I have an old laptop and I want to use it as a NAS or a Server, any replies would be greatly appreciated!
Got an old laptop? No, don’t throw it in the closet yet. There are innumerable things that you could do with it where it doesn’t have to be the useless chunky box [which would be the case otherwise], and NAS is definitely one of them. Okay, but NAS? What is it? NAS is an acronym for network-attached storage. It’s basically turning your laptop into a network-based hard drive which can be accessed by other devices by connecting to the network created. Also Read: Here’s the most common password of 2016 Sounds good! How do I convert my old laptop into a NAS? Well, follow the below steps. Step 1: Head straight to FreeNAS’s website and download [here’s the link] the current stable release of the technology, i.e., FreeNAS 9.10 onto your old laptop. Do make a note that the FreeNAS’s latest stable release requires a 64-bit hardware and 8GB of RAM. Step 2: Now, after downloading FreeNAS 9.10 onto your old laptop, unzip it. You’ll find a .iso file, create a USB bootable drive using the Microsoft Windows USB/DVD download tool. Also Read: Are smartphones affecting sleep? Step 3: Then, restart your laptop and boot it from the USB bootable drive with the FreeNAS installer in it. In case you are wondering how to boot your laptop from a USD drive, search on the internet with your particular laptop model number or the current operating system it is running since the process can differ from one laptop to the other. Step 4: Now, if you have followed the above steps correctly, you will be asked to install the FreeNAS technology as a partition or embedded install. Although embedded install is preferable, it totally depends on your preferences. Choose either one of them to finish the installation process. Step 5: Once you are done with the installation process, you should see a server interface on the laptop screen where you can set the username and passwords to connect from other devices. Also, look out for the IP address of the current server, you’ll need it to access the NAS from other devices. Step 6: Now, open a browser on your new laptop [or PC], enter the IP address of the NAS server and input the username and password and voila! You can now access the content on your old laptop. How To Keep iPhone Battery Health At 100 Percent
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In this T450 laptop NAS conversion series, I will explain in detail end to end process of building 1 GBps of NAS without wasting money on Fancy NAS products.
You may ask why we can’t use VM by Vmware workstation or Virtualbox. Here is the reason why never use VM managed Type 2 hypervisor for NAS purposes.
After the grand failure of the NAS build using a desktop hypervisor, now I turned towards my old but very reliable Lenovo T450 laptop which is with 16 GB and 256 GB HDD. I have no clue about Hardware compatibility with Open Media Vault. It’s based on Debian Linux 10 web-based GUI. LAN cards must detect and other displays are not required.
Here is the first step of our DIY NAS using laptop T450.
Step 1: Network topology for Home NAS using a laptop
Step 2: Storage layout for Home NAS using the laptop
Step 3: Open Media Vault NAS on the laptop T450
End Result :
We achieved our goal it by saturating the 1 Gbps line in the above benchmark
Do you have an old desktop PC sitting in a closet somewhere? Put it to use by installing FreeNAS. FreeNAS is a free, open-source operating system that will convert old PCs into network-attached storage devices.
Use your NAS as a central file storage or backup location for every PC on your network. FreeNAS also supports plug-ins, so you could even run a BitTorrent client or media server on it.
What You’ll Need
RELATED: How to Turn a Raspberry Pi into a Low-Power Network Storage Device
We’re focusing on using older hardware here, but FreeNAS would prefer a reasonably modern computer. You won’t be using an ancient PC for this. FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD, so it should support any hardware FreeBSD supports. Bear in mind that an old PC won’t be as power efficient as something lightweight like a Raspberry Pi, so you’ll be spending more money on power than you would with more lightweight NAS devices.
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FreeNAS runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit CPUs, but a 64-bit CPU is ideal. The official documentation says FreeNAS would prefer at least 8 GB of RAM to provide good stability with the ZFS file system — if you have less RAM, you should use the UFS file system instead. You’ll still want at least 2 GB of RAM, even when using UFS.
FreeNAS runs better when you install it on a USB drive or compact flash card that stays inserted in your computer. FreeNAS will then run from that external media, leaving your computer’s physical disks available for storage.
Download FreeNAS from here. Burn it to a disc and boot the disc on your computer. The page also has a USB image you can use, if you prefer.
Install FreeNAS
Boot the FreeNAS installer on the computer you want to install it on and go through the wizard. If you want to install FreeNAS on a USB flash drive or compact flash card — this is recommended — insert the removable device into your computer.
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Select Install/Upgrade when the installation wizard appears and select the drive you want to install FreeNAS on. Any attached USB drives will appear in this list.
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The installer will write the FreeNAS operating system files to the drive you choose. The installation process is now finished — remove the CD [or USB drive, if you installed from USB] and reboot your computer.
Set Up FreeNAS
You’ll see the Console setup screen after your computer boots. You can tweak settings from here, but you don’t have to. Locate the URL at the bottom of the screen and plug it into a web browser on another computer to access FreeNAS’s graphical web interface.
[You can now unplug your monitor from your FreeNAS box, if you prefer. It should no longer be necessary.]
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FreeNAS will immediately ask you to set a root password, which you’ll need to log into the web interface in the future. Set a password you’ll remember.
You can now use the web interface to set things up. This is the same sort of interface you’d see if you purchased a dedicated NAS device.
Basic NAS Setup
You’ll probably want to set up some storage first. Click the Storage icon on the toolbar to open the storage pane. Use the ZFS Volume Manager to create a ZFS partition or use the UFS Volume Manager to create a UFS partition [Remember, you’ll want at least 8 GB of RAM if you’re using ZFS or 2 GB if you’re using UFS, so choose UFS if you’re using an older PC with less RAM].
You’ll now want to visit the Sharing pane so you can make your new storage volume accessible over the network. Different operating systems support different protocols, so FreeNAS allows you to set up Windows [CIFS], Unix/Linux [NFS], or Apple [AFP] shares.
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Of course, some operating systems support multiple protocols — Linux and Mac OS X include some support for accessing Windows CIFS shares, for example.
Whatever protocol you use, your shared folder will be accessible just like any other shared folder. For example, it should automatically show up under Network in Windows Explorer or File Explorer if you created a CIFS share.
More Features
FreeNAS is packed with options, and we can’t cover them all. You could use the integrated user tools to set up different permission schemes for access to different folders or make them available to everyone. You could set up FTP, Rsync, SSH, or dynamic DNS services.
The Plugins screen is particularly interesting, holding a variety of third-party packages. You could install the Transmission BitTorrent client or Plex Media Server from here, turning your old PC into a BitTorrent downloader and network media server as well as a NAS.
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Check out FreeNAS’s official documentation for more in-depth details on everything you can do.
FreeNAS is an excellent way to put an old PC to use. If your old PC can’t even run FreeNAS well, you may want to try reviving it as a desktop PC with a lightweight Linux distribution.
Image Credit: Rob DiCaterino on Flickr