Computers & Electronics

Building Home File Server

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Mar 17, 2009
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Building Home File Server

So my plan is to build a file server for my house. I'd use it to host pictures and files that I can access from my laptop. Also like to be able to connect it to my HDTV.
I plan on reuse an old computer (intel E5200).
I'd like to know what your suggestions on what OS I should use? Have XP-64bit, 2003 server, Vista, and 7 keys should I use one of those or Linux?
and are there any complementing programs I should be aware of?
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Feb 15, 2008
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If you know Unix, by all means, you'll probably be happier with Linux. For instance, on my system, I actually threw some TV tuner cards into it and run mythtv, in addition to the fileserving stuff, tunnels, virtualization, etc. More recently, I even attached some RTL-SDR dongles to it, and can now monitor weather satellites and aircraft overflights.
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Jun 15, 2009
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Figure out what you want your storage to be like and what your streaming requirements are. Either way it sounds like you want it to act as a NAS and there are a ton of threads on different NAS builds on RFD.
I would recommend running NAS4Free. The OS is completely free. Depending on how many HDDs you have you can then do RAID5.
NAS4Free also comes out of the box with DNLA (most modern TVs support this), DAAP/iTunes Sharing, NFS, FTP, AFP (if you have a Mac) and CIFS/SMB (windows shares) support. It also comes with ZFS which is considered the best choice for software RAID, but has some limitations regarding resizing your RAID volume.
There is also OpenMediaVault as a pretty decent OS choice. Does not support ZFS, but does support all the same basic services as NAS4Free.
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Aug 22, 2006
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If you're proficient in Linux, I'd run Debian.
I wouldn't use any sort of Windows for file sharing for a bunch of reasons.
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Oct 6, 2005
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tallshipjoe wrote: on what OS I should use? Have XP-64bit, 2003 server, Vista, and 7 keys should I use one of those or Linux?
FreeNAS.
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Jan 20, 2013
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Or just buy a good NAS like a Synology.
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I setup an Unraid by lime-tech, and it's wonderful. Works great, but it does take a bit of tinkering. I setup Plex, couchpotatoe, sabnzb and sick beard as addons. Once you have it running, it just works.
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Depends on what your budget is and what you're looking to do. You can certainly go with Synology but it won't be cheap. Likewise, unRaid isn't free either and has its own drawbacks. The biggest one being the complete monopoly of the server and the lack of P+Q redundancy. I have a 19-drive NAS, which doubles as a MythTV box, running SnapRaid and Plex Media Server. Though SnapRaid has basic pooling I don't use it, I prefer greyhole. Plex handles all my Movies, TV Shows, Music and Pictures. Some people prefer Amahi but I just stick with Plex clients.

If you do decide to go with linux and don't need MythTV, checkout Flawless Server. Its based on Linux Mint so Debian essentially. You get the usual suspects: Plex Media Server, ownCloud, SnapRAID and all the NZB stuff. However if you like to manage everything yourself, give elementary OS a try. Throw MythTV, Plex Media Server and SnapRaid on it and let the good times roll.
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Traian2003 wrote: I setup an Unraid by lime-tech, and it's wonderful. Works great, but it does take a bit of tinkering. I setup Plex, couchpotatoe, sabnzb and sick beard as addons. Once you have it running, it just works.
+1 for unraid.
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Aug 22, 2006
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Traian2003 wrote: I setup an Unraid by lime-tech, and it's wonderful. Works great, but it does take a bit of tinkering. I setup Plex, couchpotatoe, sabnzb and sick beard as addons. Once you have it running, it just works.
-1 for me.
I can do anything that unraid can do for free.
And I can do things that they can't do also for free.
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Nov 9, 2008
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An alternative to Unraid is Flexraid. I run it on my Windows Home Server 2011 box, which is on 24/7. Like others, I have Couchpotato and Sickbeard configured, and it is incredible.
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Jan 16, 2007
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For the Linux challenged wanting a basic NAS using old spare PC parts, unRaid basic/free is all that is needed.
As for connecting it directly to a HDTV, unRaid can't do that. You'll need a media player of some sort.

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