Wnat to make old pc 1 big external HDD. How?

[Denvers Dawgs]

I have an old PC that I wish to turn into an external HDD case (have 4-5 HDD in it) what is the best way to do this?

I also thought about making it into a server? Don't know anything about these?

Any ideashow to go about using the old PC as one HUGE harddrive?

[edDV]

Linux Samba gets you that for free (but you need to learn Samba).

Samba is a Linux file server visible on Windows networks. You can even map a drive or drives.
http://us4.samba.org/samba/
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba/chapter/book/
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch10_:_Windows,_Linux,...a#Introduction

[redwudz]

I did that recently. I used a full tower case I had laying around to make a video server. (Steel and very heavy. About 40lbs with the drives. )

It's just the same as any other computer. I stuck in a used motherboard, video card, etc., and a 500W power supply. It has six hard drives, five 320GB and a 80GB boot drive, all PATA. I added a extra PCI ATA controller card. Just about any will do. Lots of cables and lots of fans. Make sure you have one or more fans in front of your hard drives as that's where most of the heat will be. You can run any OS you want. Linux is suited for that and you can use a free version. I already had XP available, so I went with it.

I put in a gigabit LAN card and stuck it in a back room so I don't hear the fans when it runs. I access it over the gigabit LAN from the front room. I used a slower CPU originally, not realizing the the MB and CPU have to process the signal going out through the LAN. It was fast enough, but putting in a newer, faster CPU helps when transferring files. Doesn't make any difference when playing back a video over the LAN. Neither does the gigabit LAN. That was just for transfers to the server. It's a wired LAN, BTW. Cat5E cables. I use a neat little program to turn it on from the front room over the LAN called Wake on LAN. Haven't quite figured how to turn it off remotely, though.

I use VLC and Zoom Player Pro for playback from my HTPC in the front room. The HTPC runs a video projector. I also have backup files stored on the server.

It does have a DVD burner in it, but I haven't used it yet. I don't need RAID. If a drive dies, then I lose that data, but it's just videos and I have seen them once already.

There's a photo of it here: https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1573082#1573082

I wouldn't make it into one huge harddrive, though you could with a RAID 0 card. One drive dies and you lose it all. My five server HDs are shown on the other computers just like a local drive.

[SingSing]

The best way is to load the PC with a stable windows OS(like NT or XPpro), then use a crossover ethernet cable to connect it to your PC. Those disk drive will be shared drive from a server.

Cost : $5 ~ $7.

See : http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?prodCatType=1&s...&cmArea=SEARCH

[redwudz]

Good point, SingSing. I already had the LAN connections between several computers and my cable modem and router, so I used that. But just between two computers a crossover cable is an excellent solution. Windows XP is fairly easy to set up for networking.

I just found a handy program to turn on and off the remote server; Lanhelper: http://www.hainsoft.com/en/
I'm trying the trail version at present. I was able to switch on the server with WakeOnLan, but had to manually shut it off. I don't understand that much about networking, but that program works well for startup and shutdown and makes it fairly simple to configure everything.

[Denvers Dawgs]

So if I just got that cable, and set up a simple network, between the 2 PCs I'd be able to see the drives on the old from the new one.

[redwudz]

Yes.

[Denvers Dawgs]

cool....that's good enough for me. I am going to be using a HP pavilion 7955 as the Ext HDD case. It only has 1 fan right now, and 2 HDD, 2 DVD writers. If I take out the dvd writers, and place 2 more HDD there, the original power supply should be good enough right? Also, how/where could I add another fna to this to keep the drives cool? Any ideas

[redwudz]

A 300W PS is probably enough for 4 HDs. They really don't need much power. A 250W is a little small, but you might be OK, as long as you don't have much else in the way of drives in the PC.

If you dig around a little on some websites, you may find 5 1/4 to 3 1/2 inch adapters to enable you to attach a hard drive into a CD opening.

How much in the way of fans you might need depends on your hard drives. Some run cooler than others. If they are very hot to the touch, they probably can use some cooling to extend their lives. You would have to check the case to see if there is another spot for mounting a fan.

For your network setup, you need to set your drives on the server for sharing. You don't need to share the boot drive, but you can. Make sure both computers are members of the same network. Once you have the network set up, you should be able to see the drives in 'My Network Places'. If you 'Map' your drives, they will show up as just another hard drive in 'My computer' on your PC.

XP is really easy to set up for networking. Use the 'Network Wizard' and it may be able to guide you through most of the problems.

[SingSing]

If you are leaving the PC/4xHD tower on all the time. You should set your hard drives to shutdown after 20 minutes in your power scheme(under screen saver), to minimize your drives wear and tear, and keep the heat and power down.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Thanks for the tips