Using old netbook as a nas

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I have an old nc10 laptop which is now redundant, and i am looking into centralizing my file storage for videos, music and photos.

I have looked at buying a NAS drive but then i wondered if it was possible just to use the laptop to do the same job with a usb drive plugged in, as it would only be acting as a file server and not doing any re-encoding of anything etc, and it would only need to be in an internal network and not sharing onto the web etc. It would sit behind my tv where i have ethernet between the devices which would require it and then homeplugs or wifi to the rest of the house (i dont use my pc to watch videos off the hard drive as use my tv to watch them)

i.e internet enters near front door where router is. Homeplugs then take network upstairs to pc, and behind tv where it then goes into switch to share between xbox360, sky, bluray and soon to be network streamer.

Clients of the server would be a network streamer (looking at boxee), a pc which would only really be accessing the nas to play music, a mobile for the music, a Pure radio to access the music, and perhaps a tablet device in the future to access music and maybe pictures.

Would also like the server to be able to independantly download nzb and unzip them without using a computer, and only over night i.e sabnzbd

The final question would be power management, assuming i keep the screen turned off is it best to just leave it running 24/7 or is there an os which will sleep when not in use or downloading and then wakeup when a device wants to access a file (as a normal nas would do...)

I have seen a few articles on google but nothing really spells it out clearly, and was wondering if anyone has used an old netbook for similar use.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!
 
hey, this is pretty much exactly what im using right now. i have an nc10 with a couple of usb hard drives attached that im using as a download box and a file server. i just share the drives in windows as i see no benefit in using linux. the only thing is the usb connection is rather slow and thats a pain. i do have it connected to my tv but i never use it to do video out as the tiny netbook strugles to do anything at 1080p. it can do sd video but its not fun. mostly i use my normal comp to remote dosktop into it if need be but mostly just stream and play on the big box. (big box is hooked into my receiver)

so it does all work but that little atom chip is stupid slow but it can stream 1080 without any trouble, even over wifi but i did upgrade the wifi card to an intel 5100 but im about to go back to wired as the best wifi can go is about 6MB/s.

as someone wha has dabled with many varieties of Linux over the years is say skip it. windows may not be perfect but its just so much simpler.
 
as someone wha has dabled with many varieties of Linux over the years is say skip it. windows may not be perfect but its just so much simpler.

Linux and FreeNAS are just as simple. No need to shell out for a Windows license.

1) Install distro of choice
2) Install Samba, edit config, smbpasswd -a youruser and restart the service
3) Access the shares
 
Linux and FreeNAS are just as simple. No need to shell out for a Windows license.

1) Install distro of choice
2) Install Samba, edit config, smbpasswd -a youruser and restart the service
3) Access the shares

well it already has a windows licence, i agree it may be worth giving linux a bash otherwise but if you already have a windows licence and indeed is already installed why bother with the hassle
 
Just reached a hurdle with freenas, 1tb of data on external hard drive on a ntfs partion and don't have enough space to put somewhere else before converting to be able to share :( managed to sort out the booting off the sdcard not playing ball as not supported by nc10 bios by putting plop on as a bootloader:) will do some headscratching....not worried about the pace over network as a) don't have any 1080p video, only using 720p, and b) not using WiFi, only using Ethernet between laptop and streamer
 
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