Home NAS - Need The Experts!

[chunkylover53]

I decided to build a Home NAS, mostly for streaming music & movies, but also to backup some stuff from our PC's. I’m not sure the specs matter that much for my questions, but if they do: AMD 5000 CPU, GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2HP MOBO, 2GB RAM, DVD RW optical, Antec 300 Case, Windows Home Server & Linksys WRT310N Router. I’ve scrapped plans for RAID, and decided to just go with 3 independent drives: 1 system drive & 2 data drives, then come up with an external backup solution in the future. Anyway, here are my questions:

1) When I built my PC I had to update drivers, and from reading some reviews on the hard drives I bought (2x1.5TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS), I also need to update firmware. But since I'm going to use Windows home server, do I need to load drivers (keep in mind I don't need audio on a server, but I obviously need things like Ethernet)? Anyone know if I can do all of that within WHS? If not, how do I load drivers?

2) For the hard drives, one I already have and don't need to test. But for the new ones, I was thinking of installing them in my PC first and running stress tests before I load them in the server. Any thoughts? Does firmware "stay" with the disk after I re-format it?

3) Part of me was thinking I would build it as a PC first and load my retail copy of XP, just to be sure all of the parts are OK, then go back and re-format with WHS. Is that a good idea or overkill? Even if I do it that way, once I re-format I lose all of the drivers I installed, at which point I'm back to question 1.

Any thoughts from the group would be great!

[The Wise Monkey]

1. Since WHS is based on Windows Server 2003, you may need to find Ethernet drivers for your motherboard that are compatible with that. These should probably be on your motheroard driver CD, or you could download them from the Gigabyte website:

http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/Driver_List.aspx?Keyword=GA-MA78GM-S2HP

You'll need to check the revision number on your motherboard and select the appropriate one from the bottom of the screen.

2&3. I think that it would be a good idea to try and run it as a PC to start off with because you already know your way around XP and can then update the firmware on the HDs (which will stay even if they are formatted) and run the Seagate diagnostic tools:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/

If you have any trouble setting up WHS, then this i a pretty good wiki for it:

http://wiki.wegotserved.co.uk/Main_Page

Good luck! :)

[chunkylover53]

Figured I'd just update this post, since I'm already a graduate. Turns out the second PC goes together a lot faster than the first. I was shocked at how quickly it all came together this time around. Built a 3.5TB Network Attached Storage device out of:

1x Western Digital WD7500AAKS 750GB HDD
2x Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS 1.5TB HDD
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Optical
Earthwatts 500 PSU (spare from last build)
A-DATA (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Memory
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2HP AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G MOBO
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+65W CPU
Microsoft Windows Home Server

If you add in the spare parts I would have had to buy, it cost me about $700 for 3.5TB, and a Netgear Duo 1TB NAS is going for about $679 these days. Probably could have done it with even less expensive components, but I like knowing there is some quality under the hood.

Followed all the same steps as building MSPC, but I actually loaded XP first just to run Prime95 and a few other tests. I installed the Seagate drives in another PC and ran the long diagnostic tests there to save time while I built the NAS. Also, turns out the pre-loaded ethernet drivers in WHS did not work, but you can load drivers from the motherboard install CD while in the WHS console.

My Super PC website is the gift that keeps on giving!

[The Wise Monkey]

Nice job. :)