Hi,

 

Following an eBuyer promotion the other day I took the step to buy a HP ProLiant G7 N54L 2.2GHz MicroServer. I am in need of a way to access files using the laptop and PC and I hope a microserver will offer this. I also need to be certain that files are safe and it seems using the different SATA drives in the server and also the ability to backup the server to an external hard drive, it seems to offer that peace of mind.

 

I am just wanting to find out how people manage files and whether anyone uses a home server to try and achieve what I want to do.

 

Any feedback on what OS I should run on it or tips and tricks would be much appreciated!

 

Will just be interesting to hear how people manage their files and make sure they are always safe

 

---

Jack

I manage my files to save them every week to a extern hard-disk and I save them automatically to the cloud, so I can always get it back, doesn't matter where I am

 

I think the cloud is easiest to use, but if it's safe is another thing... Thats's why I give my hard-disk a back-up aswell

 

I'm not really into servers, but I would use Linux, but I don't know how your microserver is set-up, so I won't talk crap

 

Good luck

We bought one of these servers. Just over £200 with a £100 cashback, we got it about a year ago and its been great. We use it to take locally stored backups of all our websites and servers. I would like to use it as a network drive but we have Linux on it which is a nightmare to get networking setup in my opinion, so we cant yet! I am also looking into the best way to make a clone/backup of the entire disk in case it goes kaput but again, seems trickier on Linux. It does have 4 easy slot in drive bays though so thinking of adding a drive and setting up RAID mirror.

The Microservers are brilliant for the price and are also extremely quiet. We started off with one of these and then upgraded to a HP ML110 G6 Quad Core Xeon for our office requirements.

 

In terms of OS, I would highly recommend taking a look at FreeNas. We used this on our Microserver and was excellent. It has all sorts of built in 'server' functions such as FTP, iTunes, SMB, Bittorrent, etc and is....FREE.

 

 

I manage my files to save them every week to a extern hard-disk and I save them automatically to the cloud, so I can always get it back, doesn't matter where I am

 

I think the cloud is easiest to use, but if it's safe is another thing... Thats's why I give my hard-disk a back-up aswell

 

I'm not really into servers, but I would use Linux, but I don't know how your microserver is set-up, so I won't talk crap

 

Good luck

 

Out of interest, what cloud service do you use?

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for all your replies, been great to hear everyone's suggestions. I think I will have to wait for it to arrive and just have a play around and do a bit more reading.

 

Thinking of putting Windows Home Server on it as having files in a central location is my biggest priority although some of the other perks of other operating systems do sound quite cool and useful.

 

Will probably be back asking when it arrives and I stumble across a query!

 

Thanks,

 

 

Jack

The Microservers are brilliant for the price and are also extremely quiet. We started off with one of these and then upgraded to a HP ML110 G6 Quad Core Xeon for our office requirements.

 

In terms of OS, I would highly recommend taking a look at FreeNas. We used this on our Microserver and was excellent. It has all sorts of built in 'server' functions such as FTP, iTunes, SMB, Bittorrent, etc and is....FREE.

 

 

 

Out of interest, what cloud service do you use?

 

I use dropbox, but then the double security of course and github is a good place to keep stuff

I'm using a NAS Synology 4 bays (413 with power pc cpu) 4 hdds in Raid 0+1.

It is a very good download station, a wonderful file station (photo, video music, itunes server, ecc), perfectly as time capsule and usable from internet as cluod system. Th only one limitation is your DSL upload speed

I have cloud accounts through dropbox, google drive and copy.com.

 

They're a dream and accessible on my desktop and netbook and use them as my "hard-drive" with my actual HDD as backup.

 

Still have flash drive as well which is handy.

Dropbox and web based project management tools can help you in better storage of your files and in readily accessing them.

I have a Netgear ReadyNAS 4 drives all raided up so I can access files on my home network locally....... anything I want backed up I sync to dropbox so I can access it remotely - especially as Dropbox has recently reduced pricing (I have their 1TB plan)