I want to create a NAS. I could buy one but I am technical enough to be able to create one. I've never needed a NAS before, I'm very happy to use a USB stick to move files.
I need a NAS that can store all my data, including the many many photos we have. I also want to upload the data on the NAS to a remote site.
Requirements:
* Cheap
* Powers off when not needed
* Easy to power on remotely (IE Wake on LAN)
* Can be used from Mac and Windows
Current Hardware:
* 1x 1TB Seagate SATA disk
* 1x 500GB Seagate SATA disk
* 1x 320GB Seagate SATA disk
* 1x 120GB Seagate SATA disk
* Old AMD XP 3200 PC working
If all goes well I think I might do a smaller sized version using the very cheap Gigabyte GA-D510UD mini-itx board (only $115). It has 4 SATA ports and is using an INTEL Atom 510 processor. I can salvage RAM from the old PC above (or buy some more).
I will be using Debian as the operating system. I did consider Windows but it doesn't play too well with Macs. Also I know a lot of linux scripting and administration that I should be fine.
Issues:
* Debian is slow to start up.
* Solutions:
Use XFS file system.
Look into using SSD or some other media for OS booting (lots of reads but few writes).
Also See:
http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Booting_Debian_in_14_seconds
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=31275
http://www.linuxtutorialblog.com/post/tutorial-disabling-unused-daemons-...
http://wiki.debian.org/BootProcessSpeedup
* Debian internode apt-get mirror is a bugger to figure out:
In the Debian installer use: mirror.internode.net.au and /pub/debian/ (DONT USE HTTP://)