Need ideas for file server solution

[scottw182]

At home, I currently have a 4TB WD Black to store all of my data, which is backed up to a 4TB WD Red via Crashplan. I have them shared so that they can be accessed from my wife's desktop, as well as my laptop. The problem is, my computer has to be on, or else the files are inaccessible.

For a while, I wanted to get one of those Qnap NAS devices, but every time I looked into them I got scared away by the reviews.

Next, I considered building a separate file server, running FreeNAS. But, I'd rather not add a third box to my setup anyway. Plus, I'm not really a fan of how it works, setting up shares and what not. I kind of just want to keep my basic Windows-style folder-structure that I can easily manipulate.

So now, I'm kind of back to just having the hard drives in my computer, but I need to find a better way to implement it. The way I do it now, with the hard drives being in my computer and shared, doesn't work great. A lot of times, when I try to access them from other machines, it says they're unavailable, even though my computer is on. Sometimes, going through Computer and clicking on them there will make them available, but most of the time I end up having to go to Computer on my desktop, clicking on them there, then they suddenly become available on the other machine. Is there a better way I can make these available to the other computers on my network? Should I switch to Windows Server for the OS? Is there some kind of special NAS software I can run, or some kind of NAS card I can install? I'm open to any suggestions, but would definitely like to keep the hard drives in my computer and have it "always on" for the time being. I would also love to have Plex capability as well. Thanks in advance.

 

[Sam Poland]

What about your router? Can it accept a external USB drive?

 

[scottw182]

What about your router? Can it accept a external USB drive?

It can, but I've heard performance can be poor with that method, similar to the Qnap NAS devices.

 

[Solandri]

What about your router? Can it accept a external USB drive?

It can, but I've heard performance can be poor with that method, similar to the Qnap NAS devices.

Performance depends on the processor onboard. Newer routers can easily hit 30-60 MB/s transfer speeds, which is really all you need for most purposes. Same goes for most of the newer QNAP and Synology NASes. Older routers and older NASes frequently had slow processors which could limit file transfer speeds to below 30 MB/s (below 15 MB/s on some of the really cheap ones). But for the most part that isn't a problem anymore.

If your router can take a USB HDD, there's no point making decisions based on what you've heard. Just plug the HDD into it and try it out. My newer Netgear router (R6900) can exceed 60 MB/s with an external HDD plugged into USB 3.0.

I generally try to steer people away from using an old PC as a file server. Old PCs tend to use a lot of power, and file servers are left on 24/7. If you convert an old PC into a file server, it's not uncommon for the extra electricity it consumes to exceed the cost of buying a nice NAS within a few years.

FreeNAS is actually pretty good if you pair it up with a modern-ish system. It uses ZFS, which has many advantages over RAID and just a single disk or JBOD enclosures. It scans all your files once a month to check for corruption (bit rot), and repairs such corruption if it detects it. It supports snapshots, so you can create in-situ "backups" in between your monthly backkups to an external drive. The downside is to really use it effectively you need server-based hardware with ECC RAM.

 

[scottw182]

Performance depends on the processor onboard. Newer routers can easily hit 30-60 MB/s transfer speeds, which is really all you need for most purposes. Same goes for most of the newer QNAP and Synology NASes. Older routers and older NASes frequently had slow processors which could limit file transfer speeds to below 30 MB/s (below 15 MB/s on some of the really cheap ones). But for the most part that isn't a problem anymore.

If your router can take a USB HDD, there's no point making decisions based on what you've heard. Just plug the HDD into it and try it out. My newer Netgear router (R6900) can exceed 60 MB/s with an external HDD plugged into USB 3.0.

I generally try to steer people away from using an old PC as a file server. Old PCs tend to use a lot of power, and file servers are left on 24/7. If you convert an old PC into a file server, it's not uncommon for the extra electricity it consumes to exceed the cost of buying a nice NAS within a few years.

FreeNAS is actually pretty good if you pair it up with a modern-ish system. It uses ZFS, which has many advantages over RAID and just a single disk or JBOD enclosures. It scans all your files once a month to check for corruption (bit rot), and repairs such corruption if it detects it. It supports snapshots, so you can create in-situ "backups" in between your monthly backkups to an external drive. The downside is to really use it effectively you need server-based hardware with ECC RAM.

My hard drives aren't external. If I wanted to try out the router option, I'd have to get external enclosures for them. I'm not interested in that method anyway, so it's not worth it.

I appreciate all the input, but I'm pretty set on just using my existing desktop as a file server, and I'm looking for the best way to do that. It's not an old PC, it's my current PC that I have on half the day anyway, with relatively new parts.

 

[mdd1963]

get a little 2 bay Western Digital NAS or Personal CLoud device, works via connected LAN to your router....

https://www.wdc.com/products/network-attached-storage.html
https://www.wdc.com/products/personal-cloud-storage.html