I'm interested in trying out UNRAID for the NAS functionality (not currently interested in Application Server or Virtual Machine).  According to the Hardware Requirements page, under Store and Protect Data, I need Linux hardware driver support.  Since the machine I'm converting over for use as my NAS was originally my working desktop, running Windows 10, do I need to install a Linux OS in order to meet that requirement?  (I don't have much Linux experience). 

You need to use hardware that is compatible with the drivers supplied with unRAID (adding your own is a non-trivial task). 

 

I would suggest you you create an unRAID bootable USB stick following the instructions on the LimeTech site for installing unRAID to such a stick.     You can then boot off it and see if unRAID is happy with your hardware.   The majority of common hardware ‘just works’.   UnRAID runs from RAM after booting from the usb stick and as long as you do not assign any drives to it (or only assign drives whose content you do not mind losing) your current installation will be left alone.

Welcome to the unRAID forums.

 

No, your computer will work fine. UnRAID boots from a USB and there is no need for you to install Linux or drivers. This is as turnkey as you can get!

 

The issue with drivers is typically only with the newest of hardware, which due to its bleeding edge nature, does not have the drivers in Linux yet. Or with unusual, esoteric devices that unRAID doesn't need or care about anyway. There are occasionally some oddities with certain add-on controllers, and things like RAID features on the motherboard will not work (which doesn't matter because this is unRAID). And if your computer has an onboard can opener, unRAID will not know what it is, have no driver, ignore it, and it will still work fine for unRAID. A computer with a CPU/chipset that is >6 months old is going to work just fine 99 out of 100 (maybe 999 out of 1000) times for running unRAID.

 

As @itimpi says, it is easy to prepare a USB stick and boot your target computer from it. You can look to see that the unRAID GUI is available (via a browser on another machine) and that the drives are showing up in the dropdown. DO NOT ASSIGN THEM AND ATTEMPT TO START THE ARRAY - as unRAID will think you want to use them in your array, and prepare them for that. But you can look and even assign them with absolutely no harm. It isn't until you start the array that unRAID would attempt to do anything to the disks. You can also pull a diagnostics file (in unRAID Web Gui - Tools -> Diagnostics) and post it if you have any concerns with driver compatibility. You can then reboot back to your normal OS, and everything will be as it was.

 

As I said the vast vast majority of Windows machines are going to have no problems. And a knowledge of Linux is not required.

 

Good luck!