Just got an old PC wanting to turn it into a file server

[leglez]

Ok my uncle just gave me an old PC. Only thing I really know so far from looking at it is:

It has an intel celeron CPU
It has/had Windows ME installed on it
There are no PS/2 ports. There are 5 USB ports though...not sure if it is 1.1 or 2.0
It has a CD burner
Floppy drive

He said he tried to format it and it quit working. I tried turning it on just now and it runs scan disk but I can't get the keyboard or mouse to work and can't plug a PS/2 mouse/keyboard in. I am pretty sure that you don't need a very nice PC for a file server. So I am thinking if I install linux, and a couple hdds it could turn out working fairly decent.

So first off what should I do to try to get the keyboard or mouse working? Also what linux distro should I use for this project.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Is it a compaq Evo mcahine by chance? have you tried all the USB ports with just the keyboard plugged in?

You also might try to reset the BIOS in case some setting has bene changed that disabled the USB ports.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

try freenas. i believe its freebsd based, not linux.

 

[leglez]

I just went and checked and tried reseting the bios and the keyboard worked in the bios. It recognized with I plugged the mouse in. But then once Windows ME actually got booted it would recognize either. I forgot to check if it was a compaq. I am downloading freenas right now.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Windows 98/ME may have troubles recognizing USB keyboards without installing drivers (similar to USB flash drives) Try Win2K or WinXP and it should work, or find the Win98/ME drivers for your keyboard/mouse.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

haven't heard of freenas, will have to give it a try.

thanks

 

[leglez]

If I were to install something such as freenas could it possibly get rid of the keyboard mouse problem? Does freenas have usb keyboard drivers installed?

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: leglez
If I were to install something such as freenas could it possibly get rid of the keyboard mouse problem? Does freenas have usb keyboard drivers installed?

freenas can boot from a usb flash drive, so i'm assuming that usb stuff will work with it. check out the forum over at the site. but once you get it running, you can control it entirely thru a web interface.

 

[Muse]

I hope you don't mind a bit of a thread heist (if so, just say so and I'll start another thread):

I have an extra desktop and wonder if it's practical to set it up as a file server. It's Truth in my sig. Reason is I've been running my desktop (Beauty in my sig) some of the time, sometimes my laptop, but don't leave either on most of the time. I have a wireless network in the house.

It would be great to have all my data in one place - email data, database stuff I use constantly. My concern is that I don't want a file server using 80 watts 24/7. Can the fileserver be configured to go into a power saving sleep mode and wake up quickly when a call is made to access the data?

 

[Inspector Jihad]

you can set it up to wake on lan(wol). i dont know how quickly it'll boot up though. i also spent a lot of time considering going the same route as you because i have two computers that just sit there, but it didn't make sense to me because of the power requirement. I would suggest you sell the second computer and buy a simple nas harddrive with teh money.