Yep Thats what I did. No need to spend the cash on a license until your nearing the space limit.

The Seagate can be added no probs and will give you a little more breathing space but you will need to copy all the data on it somewhere else before adding at as it will need a reformat and the preclear will overwrite all the sectors of the drive.
You can just set up the 2x 2tb drives get that running, copy data from the Seagate and then add the Seagate to the array.

Desktops CONSUME power. Raspberry PI is going to be the simplest and cheapest solution.

http://www.howtogeek.com/139433/how-to-turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-low-power-network-storage-device/

Very nice, I'm sure. However, this is me we're talking about; I can handle (just about) faffing around with an old PC, but programming a raspberry pi? I don't see it really, do you?!
Also, I'm not sure it will be as cheap as all that; I'm only running 2 or at most 3 drives and they are pretty much all I'm paying for. I'm not sure about 2 or 3TB USB only drives, but I'd imagine they would be quite pricey.

Yeah they can consume more power that is a point - not too much of an issue for me as mine is running newer hardware which is more efficient. The ability to spin down drives does help offset some of the power but not a huge amount.

Drat! It looks as though the free desktops I've got won't cut the mustard. My current choices now seem to be:
a) Go the original route and buy a proprietary RAID NAS server. Cost around £250 for 2 x 2TB RAID1
b) Buy a suitable PC on eBay and adapt it to become an unRAID NAS. Cost around £250 for 2 x 2TB + 1 x 0.75TB unRAID.
c) Build a server from scratch. Cost? I'd guess around £350 for 2 x 2TB + 1 x 0.75TB unRAID config.

What does the panel think? My Dad has built several desktops from scratch and he's 80, so I can't believe I couldn't give it a crack...

Its easy to build a PC, I used to always build my own.

Try using a Dual G4 Mac, they are cheap as chips and can accomodate PCI USB2.0 and SATA Cards, have Firewire, and with 4x internal drive bays. You can get these for £50 ish now.

factor in two USB drives and you can do it for peanuts...

Google it and you will find its a common solution.

I have a spare NAS Case, (Raid 1) if you want it, you will need to supply drives though. You can have the case for cost of postage, (Linksys NMH305)

If you can use lego then you can build a computer. It is silly easy so long as you have the correct cables, the motherboard matches the CPU type and the graphics card it compatible with the motherboard (this is less of an issue on newer machines). It takes no more than an hour to build from scratch and it is very rewarding.

This is all very disturbing though Jim, the next thing you will be doing is offering technical advice

Ok, if anyone could venture an opinion of which, if any, of the following eBay PCs would make good candidates for a Frankenstein conversion to an unraid server, I'd be most grateful...

Contestant number1

Contestant number2

Contestant number3

Contestant number4

<Ben Stein> Anyone...? Anyone...? </Ben Stein>

How about one of these (£109 after cashback). You will need to install linux onto it but if you already have some USB drives you

http://www.ebuyer.com/430446-proliant-microserver-turion-2-2-2gb-250gb-nhpl-sata-lff-in-704941-421

Failing that one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Small-Dell-Des...=item589f88e625 or else try a Dell GX250.

Basically anything with a processor from the past 10 years will be good enough for a file server!

Thanks Sugerbear, that HP proliant looks pretty good at that price. When you say install Linux on it, do you mean to use it for an unraid? Could that work?

Well, I took the plunge. I went for the HP box and 2 x WD Green 2TB drives to put in it. It looks like it will run unraid and saves me making a mess of an old PC. With cashback, it came to a gnats over £250, which was what I was budgeting.

Hope I can make it work!

Thanks to everyone for their help...

That was a good call by SB. Forgot about the microservers.

Shouldn't be any issue running unraid. Do you have a usb flash drive?

Hi Geoff, I was just about to PM you to say thanks for all your help - I think this micro server plus unRAID looks the ideal combo for my needs. I'll doubtless be pestering you again for more assistance in installing the software!
I have a pretty decent quality 4GB USB drive, but I may get a dedicated one if I'm going to need to leave it in place or use it often for this.
I figured that at £109 with the cashback, this would probably work out not much more expensive than an old PC plus any missing bits and bobs. I've got room to expand this to as much storage as I'll need in the foreseeable future too.
Of course, there is still plenty of room for me to get it horrible wrong!

Whos Mick

You need the usb permenantly. Thats what its boots from. It saves wasting a sata port on a boot drive.

This may be useful.

http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/hp-proliant-microserver-purchase-upgrade-setup-guide/

As might this

http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/unraid-server-setup-management-guide-(using-an-hp-microserver)

Though i would suggest the pre-clear section is more than just optional.

No idea...!

Thanks for the links, Dave.

And Dave is.....?

...everyone's friend

Meh....

So far, thanks to help from here and elsewhere, I've managed to get my UNRAID server almost to the point where it works, but I've now hit a wall and the unraid configuration tutorial plus the software firm that makes it seem to be down or at least unavailable.
Can anyone access lime-technology.com?

It's up for me, Jim.

Thanks Neil, it seems to be back up now - just wasn't available all day yesterday when I needed it! Oh well...

The problem I have is that although I've added the drives to the array, started it and created shares, nothing visible through Windows explorer as either a network drive or part of a workgroup.

Hi Jim

First off can you access the web GUI from another machine? If so is Samba enabled? Its under Settings and then SMB. You should also enable AFP as you have Macs dont you?

You need to ensure the workgroup is set up with the same details which I think is in the network section of settings.

Its wont automatically add drives to My computer so you need to map them using \\tower\share_name (where tower is the server name)

Hi Mark,

thanks for the advice. I can access the web GUI and that's how I've been managing the actions so far. I'll take a look and see if SMB and/or AFP arw enabled...
I was under the impression that the first share would be a kind of parent level, then the next ones would be below it, but they all seem to be on the same level.

I'm right on the edge of my comprehension comfort zone!

Nope each share is on its own so you can control permissions on different shares and also which physical drives each share does and doesnt have access to which may be helpful for you to seperate work and personal files if needed.

I just want to have one folder for each of us, possibly of different sizes...

Yep thats fine then either set folders up under a single share or setup shares for each person. If you want to limit size shares per person may be a better option. You can always have shared share as well

You can map drives in Windows to a folder within a share rather than the whole share if you want to.

Mind...overheating...must...think...clearly...

haha it quite simple really.