How to build your own NAS – Part 1

For those of you who have a growing collection of digital pictures, movies and documents and have more than one computer at home, both the availability and security of those files are a concern. As discussed in a previous blog, "To NAS or not to NAS", the purchase of the right Network Attached Storage (NAS) device may be the solution, but the prices of these handy little devices is often prohibitive, especially in times of economic crisis as the ones we are going through.

One of my favourite NAS options is the
Netgear ReadyNAS Duo which you can find for around £160 with no hard drives or for around £230 with one 500GB hard drive. This device has 2 hot swappable bays and, depending on your budget, can provide you with up to 8TB of storage. More expensive models offer more HDD bays and other functionalities, but this one is more than enough for home and small business use.

Still, £230 is a lot of money, and that will only get you 500GB, so what is the solution I offer you?

In the next few days I will write a step by step tutorial on how to build your own NAS with as little as £37 for 500GB or £63 for a 1TB solution.

If you want to start getting ready, here's the list of hardware you will need:

• Old computer, good for nothing else (256MB RAM is enough, but it may run with less).
  
• Network card (RJ45 or wireless, RJ45 recommended) if not already in the motherboard.
  
• CD-ROM drive.
  
• SATA controller card, if using a SATA HDD and your computer doesn't support SATA natively (I got one off E-Bay for £2.50). If you are going to use IDE drives, then you won't need an extra controller.
  
• Borrowed keyboard, mouse and screen (you won't need them after setup is finished).
  
• Hard disk drive for storage (ideally, I'd advice a smaller HDD, 40 or 80GB from the old computer for the OS, and a couple 1TB drives, but 1 single 500GB HDD will do).
  
• Network cable.
  

If you want to go ahead and start getting the necessary software, you can start by downloading the ISO image of Ubuntu Linux Desktop edition, currently on version 9.10, as this is what we will use on this series of tutorials. You can download it from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . When you get the Ubuntu CD image, you can burn it onto a CD.

If you are adding the SATA controller card and hard disk drives to the old computer, you may also want to have a Philips screwdriver ready!

Look out for the next webisode of this homemade NAS project!