I need to make a home data storage server. I have never done it but I keep reading about Ubuntu 7.10 and Samba. I have a 4 year old PC that needs the hard drive reformatted since it crashed and would not reformat with a windows DVD. As well as I need to put RAM in it since I scavanged the RAM for the other PC.

So, what do I need to learn, do , etc?

Put Windows XP / Vista / 7 on it and set up a shared folder on the hard drive. Then you just add a network drive link on all your computers. Easy and done. No need for special software, OS, for simple file storage. I just bought a NAS (network attached storage) drive that shares itself over WiFi with no need for a host computer to be running, which is even simpler yet.

But the sky is the limit if you want to geek out when it comes to file servers.

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http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...-RESIZED-1.jpg
1991 300E - 212K and rising fast...

Several things you can do.

• Setup a server Windows/Linux with a couple of big HDs in it and share them out.
• Windows Home server, fairly well rated but you have to buy it bundled with the hardware. Some nice features like auto backup / restore.
• NAS Server, I'm not a fan but they work well.
• Add an external HD to a machine and share it out, go eSATA if you can.

Make sure you backup your data, I still recommend a couple of external HDs, rotate through them. Keeping one off site or at least in a fireproof safe.

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KLK, MCSE

1990 500SL

I was always taught to respect my elders.
I don't have to respect too many people anymore.

Repurposing an old PC is fine, just make sure that you have decent drive controllers and reasonably fast drives for the storage piece. So, while the old PC's may have a sub 50GB IDE boot drive, consider getting a faster drive controller for your storage drive(s) which should be 7200 rpm. On the net side, going gigabit ethernet and wireless N will speed things up as well.

I've been thinking about doing the same thing at my house with a wireless network. Keep us posted on how you approach it!

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1989 300E 144K

well, I should probably just get an external hard drive. This all sounds like its getting expensive.

Externals are low cost, but on the slow side. So if you're just using the drive to park data, you'll be fine, but more disk intensive uses might slow things up. Externals typically come with data backup software or "one button backup" systems, since they are truly meant to be data storage.

Yeah, I just want to move the 30 gigs of photos off my laptop.

But, being an info tech student I figured I should probably learn how to setup my own data storage server and learn linux in the process.

which means need to get the gigabit. It will plugged into the router via ethranet, no need for a wireless card for it.

It's a Compaq Presario SR1303WM if I recall correctly

I use Puppy Linux on all my home systems with the exception of the wife's laptop. 2 old systems with K7 AMD's, an old KDS laptop using an Intel PIII CPU at 600 MHZ and my workhorse Dell Inspiron laptop (its got all my shop diagnostic software and manuals on it). I use 4.2 on the laptops and my main system and 5.0 on the guest bedroom system. Wonderful, stable operating system and it's TINY! My main system is running on an old 8 gig hard drive and I've used an old 4 gig on another system I was running.

The web browsers seem to be on the light side (not as fully integrated as with MS) but I'd never go back.

Interesting. I just need to somehow reformat the hard drive the tower has then I can slap in a 1TB drive for storage. Or should I consider making it a media server so I can access the content on it and stream from it?

if your going the server route, then be as flexible as possible, if you do alot of media sharing between a few computers then it'd be wise to set that up, my server here is just a network dump, send seldom accessed files there until needed. old web projects, etc

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

I have a Mac mini with about 6TB of shared external drives connected. It holds all my media and it's backups as well as backups for all the other computers and a bunch of archived files; simple and cheap.

I think ubuntu is a good place to start with Linux as it is so user friendly. You will have no troubles installing it - click click click - done. None of this waiting for Windows rubbish... you should be finished in about 30 minutes.

I think you'll be able to make a decent set up on your old PC for the cost of a blank CD. (Or if you are really strapped for cash you could borrow a large USB stick and boot the live CD from there - or even do an internet install - oh my God you windows users haven't a clue what can actually be done with a computer!)

Once you've got Ubuntu installed I then recommend you start messing about with different Linux distributions by installing them in virtual machines.

Learn the difference between Debian and Red hat based distributions.

Good luck

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

If you're just using it for storage (it's only on when you want to transfer data) then you'll be fine w/ any linux distro. If you want a media server then it's probably best to get a router that supports hardware shares and stick a 1TB drive into a USB dock unless you're OK w/ the ~$35+/year in extra electricity consumption associated with using an old computer as an always on server.

Agree about faster drives if this is more than a data dump.
Interesting though I did some testing and my WD MyBook USBs out perfromed most of my older internal IDEs.
Sata though really shined, you can pickup an PCI SATA card with external ports, of if you MB has SATA and you have a spare port or two the external enclosures I got are eSata and included a external slot and cable. This allowed you to connect to an internal SATA port and route it to a rear slot. Nice feature.

__________________
KLK, MCSE

1990 500SL

I was always taught to respect my elders.
I don't have to respect too many people anymore.