Setting up a old laptop as a NAS
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- I go over how I turned a old laptop into a basic NAS. I also go over the advantages and disadvantages of using a laptop as a NAS.
I know the focus had some issues, working on improving the filming in future videos.
I've been using an older Thinkpad x260 as a NAS for a few years. It's been a great setup. Small footprint, quiet and idles at only 6.5W with two self powered USB 3.0 HDDs attached. I use Linux with ZFS and access everything over ssh/sshfs.
Incredible tutorial. You covered everything I wanted to know, and even have a great justification for using Windows vs other OS's that are often recommended by advanced users that are building much more advanced setups than the average user. Thank you for your contribution
I've been using an x220 as my daily driver for a couple of years now. It's still Nominally worth as much as When I purchased it 8 years ago.
To say I consider people who can play with MUCH newer hardware at little to NO cost ridiculously spoiled is a massive understatement.
You should also mention that a laptop with a good battery is immune to short power outages.
especially in less stable countries ie south africa who are very prone to frequent brief power outages
He did at 1:04. 'ups with a battery'. Agreed it could have been more explicit
@Sami Turk yea sometimes we play pranks on entire suburbs we just flick the grid off lmaooo
@@gtaiv2993 I curse you on behalf of all the people that lost their data mid-transfer.
Thanks for the video. Subbed. I've wanted to set up a home cloud for literally years, but couldn't divert funds for a full-on commercial setup. Since I have some old laptops around this seems like a great way to get started.
Very helpful
I setup an old laptop with an old Nvidia gcard to be my Plex server. Grabbed a cheap external HDD/SDD bay and the laptop CPU/gpu and 16gb ram made it so much better at transcoding than a small 2 bay Synology I was using.
Switched the Synology to become my file data storage and backup so now everythings running great.
do you run it on linux?
Cousin of mine gave ma his old laptop with a broken screen and your video has been very insightful (others suggested to run 3rd party apps like Plex but I was looking for ways to avoid that and your video will help). Thank you.
Super interesting. I'm considering learning how to set up a Nas and your video is very helpful
Great job... Thanks for taking the time to show those steps. Keep up the good work.
I'm using an old ByteSpeed laptop from a school my friend gave me. It has Windows 7 and should be good enough for my needs.
Excellent video. You have a great site!
Now how would I set this up if I wanted remote access? (I kind of want to use this to replace my cloud subscription.)
Great video, thanks for making it!! You mentioned that you would talk about how to limit the filesystem privileges, but then I didn't see anything on it. Did I miss it?
Thanks for the tutorial, really helped me set up my NAS, I appreciate it!
Great video. Exactly what I was looking for.
Great video! Thanks for putting it together.
Wonderfully explained. Thank you so much !!
Is there a way you could theoretically access that drive via an outer device such as a phone or a laptop
Cool, but how do I access my file from outside my home? (Like school for example)
The best way to access files outside of your network would be to setup a VPN so your client could connect to the NAS as if it was on the local network. Another option would be to use a different file sharing protocol like sftp/scp/nextcloud and setting up port fordwarding. These services are design to be exposed publicly, where as port forward SMB is a generally a bad idea.
Nice video! Thanks!
About to repurpose my old HP Omen with 1tb HDD and 2tb SSD for exactly this. Do you know if there's a way to access the storage folder from a mobile device somewhere off the network? For example say I store pictures on the laptop at home and want to view from my phone anywhere I go. Can I do that somehow? I have a Synology NAS that does this but I'd like to also do it from this laptop.
Very nice, just followed your advice and bam got a NAS. I have an external drive connected to the NAS laptop. I am wondering how to see that on my client PC
You should be able to share the external hdd like any other drive or folder on the system. Go under properties of the drive, then sharing and share the external hdd on the local network.
@@ElectronicsWizardry thank you ☺️
You Rock!🎸 Thank you for sharing!
I've got an old thinkpad w701 that has three 2.5inch hdd bays in it, just replaced it with a newer p71 so this might give it a new life.
practically my situation. I have a laptop.
it has a broken screen.
either fix the screen, but still have an old laptop.
but that laptop has 2 things I like. it's an ultrabook from dell, low powerconsumption with a good battery. and a LTE modem.
anyone else thinking about a fallback line?
but it is gen 4 intel, I will not mess around with windows 10, it has a "best before" date slapped on it.
I'm gonna try to do this to my laptop now thanks to your video!
Also has anyone told you that you kinda look like Bill Hader? You have his eyes and chin down pat!
Thanks for the video. Great to the point explanation 👍
Very informative. Thank you
Very nice video.
I like your content, I subscribed, and thank you!
Thanks for the info!
So, if it's all under one folder, how would you access multiple drives? Context being, I have a few old pc's lying around including a laptop. I have an external hard drive that has all of my roms backed up to it already. How would I make those accessible as a NAS from a computer set up like this?
You would probably want to create multiple shares for multiple drives. Then mount the drivea share for the drive a on the server and so on. There are other ways to make multiple drives work as one but they get complex fast.
Newbie question here. Using this approach, can we still access the shared file via different internet protocol? i.e: accessing the storage while in vacation
No. This is just a shared folder in you LAN. Wath this guy is showing, is miles away from having a NAS functionality.
great video
Good video!
Very well explained, thank you for sharing your knowledge, sir. God bless you.
It seems like a simpler and cheaper solution to use a laptop for a NAS. Can you please show how to setup and connect the NAS remotely to be used as my personal Cloud Storage?
There are ways to share a local nas over the internet so it can be accessed by all computers on the internet. I plan on making a video to go over this in my detail soon, but generally you would want to setup a service like scp that is designed for being shared over a wan connection, or use a VPN
@@ElectronicsWizardry Assuming I can install more than one disk internally (I guess using the DVD Drive Bay for the 2nd), what's the largest disk (one partition formatted NTFS) that Windows can recognize? I plan on installing 2TB or larger. Would 2.5" SATA SSDs be best? What about using USB (SSDs) External Drives? Would they have a much slower Read/Write Transfer Rates? Also, the laptop has a Mini PCIe Connector used for the Wifi Card. I've seen others connecting External GPUs to the Mini PCIe Connector. Would a NVME SSD with an adapter work connected to the Mini PCIe?
I did a test with a Laptop connected via Ethernet directly to the router, shared a folder on its SSD Drive. I did a read/write test from another computer also connected via ethernet and found the average transfer rate was about 100Mbs. Is that the fastest I could get?
Can you do a video to show the difference it would make in terms of speed, with and without the cable plunged it?
thank you
Hey, thanks for your content.
I have a question regarding its Battery.
Is it healthy to use it in power grid mode, constantly ?
It’s likely not the best for the battery to be plugged in all the time as 100% charge isn’t the best for a battery. From the laptops I’ve seen the ones that are docked and plugged in for most of their life have puffy expanded batteries more often. I’d still keep the laptop used as a nas plugged in with the battery as it’s basically a ups if the power goes out.
@@ElectronicsWizardry Im sorry Englisch isnt my first language.
So in my case i just bought a new laptop from hp. And i only use it at home thats why i let it plugged in. Am i right that you meant, i should let it plugged in ?
@@JaanKashmiriI I would leave the laptop plugged into the wall when your using it at home. If the laptop has a feature to limit the max charge to 80% I would use it though.
@@ElectronicsWizardry Thanks
amazing matey!!
Hey! Which is faster for NAS between two systems WiFi / BT / Ethernet cable / USB cable / TB cable etc? Tx.
This can really depend on the exact versions of these connections. Also a nas is typically over a network like Ethernet or WiFi. USB isn’t typically made for connecting to a nas. Thunderbolt can use used for network traffic but doesn’t seem to be used that way super often. I’d say Ethernet cable is typically the best for a nas and WiFi can be fine if Ethernet isn’t available.
@@ElectronicsWizardryHi! Okay. Thank you!
Have a problem, i have followed the video closely but it says "network password wrong" any body have an idea how to fix it
Does windows scan the files you link/upload in this setup like they do with onedrive?
could be work with different network, like nas on home network and i want to access nas from network office?
how do you see network credentials in your main laptop not the nas one
ive tried everything to my microsoft password and email, and my PC/Laptop device name and PIN
Hello.. Thank you for your presentation... I have got a question,, After setting it up just like you deed, is it possible to shear the files on my website for my visitors??
To share on a website you normally want to use https or similar for file copies. You would use a different process but you can install Apache or nginx and have it host a website.
Would this type of configuration work with the windows built-in File History?
I use file history with my home server. You just have to map the drive and then point file history to the folder you want to use on the network.
@@maltomeal3 I did this, but my laptop kept saying that I can't use the drive on my laptop as the network drive. Could this be because my new laptop uses Windows 11 and the one I used for the server is using windows 10?
@@kyleroode5217 I wouldn't think so. Maybe check permissions on both machines for the drive and the network.
Do you know if you can access a NAS that is done through a windows Laptop through Mac?
Yea you can mount a file share from a windows pc in a max. Both are compatible with smb, a protocol for network storage.
@@ElectronicsWizardry Thank you so much!
Yeah
what user name and password do you use when you connect to laptopnas.
How can I access these files on my mobile please
NAS boiii
Windows does not get weird if you don't have a password. . . Turn off UAC
Hi, I gotta newbie question. I not a computer wiz but was wondering if there is any difference between playing a movie off a NAS system compared to playing a movie off an external storage drive via usb. Should I consider one or the other?
The big advantage to storing movies on a nas is that multiple systems can access the storage at the same time, and allow for remote access. I’d your only watching moving on a single device at a time that external hdd can be a cheaper and easier to setup option. Both solutions will have the video quality during playback, so I’d pick what fits better with your client device needs.
@@ElectronicsWizardry Does the NAS need to be formatted for either a Mac or pc? I was planning on moving video files from both of these systems.
The nas will normally use the ambulance protocol. This will work on both windows and a mac. The nas will convert the file system on the disk to network packets both windows and macs can use.
How do you connect your smartphone to this laptop nas setup?
Via a Network File manager App
Can you access your nas server outside your network? How would you do that?
You can setup port forwards to allow access to the server remotly, but that is normally a very bad idea with SMB/CIFS network shares due to security issue. Id recommend using a VPN to access SMB/CIFS over the inernet, or using a protocol that is made for WAN use like SCP or a web based interface like nextcloud.
@@ElectronicsWizardry will look into it, hopefully can figure it out by the end of the week! Thank you
how do you keep a laptop on when it's closed?
This depends on the OS, but there are normally settings on what should be done if the lid is closed. In Windows this is in the advanced power options in control panel. Set the lid close action to do nothing, and the system won't sleep when the lid is closed.
Can I use an external hard drive?
Yea external drives will work fine and usb 3 is faster than the hdd inside so you will get near full performance.
When i go to lo into the folder i put in my name and password (which i use for windows) but it keeps saying my credentials are wrong. Does anyone know what i can do?
I am having the same issue, did you manage to find a solution?
@@pyrohomegym no sorry
Excellent tutorial. Question about the laptop being set to "never sleep"...would this mean the laptop charger has to be plugged in 24/7 365 days a year since it's being used as a Nas/server. And if that's the case, wouldn't this destroy the battery life or put power strain on the laptop? Tks!
Yea the charger would have to be plugged in 24/7 to the laptop. This won’t be good for the battery and likely lower the life span. There should be no other damage as many laptops are used with docking stations and work fine. I’d still keep the battery in as it’s nice to have as a ups for the system.
@@ElectronicsWizardry Tks for the helpful tips! New subscriber!
@@ElectronicsWizardry curious to know, which network profile should one be on in a situation like this where a laptop or any other device is under the same household? Private or Public? I find that when I have Public selected I still can't view the other devices (PCs/Laptops), and this is the recommended network from Microsoft. Does it matter? Because when I switch to private, only then I see the servers/NAS pcs. Tks.
I’d normally use private in a home network as it configured the network to allow for local connections like smb and rdp. The main disadvantage to using private mode as it exposes those services to attacks but a home network is relativity low.
Why not just use a different OS? Something Linux based would probably be much better suited as a standalone NAS.
I normally use Linux based nas systems but wanted to use windows this time show show how it can be used as a nas and many be better for some users.
Best laptop video👍 Would you like for me to send you an old working well kept toshiba L500at no charge? Hate to waste things.
Thanks for the offer, but I probably have too many computers already. Hopefully you can find someone else that can better use the laptop.
Lovely video but why do you look like gollum?
whats nas?
NAS is shied for network attached storage. It’s like a external hard drive, but over the network instead of USB, and allows multiple users at the same time.
Stop Flapping bro 😂
windows is not stable
I have found windows to be generally pretty stable and on par with Linux setups. Yes crashes and issues occur, but Linux is far from perfect.
Gigabit ethernet tops out at 115 MEGABYTES/sec after overhead. Get your units right. USB for external drives. Not very reliable.
Is there a way to get access to the share drive remotely when not on the network?