Amahi Forums

hello.

I ask the following advice with the hope that I will not get flamed for asking such a basic and likely redundant question.

I am a total beginner to the NAS arena but moderately okay with computers in general. However, all of my knowledge revolves around Windows.

I have a PC that's about 7-8 years old but has reasonably good specs that I am hoping to use as a media server and storage device. It currently has Windows XP on it. I am currently running Plex on my laptop and it streams to my LG TV with built-in Plex support. My laptop's storage is full and is not the ideal location for this anyway. I don't want to add external drives to it so would like to move this service over to my old PC. I also would like to have a central repository for all of our files (mostly movies, music and pictures).

A while back I had looked at FreeNAS and other NAS solutions but they seemed a bit complex for me. Today I was revisiting the idea and came across Amahi which seems like it could very well fit the bill. But, before I did too much research I was hoping some of the very experienced people on here could give me some quicker answers. So, again I apologize in advance but do really appreciate any support and help you can provide.

So, basically, I have this old XP computer. I could load Plex on it, dump my files onto the hard drives and go. I want to be able to access it from my laptop so I can move files from there to this PC. I also considered upgrading to Windows 7 (if I have an installation disc at work somewhere) so that I'm on a more up-to-date operating system.

Alternatively, I am now considering installing Amahi which looks like it can do a completely fresh install including a version of Linux, wiping out the existing data on the hard drive including Windows.

Am I on the right path so far and is my thinking correct? If I go the Amahi/Linux route, will accessing the storage on my Windows laptop and transferring files from laptop to Amahi PC be basically the same drag and drop as moving files between two networked shared Windows PCs?

Can I load the Plex Media Server software on the Amahi computer for free or do I have to buy that additional app?

If I get this far (storage sharing, Plex Media server, all for no cost), I'm pretty happy. But, just as one more side note...would there be any way to also run XBMC on this Amahi computer? This is not a deal breaker by any stretch, but if it's possible it would just be that much better.

Again, thanks for reading. Sorry the length and I truly appreciate any and all help you can provide a super beginner like me.

Yes you can drag and drop files with Amahi. Recommend you check out the Amahi wiki as there are many guides and tips for these sort of things.

You can manually install Plex Media Server if you so desire. The app provides some other nice conveniences, but if you don't care about those then manual is the way to go. Keep in mind if you have issues with the manual install, we cannot provide any support. If it was me, I would just install the Amahi app. Please understand the app fees help keep Amahi going.

I believe there is guidance in the wiki for running XMBC as well. The Amahi server has the same capabilities of any server, just some things are preconfigured or provided via a web UI.

Milksnake,

I was in the same position several years ago. At the time I was really looking into getting an HP Mediasmart with Windows Home server on it, but when Microsoft revealed that Windows Home Server 2011 would not have the Drive Extender functionality (data duplication across several disks), I started looking for other solutions. I took a look at Drobo, but at the time it was quite an expensive solution.

Like you I wanted one central place for all my valuable photo's, home video's, documents, and digital music collection. I also wanted to be protected from a hard drive failure obliterating all of our digital memories, so having data duplication was at the top of my requirements, but I also didn't want the complexity of RAID.

Fortunately I landed on the Amahi website, and was intrigued by their use of Greyhole for Drive Externder like data duplication. I decided to re-purpose an old laptop (Pentium 4 mated to a 2 TB USB Drive) as a proof of concept. That "proof of concept" lasted three years (with 3 external USB drives attached for storage) before I decided this year to buy a dedicated machine to be my home server.

Today my Amahi Home server fulfills the following roles:

• Windows/Samba File Sharing
  Data Duplication across multiple drives
  Backs Up my files to the cloud using Crashplan
  VPN Server
  Streams movies to my televisions using the Mini-DLNA server
  Streams music my Sonos Speakers
  Backs up my Mac with the Time Machine App
  BTSync client
  Torrent Client

Since I've been using Amahi, I have steadily seen the platform improve after every iteration. The Amahi team is small, but I've gotten such great guidance from Bigfoot, CPG, and gboudreau. I can also attest that Greyhole does work, as I've had one drive fail completely and was happy to have all my data available on a second drive (this was before I had Crashplan back-up, so there was a mad rush to buy a replacement drive, and have Greyhole duplicate the data again).

If you have any more question before taking the Amahi plunge, I'm no expert, but I will gladly share any experience I can.

vegaramos1, thank you for your detailed response and vote of confidence. I am still heavily leaning toward setting up an Amahi server. I have temporarily been sidetracked by some home improvement projects and a house full of people soon to be arriving for Thanksgiving. But, hopefully after everything settles down I will begin to wade into Amahi. I've also been going through the Edx class on Linux to help me get more comfortable with the platform.

One thing still concerning me is the drive partitioning and setup. Everything I read says to be very careful about how you setup the drive structure, but nothing really gives much advice other than that "be careful" statement.

If you (or anyone else) wouldn't mind sharing how they set theirs up, I would appreciate any and all words of advice. Should it be as simple as setting up one partition (or possibly one small drive if I go that route) for the Linux and Amahi installations and then all other drives kept as single partition drives for data storage? or is it better practice to partition large drives into more segments. I've recently purchased two 1TB drives (I opted for several 1 TB drives rather than fewer 2 or 3TB drives in case of a failure--perhaps I should have gone for a couple of really large drives but didn't want to spend the extra money at this point in time).

Lastly, I assume that when the time comes to add an additional drive, whether internal or external, to the Amahi server, that is a pretty routine task and easily doable?

Thanks again for all the help and in the meantime, I will continue to read and soak up information prior to my installation.

Cheers.