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Setting up a file server

B

brkick2005

Junior Member
I didn't know where this should go.... as it falls under a number of things such as software, storage and networking.

A little background info:

I have a 750GB Western Digital mybook. It started life as a 500GB Western Digital mybook and i have since replaced the WD 500GB HDD with a 750GB Seagate HDD because I landed a sucker punch on that thing that shook tokyo. Actually I smacked it across the room on accident (yes really it was an accident). I plugged the drive back in to find that it no longer would work. It would start to spin up and shortly after it would go "TICK TICK TICK TICK" loudy... which means I trashed the drive.

So I cut my losses (around 300GB worth of personal data, torrent stuff, music, movies, family photos, backups). I ordered a 750GB sata and reacquired almost everything I lost through one mean or another.

About a week ago I was transferring some of the downloads on my XPS laptop over to the mybook and I accidently knocked it off the table. I think it was unplugged though. However when I go to plug it back in the drive came up as "uninitalized" although it spun up fine and didn't make TICK TICK noises.

After trying nearly everything I stumbled upon a post to try a MBR recovery prorgram. IT WORKED!!! I had saved myself from loosing 350+ GB worth of data!!!

I vowed after that I would build a home file server... I had no need for the portability and this was almost the second time I got burned. I have files on here that I can't get back. For example a complete laptop backup for someone that paid me to fix their laptop. Well now they need it fixed again and I almost lost their backup. They didn't pay me to or ask me to but they were very happy to find I had kept the backup data. I tell everyone I do repair work for that its a prevention method and it actually makes me a good bit of money in tips.

So now I need to build this home file server. I will be reusing my old rig.

It has an AMD Opteron 165 at 1.8ghz, 2 GB of DDR memory, dedicated graphics, 500W PSU and should be great for a file server... plenty fast.

I plan on taking the 750GB drive out of this mybook and putting it in the file server. This drive will not be an OS drive... just a data drive. I have a 320GB drive already in the machine that I will use for an OS drive.

I can install windows XP or windows 7 on this machine. Now here are my factors for choosing the OS:

I want this to be as easy as possible to implement with at least 2 of the computers I have already at home. One runs windows 7 and one runs windows vista. In the future I will be building another machine which will run on windows 7.

I have a wireless router. I want any machine connected to that router (via ethernet or wireless) to be able to access the file server's hard drives (not OS, just stores drives).

If possible I would like to be able to have access from computers running windows XP, windows vista and windows 7. (although vista and win7 are my main concern).

Also I would like the ability to restrict the access to the file server. Meaning I want anyone who can get on the network to be able to "see" the file server but not necessarily be able to get on the file server.
This is entirely optional but I would like it if it is possible to do this.

To recap and sumarize:

I want to build a file server out of an old machine (still fast for "old").

It will be accessed via my wireless router, either by ethernet or wireless

I can use any windows os but would prefer either XP or windows 7

The file server should be able to be accessed by machines running XP, Vista and Win7.

I would like to not use any software I have to pay for.

I would like the ability to be able to easily add new storage disks to the file server machine at a later date.

This machine preferable will be "headless" (no monitor). How can I manage it from another machine (most likely my XPS running win7).

Would like the ability to restrict control to the file server. Sorta like user accounts or along that line.
 
You don't necessarily need a file server. What you do need is a second disk where you make backups of anything important.
 
I know I don't "need" the file server... but it will be safer then using portable drives (which I've almost destroyed twice now) and it will be easier for backing up data. I have two or three computers in the house that have the need for this and it saves time from shuttling around the mybook.
 
If I am reading that correctly, you only have a single 750gb drive for storage. You still have a single point of failure in the drive. The admin of a box is a pain, I speak from experience (I have, and have tried tons of different file servers). You may want to investigate a cheap NAS that supports auto-expansion like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822122010

that one will do everything you ask (I have 2 of them currently, and I have 2 other file servers). You can add more disks later and get increased redundancy and space. you can add 3 more 750 gb drives over time and you will end up with a little over 2 tb of space at the end. Then you can swap to bigger ones (like 2 TB drives) and get even more space.

No matter what you do though, a file server/NAS does not replace backups.
 
You could also go the Windows Home Server route. You'd just have to purchase the OS if you already have the system. It works wonderfully.
 
Evadman said:
If I am reading that correctly, you only have a single 750gb drive for storage. You still have a single point of failure in the drive. The admin of a box is a pain, I speak from experience (I have, and have tried tons of different file servers). You may want to investigate a cheap NAS that supports auto-expansion like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822122010

that one will do everything you ask (I have 2 of them currently, and I have 2 other file servers). You can add more disks later and get increased redundancy and space. you can add 3 more 750 gb drives over time and you will end up with a little over 2 tb of space at the end. Then you can swap to bigger ones (like 2 TB drives) and get even more space.

No matter what you do though, a file server/NAS does not replace backups.
Click to expand...

I agree that it doesn't replace a backup but what it would prevent is me beating up (on accident) the mybook again in the future and possibly losing everything that way.

While the product you linked is exactly what I need... I'm in my 3rd year of a Computer Science Major / Math minor degrees at the university of Pittsburgh. Which means I'm broker then hell.

What I'm thinking about doing is just going installing windows xp on the machine, making the 750 GB drive a "network" drive (or using the windows home server software) and going from there. I can't afford $400 but you do bring up a great point. I will be picking up a 2TB drive for archival purposes.

Geofram said:
You could also go the Windows Home Server route. You'd just have to purchase the OS if you already have the system. It works wonderfully.
Click to expand...

I'll look into this. Thanks!
 
WHS does have good data storage capabilities. You do not need to use RAID or anything of that nature to get redundancy. Just put a missmash of any size drives into the machine, WHS automatically adds the drives to the storage volume. If you want a folder to be redundant, mark it as such and WHS automatically redundifies it accross a separate PHYSICAL disk, and removes that total amount of space from the total available space on the "volume". Its all seamless and all done in the background. Ive never used it but have researched it because i was going to implement it here, but couldnt justify the cost for my own uses.

I currently have an old rig for a file server, AMD THunderbird 850MHz with 768MB RAM, 10GB OS drive and separate 160GB storage drive. I need file storage but my needs are light, i dont store movies or massive amounts of music. I still have about 50 GB of space free on that server and its been in service since 2003. I still have a single point of failure, but im working on a USB MyBook to do full backups once a week (i had a 200GB drive at one time but it died some time ago while the server still goes strong, go figure).
 
I run a Debian fileserver with one hard drive. I also have a USB drive and I Rsync to it once a week or so... nothing is really that important on it though.
 
VinylxScratches said:
I run a Debian fileserver with one hard drive. I also have a USB drive and I Rsync to it once a week or so... nothing is really that important on it though.
Click to expand...

I am looking to eventually upscale my server to something a little newer. Maybe half as old or so, and then repurpose the AMD 850MHz to like a CentOS box or something.
 
I have an Athlon XP 3200+ running my ubuntu fileserver. A computer science major has a good chance of learning enough linux to set up something simple with relatively little effort. Me, my poor addled brain needed help from friends but its been rock-solid for my low-powered use.
 
Also look into Linux MD raid, it's quite robust and very easy to configure. It's built into Fedora and CentOS, and I would imagine many other distros. Lookup mdadm.
 
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