How to turn a old windows xp pc into a NAS server
How to turn a old windows xp pc into a NAS server
Hey everyone, I'm trying to convert this old PC into a NAS server. It's running Windows XP Pro 32-bit with these specs: CPU - Intel Pentium 4 @2.6GHz, 1GB SD-RAM (four 256MB channels), GPU - Nvidia GeForce 2 MX400, 32MB storage, and several IDE drives including WD IDE, Maxtor, Hitchi CinemaStar, and MoBo HP D530. I've already used OpenFiler but it flagged the CPU as i686 and required x86_64 support, which isn't possible. FreeNAS only supports 64-bit, so that's not an option. I'm considering Ubuntu Server 15.04, wondering if it can be adapted for NAS use and whether drivers are available. A browser-accessible solution would be great—something like HFS doesn't meet my needs and feels a bit risky. I really appreciate any ideas, especially since this is for backing up my gaming rig and Android phone. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
I think you might have attempted to set up a shared folder on Windows XP and possibly turned off the password protection for remote access, but you weren’t happy with the outcome.
Begin with Step 1, then uninstall Windows XP. Proceed to Step 2 by selecting any Linux distribution and continue from there.
I’d choose a standard Debian setup and customize it as needed, but for a web interface with built-in features, OpenMediaVault is ideal. http://www.openmediavault.org/