Amahi Forums

Never touched Linux of any kind before getting a new netbook and installing Jolicloud. Loved it, (though I still don't know exactly how to use it and how it will fit into my business world, but I am giving it a go.)

Any case, I have a half dozen old PC's sitting around and thought it would be great to have a home server to move my music, photos and movies onto while hoping to set up a mail server for synchronization and access from my two laptops, home office, second remote office and home PC's. (I really don't even know the capabilities of a home server, if it is what I need or what I will ultimately gain, but I do know that remoting in via TeamViewer to get files off my home pc, carrying around 3 MyPassports, running two external hard drives off of a Buffalo NAS and trying to use everything from Live Mesh to Dropbox has really just got me confused. I remember my office share drive set up being super easy to use albeit slow and chaotic. Now on my own, I imagine I can at least keep it organized.)

So my question is: based on my existing hardware/software, what is my best possible set up for a home server.
Dell Optiplex 320, 1.60 Intel Duo Core, 1Gb Ram, XP pro, original 80GB SATA HD (39MB FAT/74.46GB NTFS) and a newly installed 500GB SATA (11.72 GB NTFS/454.04 GB NTFS)

I have a few hopes/needs:
Needs:
1 place all of my music and photos on the 500 GB drive for access from anywhere
2 that I can have remote access to my 32 GB of work documents (mainly MS Office and CAD files)
3 that I can somehow get all of my email synced and pushed on the server (currently Google Apps mail synced to old Outlook shell on two laptops via GoogleSync and to Android phone via IMAP into personal Gmail. As well as Yahoo and MSN linked to Outlook.)
4 attach my printer for printing from any PC on the network

Hopes:
1 that I can maintain XP Pro as a second boot option so that I can keep my loaded AutoCAD (for which I no longer have the disc or keys), Adobe programs and MS Office 2007 suite (unless the licenses listed in Belarc Advisor can be used to reinstall somehow?)
2 that I can attach my 750 GB ext drive (700GB of movies) for access from anywhere including home media center
3 figure out what the best use for the 500GB Buffalo NAS is (sell it, attach it, other?)

All told, I have about 1105 GB of data (movies, pics, music, docs, programs, apps, etc.) Which I would like to consolidate, back up and have access to. Is Amahi what I need? Is there some other solution I should be looking at? Should I be considering makin this a RAID set up? Am I in over my head

Any assistance is very very much appreciated.

JS

I believe most of your hopes are achievable. Using your original 80 gb hard drive to install Fedora. And using the 500gb for storage only. I would suggest adding another 2 TB, so you could have everything in one place. And use your current mobile storage to back up.

As for dual boot the XP, It could be possible, but not ideal. You mention having other desktop lying around. Maybe using an older PC, would satisfy your needs? (Sata drive might be a problem then...PCI sata adaptor?)

To answer your needs: 1,2,and 4 Yes.
Not sure for #3.

You can go on the IRC channel and ask there.

I am pretty sure you can use you NAS to back up your data on the hda. I wish I had one to do that...


Salo