.168.1.64, 10.0.0.32, etc - the subnet mask is usually 255.255.255.0 and the gateway is your router address (again, could be 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.0, etc)

you could use your ISP default DNS or set it to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

 

to find your current IP range just go to the adapter, right click and hit status, then details and you can see everything in there.