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Need Help With Setting Up A FileSharing Server

post #1 of 5
Thread Starter 
I have a large amount of files that I would like to share on a DC++ hub at school. I have a laptop computer, so I can't add any more hard drives to the inside. I have one 250GB hard drive that I have put in an enclosure and use via USB. I have another 160GB drive in my desktop that I can take out if I need to, but I can't take the desktop anywhere. It's my family's computer.

What I want to do is put both hard drives in a really old desktop that I have lying around. This system has like a 266 or 300something MHz processor and like 64MB of RAM. I don't know if this would be good enough to support what I need. I do know that it will run Windows 98.

What I want to do is put both of these hard drives into that desktop, and then use a router to set up a network between my laptop and this desktop. I would then share the hard drives in the desktop and then run DC++ from my laptop, setting it to share the files on the networked hard drives. I know there's no way the old computer would be able to support running DC++, but my laptop is pretty powerful (fully loaded when I bought it), and it handles DC++ without a problem. So, will this idea work?

Also there's a limitation on Windows 98 of how much space on the hard drive the computer will recognize. Is there a way to get past that? There's no use in me putting 410GBs worth of space in there if I can only see 15GB of it.

I could buy another enclosure to put the second hard drive in, but that would cost around $30-$40 for a good one. I would also need to buy another USB hub. Right now, I have like 4 things hooked up to the computer via USB, and I need one port free. I have a USB 1.1 hub that I use to plug in my mouse and my stereo system, since those don't require high speed ports. However, I would need both the hard drives to have high speed ports, and my TV tuner also needs a high speed port, so with all of those plugged in, I wouldn't have any ports to spare, and I'd have cables sticking out from all sides of my computer. Also, a good hub would cost me between $15-$20, so going the enclosure rout would cost me about $50-60 in total. If I can set up a server with the old desktop, I would just have to buy a network card, which costs like $8 at Frys.
post #2 of 5
For cpu/older hardware performance, consider a linux install--it runs with quite good performance with low-end hardware.

If you don't know UNIX/Linux the learning curve can be steep, though.
post #3 of 5
Thread Starter 
I don't mind the learning curve of Linux. I'm open to learning anything regarding technology.

Does Linux do the hard drive space limitation, and what version should I get. I know there's a lot of versions out there.
post #4 of 5
Newer versions of linux dont limit your HDD space unless its been limited by the Bios. Judging by the age of that machine I think that will have trouble recognizing large disks though.

But for a good ease of use with excellent functionality distribution of linux, I'd go with Ubuntu/Xubuntu for the age of that machine. Preferably Xubuntu since its designed to go easy on old machines.
post #5 of 5
Thread Starter 
Okay, my first install of 98 didn't go so well, so I will try one more time. If it still doesn't work, I'll try Xubuntu.
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