NTFS NAS with XP

It's time for another bout with NAS!

For the last 1 year I've been looking at several options, but at the end of the day there are 2 deterrents that have always caused me to re-think my implementation.

1) Any reliable NAS box that is capable of hosting more than 1 drive is in excess of $300.00 and that is without the HDDs.

2) None of them can obviously support NTFS write.

Since I am primarily an NTFS user at home, like most people , I cringe at the thought of formatting my drives as EXT3 / XFS or any other form of NFS.

Should something go wrong, it would be a humungous pain trying to recover data from non-NTFS / FAT file systems (considering I'm not a Linux user).

What else can I do?

1) Go with FreeNAS (Cheaper alternative to buying a $300 box, but then again no NTFS write support)

2) Set aside an old PC running XP and have it serve as a NTFS-NAS (Unfortunately it's BIG, Clunky and takes up too much power for my taste. The whole point of a Home NAS is that it is inconspicuous and isn't a monster power drain.)

So here are my final thoughts for which I need your help and feasibility suggestions.


1) Buy an old laptop, instal XP on it and hook up a bunch of Drives to it.
2) Some sort of a thin client casing which can house all the drives + decent cooling solution.
3) Is there any minimal install of XP that you are all aware of that can be installed on some sort of a micro device with USB ports and a gigabit lan adapter?

Looking forward to your insights.

Also, how badly is an HDDs life affected if it is running 24/7?
Are power management features available on external drives that work via USB? I have a Vantec Nextar Drive Dock and the HDD's never power down on that. Come to think of it, I've never had an external casing that has had the ability to power down a drive after extended periods of inactivity.

Found this to store the harddrives in.

LCD Native SATA Mobile Rack for Serial ATA Hard Disk Drive

http://www.cooldrives.com/dubayesouca8.html

1) Quick Access
2) Temp Monitor
3) Looks good

Go ahead with ext3. Data recovery is now very simplified, esp. with tools like R-Studio.

I think quite a few on TE are currently in the same predicament, including yours truly.

Someone suggested an atom based PC with Windows Home Server. If the mother board can support RAID (I dont like software based RAID) then it probably is a very good setup.

1. Atom based CPU+MB+RAM = 20W ...add approx. 2.5W per drive for a WD Green and 4W for a Seagate Barracuda = 30-35W
2. RAID5 setup = Loss of 1 HDD space but will ensure 0 loss of data even if any of the drives fail (only 1 at a time though)
3. Can work headless so just shove it in a corner after setting it up.

Its definitely better than 50-200W PC and more if its a gaming rig. Only issue is I am not sure if they have RAID5 support onboard.

which atom based mobo support hardware RAID?

I am putting together my media/backup server. Should have something interesting by next week.

Don't go for hardware raid because:
1. They are proprietary and you won't get any help if things go wrong
2. Most of these are not hardware anymore, but based on a microcontroller with firmware.
Anyways, linux has very good software raid and most distros these days support NTFS, so you can use that..

I used FreeNAS for a while and if NAS is all you want, its great. Its support for CIFS/SSH/FTP is all I needed and it even supported the use of a Web server (getting MySQL on it was another question though)

I'll vote FreeNAS. Boot that puppy up, connect a CAT5 to it and throw it in the cupboard (or under a table as was my case )

Problem with FeeNAS is... NO NTFS Write

I've used it too in the past, and it's great. I guess the best way to go about this is to get an Atom Powered System.

Case suggestions anyone? Locally available?

I'll be honest, if NFTS Write doesn't mean ability to write to a drive with NTFS as its FS, then I don't know what it is.. but if that is indeed what it means, might I suggest Windows Home Server?
Slightly bulky, yes. But it seems to do a lot. NAS, xbox media streaming and Windows machine backups to centralized place are just the features that I remember (because they appealed to me).
Hope that helps

Exactly my point. WHS seems to have it all. Now all we need are a few case suggestions to get this started.

A rough price guide would be great.

Also, If I have to get an ATOM based system, what kind of a PSU must I get? Do they have smaller sub 250W PSU's?

I suggest Antec 300 or CM 590. Or anything else which has direct airflow over the hdds.

^^ Oh NO NO NO. Nothing that large.

I'm looking for something with a tiny tiny footprint. Something like this.
M350 Universal Mini-ITX enclosure

Up to two 2.5" drives Is that ok with you?

The general idea of NAS is that it gets out of the way, in any corner or in a cupboard. So size doesn't really matter.

I got my Atom home server setup up. I got this for my cabby - Nick. Couldn't find anything better and small.. I can house 2 HDDs for my raid and runs silently. Only if M350 was available here... BTW, I run latest ubuntu server on the machine with RAID 1.