What o/s for micro server?

prowla

Incidentally, some of the NAS drives you buy actually run Linux.

oldgit485

Google XPEnology it can be installed on HP microserver it is a port of the Synology Nas OS. It boots from a usb stick 2GB, will do.I have a copy of WHS didn't like it,Installed XPEnology instead.I have the WHS2011 disk and code,don't know if you can transfer to another machine once registered but you are welcome to it if anyone thinks it's transferable.There is plenty of info on the overclockers and AVForums websites about XPEnology. I am very impressed with the nice easy GUI.
Rgds oldgit

oldgit485

You probably don't have a CD drive in the server,for WHS11 I used my PC to copy the CD onto a usb stick and installed from that and similarly for XPENology the info was copied to a usb stick which lives permanently in the usb port just inside the front door, can be unmounted once the machine has booted up.
Rgds oldgit

moletteuk

Vote for Nas4free from me. I just upgraded my Proliant Microserver from the old Freenas to Nas4free. It has the advantage that you only need 1gb ram. It's pretty simple to setup if all you want is file share and storage. Just install from CD that you download from sourceforge, set up network and set up Samba share to allow nas4free to talk to Windows computers.

There are actually loads of OS that would work fine for you. Look for one that will run well on the spec of machine you have and I also recommend an embedded one, which just means it lives on a usb stick.

If you want to avoid problems in the future I would recommond getting an uninterruptable power supply battery backup (UPS). Power cuts tend to really mess up microservers (on any OS) and corrupt the hard drives.

StuC75

Choice of O\s depends what else you may want to use it for, and whether running it headerless (mines just plugged in in the pantry with no mouse\keyboard\screen, only Ethernet cable to the router\switch), or if you want it as a standalone machine..

Nas4free is good for just a basic hard drive sharing..

Linux alternatives (step up from nas) provides a free o\s, on which folders can be shared.. There is also a ton of other apps that can run e.g. xbmc and there relevant features..

If running Linux headerless then you need either a Ssh app (think dos prompt application) so that you can connect for maintenance. or some other means of connecting to administer...

Windows OS may be more familiar and allows remote desktop to be used to control it...

I have mine running windows 7, Plex Server , MySQL so all media shared to Xbox's \ Raspberry Pi's \ Iphone and Smart TV's around the house..

Not personally tried XPEnology suggested by Oldgit (as my setup is fine at the moment), but it is popular..

Cycrow

Nas4Free should be able to do anything linux can do.

FreeBSD can install most/all linux software. I prefer FreeBSD as a server OS to linux