Turn your old PC into a File Server
If you want to give that old computer new life on your home network, try using it as a file server for music or pictures or whatever so that no matter where in the house you are you can access your massive digital library from any computer. Here’s what you’ll need to do…
Connection
You’ll need a home network. If you don’t you’ll need to buy a home network router ($50–$75 USD from DLink, Linksys, Netgear, etc.) and connect it to you high speed Internet connection and connect all your computers to it, including the old computer you are going to turn into a server.
Requirements
You will need to make sure that there’s enough hard drive space for all your files. Really old computers will have hard drives that are less than 10 GB, so you might consider adding a new larger hard drive. An old Pentium II or better with a 10 GB hard drive is probably your best bet.
Check to see that the computer has a network card so it can be connected to the network. Most older computers will have 10 Megabit Ethernet cards which should be fine, but you might consider upgrading to a newer 100 Mbit or Gigabit card.
Sharing
1) Put all your files on the computer in a folder called FILES on the Desktop (or you could name it DATA or anything else…just make it memorable and one word. In the example below I’ll continue to use the name FILES.)
2) For easy identification on the network you might consider renaming the computer SERVER (or FILESERVER) in Control Panel under Network and Identification Tab (in Windows 98).
3) Right click on the FILES folder to activate sharing and give the shared folder a name on the network. You may have to run the file and printer sharing wizard first then right click and activate sharing after this.
4) On the SERVER computer click START then Run then type cmd (if you have XP or Me) or command (if you have Windows 95/98) to get a DOS box.
5) At the C:> prompt type ipconfig (and hit return) to see what the computer’s IP address is.
6) Write that number down. It will be something like 192.168.x.x where the X represents number between 0 and 255.
Acquire
Now go the computer on your network where you want to play the files on. Start Windows Explorer. Here we’ll assign the SERVER computer as a network drive. You have a C drive which is your main hard drive. You have a D drive wihich is usually a CD or DVD drive. Your SERVER can become yet another drive letter. Maybe your Z: drive or your X: drive.
In Windows Explorer at the top click the Tools menu then click Map Network Drive option. Under “Drive:” choose a drive letter that the SERVER will be assigned. It can be any unassigned drive letter. Z: or X: or whatever you want.
In the “Folder” field, type the IP address of the SERVER and add the name of the folder that you shared. It should look something like: \\192.168.1.104\FILES. Then click Finish.
If you named the computer DATA, you could also use \\SERVER\DATA\
Now all those files are now accessible via the network as your Z drive. Enjoy!
nice tutorial! thanks
I find the best OS to do this is on is to find a copy of NT 4.0, or some kind of *nix variant, don’t want to overload a poor 3 - 486 system.
BTW, nice page layout!
Try OpenSuse or any Linux any top distro for your server.
Very Helpful, Thanks
You could also try to change the NIC settings on the file server to Full-Duplex (if it allows it). When I do that, I usually get a 75% increase in download speeds, although the upload speeds are not as fast.
If you could write a tutorial on how to do this with *nix I will subscribe to your RSS feed. ^_^
i have run across one called openfiler based on centos in turn based off of redhat enterprise….. google it
Just a reminder… there is still the 137 GB barrier out there… If you buy a 250 GB drive, you will need 2000 SP 4 or XP SP2 to enable large hard drive support.
What I did, was build the XPSP2 image onto a 5 GB Drive. Then I bought a 250 GB Western Digital.
Western Digital has tools where it formats the 250, then copies over all the data from the small drive and makes it bootable.
I am now running a Dell GX1 500 Mhz, with two 250 GB drives. It works very sweet as a file server.
Ok, I do that on the server but when I want to copy files from a comp on my network it says that is is write protected and won’t let me. How can i fix this???
Right click on the folder your sharing to copy and click properties. In the folder properties in the General tab, uncheck Read-Only. Also, in the sharing tab, you might want to click Allow network users to change my files if you want and make sure make this folder private is not checked either. Nice read, when I did it I went around the hard way too.
Another cool linux based NAS is NASLite. It has a web interface, telnet connection, and it can be map as a network drive. You can find it at:
http://www.serverelements.com
Those new to networking might obtain better results by not using a specific IP address when mapping the new network harddrive, unless of course the server’s NIC is specifically configured with the address. The reason is simply that the router may assign “the server” a different address the next time the computer is started, (many routers/NICs are configured DHCP by default, allowing the IP assignments to vary as network machines are restarted).
I’d also recommend NASLite from http://www.serverelements.com for it’s simplicity, stability and overall performance on old computers. It’s probably the best alternative i’ve encountered yet. Many of my friends are now hooked too. NASLite just makes it difficult to throw old computers away. I wish it supported more than 4 drives, but then again, can’t have everything right.
I highly recommend NASLite for anyone looking for a low cost file server.
I did my setup slightly different. I had an old p2 366, that I maxxed out with tossed in 256 of ram.
On top of the 1.2 gig HD in it, I threw in a 20 gig HD. This allows me to seperate my served on a seperate drive than my OS drive. In the event of an OS crash, I can pull the data HD with no ill effects. In the event of a data drive crash, I still have a working OS to try to recover the data. Next I’m considring getting a PCI RAID controler and a second 20 gig HD to raid my data for extra security.
If you’re going to use an old PC, it’s probably more efficient to put *nix on it. Especially if you’re going to go through all the trouble of making a new server… Don’t use Windows for a fileserver, especially if you’re going to be streaming things off of it. We all know how slow it gets after a while.
your site is exactly the kind of sites which make the net surfing so fun. fantastic blog!
A cool version of this is a small linux distro called NASLITE from http://www.serverelements.com
Dont do what i did and get naslite if u plan to use it with a win xp home os
Has anyone used FreeNAS ? http://www.freenas.org/
It’s free, does software raid, uses a web interface for a headless unit, and is a 16Mb install.
I plan on booting it off a 32mb Compact Flash card, via an CF to IDE converter. Then software
RAID two 120G drives. I plan to shoehorn all this into a Compaq Ipaq Desktop PIII 733 legacy free machine. Nice and quiet, doesn’t take up much room, and looks O.K. (not like another old beige box).
Hey this is a nice tutorial. However, an old computer may not be able to run windoze xp - and hence no specified file sharing. I have written a how-to for hosting websites from a computer at http://stooge.myftp.org and I am having some problems on sharing files ON windows98 computer.