How to build and Home network server

debs626

Hello and thanks for taking the time to look in.

Basically I have an old Duron 1.7 machine with 512 mem. I would like to store this under my stairs so all the pc's in the house can store/share files on it.

It has a wireless pc card and room for the 2 drives that have all my music, films and pictures on. Its currently running windows xp pro.

Its already part of my home network but is off line atm because I have no monitor ect to attach to it.

How would I set up that machine to become a server ? how do I get it to boot up when its not attached to a monitor ?

Is there an easy to follow guide ?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

sysadmin

You don't need a monitor to boot it up.

I recommend that you plug it into a monitor to do the initial network setup.

Right click my computer > Propeties > Remote and tick both the boxes about remote desktop.

OK all that.

Then right click my computer > Propeties > Computer name and note down the name of your computer.

Leave the PC on and remove the monitor.

Then from any PC on the network go to start > All Programes > Accessories > Remote Desktop connection

When it asks you for the name of the PC you want to connect to type

\\YOURPCNAME

You will then be able to control the PC remotly without the need for a monitor.

You can then setup folders on the PC and share them out with the other computers.

TonyLisaP

How are you planning on backing up this server?

debs626

sysadmin wrote: »

You don't need a monitor to boot it up.

I recommend that you plug it into a monitor to do the initial network setup.

Right click my computer > Propeties > Remote and tick both the boxes about remote desktop.

OK all that.

Then right click my computer > Propeties > Computer name and note down the name of your computer.

Leave the PC on and remove the monitor.

Then from any PC on the network go to start > All Programes > Accessories > Remote Desktop connection

When it asks you for the name of the PC you want to connect to type

\\YOURPCNAME

You will then be able to control the PC remotly without the need for a monitor.

You can then setup folders on the PC and share them out with the other computers.

but if I ever need to reboot that machine will it boot without a monitor ?

I tried just turning it on earler and it didnt seem to boot into the os and I couldnt see it on our home network.

How are you planning on backing up this server?

Not sure tbh, I would like advice on that. I currently have about 100gb of music 16gb of picture/home movies and 130gb of tv and fillms

sysadmin

debs626 wrote: »

but if I ever need to reboot that machine will it boot without a monitor ?

I tried just turning it on earler and it didnt seem to boot into the os and I couldnt see it on our home network.

yes it will boot without a monitor. You'll need to have a keyboard plugged into it though.

If you tried to boot it and it hasnt found the OS then you'll probably need to re-install it again.

Simple job. Just find the drivers for the computer / motherboard off the internet if you don't have them on a CD already

sysadmin

debs626 wrote: »

Not sure tbh, I would like advice on that. I currently have about 100gb of music 16gb of picture/home movies and 130gb of tv and fillms

get a 500gb external USB harddrive and use a free program from Microsoft called SyncToy.

You can then setup a schedule to sync the folders you desire between your internal hard drives and your external one.

The first time rsync runs it will take hours because it has to copy all your data across for the first time, After that it just copies the files that are new or have changed from the last sync.

debs626

Thanks for your input so far guys, I'll go off and try that. I have a USB external caddy that I can use for backup

ttfn

esuhl

sysadmin wrote: »

...use a free program from Microsoft called SyncToy.

I'd be careful with SyncToy - although it *appears* to work very well, if you compare the number of files in the "left" and "right" (source and destination) folders, there are often a few small differences. For example, in copying ~3000 files, you might find that only 2980 files get copied... with no warning or indication as to what/where the missing files are! Hopefully they're just "useless" files like desktop.ini, but who knows...

sysadmin

esuhl wrote: »

I'd be careful with SyncToy - although it *appears* to work very well, if you compare the number of files in the "left" and "right" (source and destination) folders, there are often a few small differences. For example, in copying ~3000 files, you might find that only 2980 files get copied... with no warning or indication as to what/where the missing files are! Hopefully they're just "useless" files like desktop.ini, but who knows...

Quite possible, another way is to create a small batch script for each folder that you want to copy and schedule it to run at certain times.

1. Download Robocopy
2. Open notepad
3. Type Robocopy c:\FOLDER1 F:\Folder1_on_USB_Drive
4. Save the file as folder1.bat (make sure its .BAT and not .TXT)

You'd have to google for the correct robocopy switches but i think something like /E /Purge /W:0 /R:0 would do.

You could also add a log to the copy with /LOG:C:\LOG_DESTINATION.txt so that you can see if anything isnt being copied.

[Deleted User]

If the motherboard has it already, why not use a RAID set up?

sysadmin

be_alright wrote: »

If the motherboard has it already, why not use a RAID set up?

Unlikely on an old Duron 1.7