FreeNAS Alternative

Associate
Joined
11 Apr 2013
Posts
1,741
Location
Nr Salisbury
Just started setting up FreeNAS on a HP Microserver, but quickly realised a) it's too complicated for my basic brain and basic needs, plus b) I would need to format my existing drives, but don't have anywhere to shift the data to in the meantime.

So, I think I'm heading down the wrong path. All I'm trying to achieve right now is moving 2 x 1TB hardrives out of my PC into the server and continue to stream the media content to Kodi devices around the house.

I will look into RAID/backup options at a later date.

What would be a good OS to use?
 
I use NAS4FREE, it has support for NTFS.

I would recommend that you watch some Youtube tutorials on which ever solution you decide on. Most NAS solution aren't that complicated once you have time to play.

One thing for sure, if you don't want to risk the data on your 2*1Tb drives I would buy a backup device. Maybe put a 2Tb drive in your NAS first and copy your data over. You only have to get click happy and boom your data has gone.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-e...ernal-hard-drive-wdbwlg0020hbk-hd-419-wd.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I use NAS4FREE, it has support for NTFS.

I would recommend that you watch some Youtube tutorials on which ever solution you decide on. Most NAS solution aren't that complicated once you have time to play.

One thing for sure, if you don't want to risk the data on your 2*1Tb drives I would buy a backup device. Maybe put a 2Tb drive in your NAS first and copy your data over. You only have to get click happy and boom your data has gone.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-e...ernal-hard-drive-wdbwlg0020hbk-hd-419-wd.html

Yeh this is what's worry me, I came pretty close last night tbh.

I might actually do that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just had a look at the NAS4FREE website and noticed they have version of the software that runs on the Raspberry Pi. You couldn't use it as media server it is to slow and 100mbit Ethernet would limit it too.

I suppose you could stream music and store photos on it but I doubt it would do video.

As a development-learning environment by adding a USB stick or drive then you have a great cheap test-learning rig.

Raspberry Pi 2 £32 or Raspberry Pi zero £5 + USB hub £6 + USB wifi £6
8Gbyte SD card £5
64GByte USB stick £15

A NAS for £52 (pi zero NAS £37) not bad;)
 
Went with Open Media Vault in the end, and bought a WD Red 3TB on the way home. All setup nice and easy, really pleased with it.

Not so pleased to realise my max transfer speeds are around 4.5MB/s. 2TB is going to take days to transfer! :(
 
Went with Open Media Vault in the end, and bought a WD Red 3TB on the way home. All setup nice and easy, really pleased with it.

Not so pleased to realise my max transfer speeds are around 4.5MB/s. 2TB is going to take days to transfer! :(

How and what are you transferring and on what hardware?
I think My HP N40L gets around 100Mb/s over GbE with large files.
 
Transferring films from PC hard drive, drag and drop into server folder, over home network via 200mbps homeplugs

it's an old house so could the eletrical wiring strangle it? or am I doing things in a stupid way?
 
Transferring films from PC hard drive, drag and drop into server folder, over home network via 200mbps homeplugs

it's an old house so could the eletrical wiring strangle it? or am I doing things in a stupid way?

I'd bet the homeplugs are a limiting factor 200Mbs / 8 = 25MB/s though.
Have you got better transfer speeds over the home plugs before?
 
never really transferred much over the network tbh.

would be nice if I could get close to 25MB/s though! would still be 5 times faster!
 
never really transferred much over the network tbh.

would be nice if I could get close to 25MB/s though! would still be 5 times faster!

No Chance of temporarily wiring the client directly to the server while you do your initial transfer (to prove the point) then figure out if/what can be done about the electrical/homeplug setup later?
 
Can't for the life of me work out how to get the PC to recognise the drives on the server :\
 
Can't for the life of me work out how to get the PC to recognise the drives on the server :\

Are you running a utp/Ethernet cable between client and server instead of the home plugs, that way your setup remains the same, and you can tell if it's the home plugs causing the problem...
 
Back
Top Bottom