Gottria

So it looks like my system is a bit on the lean side to run this type of configuration. I'll leave it a Win 8 box for now till I can get another PC down there to just run windows then switch it over to a dedicated unraid box.

I'm running an i3 4170 on an Asus Z87i deluxe motherboard with 8gb of ram. Also using the built in graphics card for video.

Not sure what forum this goes on so feel free to move if needed. Looking at unraid for a small system of 6 drives that will be located in my garage, is it possible to have a VM with windows 10 and access it from the same PC that is running unraid? When working on the car in the garage I'll stream Pandora or look up some PDFs online for what I'm working on, that's about it. Right now it's a windows 8 machine running drivepool.

I picked up 3 refurbed 4tb HGST Ultrastar 7K4000 for $75 each locally. Each have around 90 hours on them and they will be put in my 1st unraid build to play around with and see how it works.

Good to know, thanks.

Looking at doing some upgrades and found a good deal on what looks to be the retail boxed version of the 4tb red. Model number is WDBMMA0040HNC-NRSN vs the WD40EFRX on Amazon.

Awesome, thanks. So If I buy the Basic of V6 it only allows for 6 data drives, would that include the cache drive or is the cache drive separate?

Just built a new system for file storage and decided to give unraid a shot. My hardware consists of a Asrock MicroATX H97M PRO4 board with 8gb ram, can add more later, Pentium G3260, Crucial M4 256gb SSD, HGST 3tb NAS drive, 2xHitachi 2tb drives, and 2xWD 1tb green drives. Wondering what the best way to set this up, the SSD as a cache drive with the 3tb as the parity drive and others as storage?

Got this combo in another PC that is not used and thought about adding it to a lian li PC q25b case or a Fractal Design Node 304 with my 4 drives. I know it's over kill but it's not being used and figure why not.

Ranger, I think that is what I'm going to do. My total photo and music library is just shy of 500gb. I still take pics but not nearly as much as I use to, kids are getting older and don't play as much sports. My other idea, and the wife said I'm crazy but I though I would run it through here. Back in July of 03 I build an i7-4770 system with an Asus Z87-Deluxe mother board and 16gb of ram and a 480gb ssd, rock solid for the last 3 years. I also have an i7 Macbook Air 11" with 8gb of ram and a 256gb eSSD drive. My thoughts were to load the Asus board, CPU, and ram into a LIAN LI PC-Q25B case and add my drives from busted N40L. Then I can use my i7 Air as my primary computer with docking station to drive my 2 dell 24" displays. Most of the stuff I do now a days is email, surfing, some light photoshop work, lightroom activities, and I think the i7 in the Air can handle that all just fine. Throw the 480gb SSD in a case and use it with the Mac for extra storage. Now it does sound crazy.

So how is this deal? Found it on CL locally. http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/sys/5466633384.html

Well right now it was just a file server, it was a HP N40L that mother board took a dump and figure build a new one vs $150 on a new N54L board. Would like to start playing with at least 1 VM on it. I also have to start looking for a itx board with at least 5 sata ports, I like the smaller footprint. And how does an AMD system running Unraid?

Frys has the Core i3-4170 LGA1150 Haswell Processor on 2 day special for $77. I was looking at the G3258 4 Pentium CPU but not sure what is the better one for a new build. Still haven't decided on a MB either. Or just pick up ThinkServer TS140 Intel Core i3-4130 for $294, but that is for another topic.

Thanks Bob, checked the jumper it's still there in the correct position. Korith, just got this back up and running, installed 2 new Hitachi 2tb drives then the power supply went out, orgered a new one and it worked for 4 days then I noticed I couldn't log into it, rebooted and it never came back. I thinking at this point of just picking up a Synology or Qnap device and adding in the 2 new drives to it.

Build one or buy one ready to go? Also might consider just getting a NAS like a qnap or drobo?

Well my HP N40L took a crap on me, replaced the power supply last week and this week looks like the MB is dead. Just getting the red light, pulled everything of the board and swapped ram and still dead. Is it work it buy a new board? Found a board on ebay from a N54L for $145 with a 90 day warranty or should I just start fresh. I don't need a high powered unit, just used as a file server for now.

Great info and lots of help, thanks guys. I think I will re-evaluate my backup strategy. I think I'll invest in a 2 or 3 tb drive for parity and then use my 4 1tb green drives for starters, my n40l will hold 5 drives so that should be good and I can replace the 1tb drives with 3tb as needed. I also have another case that will hold up to 10 drives with an ECS 945GCT-M/1333 with a celeron 1.8ghz, 4gb ram, and a PROMISE FastTrak TX4310 PCI SATA II controller to support 8 drives total, but I think that hardware is too old. One other question about unraid, If I decided to upgrade my hardware can I just swap all the drives and USB stick into another computer? Thanks again for all the info.

Just setup my first unraid box using the HP N40L and 3 1tb green drives, so far so good. Now after reading the wiki user manual I'm even more confused with user shares, High water, and split shares, and most-free. I read it and understand what it means, just not sure how to use it in my environment. Right now I'm using WHS2011 and drive pool, WHS2011 for some reason just doesn't like me and the system keeps having problems so I'm switching to something else, unraid hopefully. My folders are setup like this: My Pictures, Year, Event name, pictures. My Music, Artist, Album, MP3s. The only thing really important is the pictures and music folders. Not sure how to start setting up the shared folders and what settings. With the Parity drive I assume all the data is on the parity drive and the data drive? What If I don't need some folders backed up, do I create a share just for that folder and set it to a specific drive only?

So If I'm understanding this correctly, If I designate a share as split level it will be across multiple disks?