Need help building a RAID with old PC

[linkup]

Hello one and all,

I have my PCs backed up to a 12TB NAS, but that NAS itself needs to be backed up. I first thought I could use an old 945GNT mobo and ran into a 2TB limitation. Then I pulled out a newer used PC from my stock with a DP35DPM mobo and ran into the same limitation on the RAID size with Winserver 2003.

A friend of mine suggested I overcome the limitation with a dedicated RAID controller, but they are quite spendy and seemed overkill for a backup to a backup.

What can be done with my E6750/DP35 to utilize the six SATA ports with six drives to create a 12TB partition like my NAS has?

Thanks....

 

[adamvaldez]

Hi,

There are two types of RAID. One is software RAID and one is hardware RAID. The best option for you is to use software RAID. You can use FreeNAS. It supports RAID Level 1 to 5.

Hear is what you need.

1. Your Old PC.
2. At list 3 Hard Disk.
3. A flash Drive (At list 256 MB)

Just Go ahead and download FreeNAS. Install it on Flash Drive. Configure RAID and you are up and running. You will feel it very simple to configure and install. Anything else ?

 

[linkup]

I was actually hoping to build a Winserver.... Partly for variety. I thought it was a Windows issue that was my obstacle in building a 12TB RAID and was hoping there was a work around (other than a hardware controller) that would allow me to overcome the size limitation.

Although I have a Linux NAS now (ReadyNAS), it has a front end that has kept me from having to dig into Linux.

It was also my hope that with Winserver I could set up some kind of Windows Media Server. Either way, I am way more comfortable in a Windoze world vs. the Linux side of things.

Any software-based solutions that would work with Winserver 2003?

Thanks for your suggestion!

 

[linkup]

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