How to make a picture and mp3 server from spare parts?

[LaRue Medlin]

Just a simple non ST question. I have 4 -- 320gig hd's laying around and an old compaq with no drives in it. What I would like to do is load this older compuke up with the hd's and copy all my 40,000+ pictures and 10,000+ mp3's, itunes, etc on it. Hook it into my home network and use it as a file server? How would I do this and could I use it this way to stream video and music? I kinda know what I'm asking, just hope I am asking the correct question. Any help would be great. Thanks:unsure:

 

[Rich Lacilla]

Your old Compaq should be able to handle 4 IDE drives. Assuming all of the 320gb drives are IDE, it shouldn't be a problem. First you'll need to load the operating system onto the primary IDE drive

if it doesn't have one already. Then you'll need to make sure all of the drivers for any other hardware devices are loaded and properly configured. Now most older computers have only 2 IDE channels, each of which will handle a master and a slave drive (or you can use the cable select option). The jumpers on the hard drives must be set properly. There will be no room for a cdrom drive, so you must make sure the system is up and running properly before disconnecting it.

Then connect the rest of the drives to the secondary IDE port, reboot, and verify the drives are recognized. All 4 hard drives will be shared and the network name should be the same on all the computers. Map the shared drives on your main computer and you should be ready to go.:wacko:

 

[Jacob Dryer]

Set it up on the network and enable file sharing. Then map the location to your other computers, this will give it a drive letter on your computer, and then just go about your business as usual.



I do this to stream my dvd collection which I'm slowly ripping to my media server in the office, so that I can watch any of them on my htpc in my living room.



edit: guess i was a little slow..

 

[LaRue Medlin]

Actually 2 are ide and 2 are sata

 

[Ryan Schaecher]

If the old PC cannot run SATA, you can get a PCI based SATA card for under $50. Would probably mean that you need to have your OS on one of the IDE.... Also means that you can run a CD-ROM drive as well...

 

[Thomas Rogers]

LaRue,



Take a look at FreeNas. It should allow you to virtualize all the physical drives and present them as a single network attached storage device to other computers.



There may be some limitations in its use, but it is worth the look...