I also expected to post after successfully watching some HD content.
So instead my first post is going to be brief, and talk about my file server falling over, rendering me incapable of getting my HD content to a PC capable of putting it on the screen.
When faced with building a file server for domestic use, I did a little bit of decision making.
Firstly, its for domestic use so wants to be cheap.
Its for up to a few users at once so doesn't need to be fast.
It needs enough capacity and reliability so that I can forget about it for a year or two.
This led me to a ZFS / RaidZ solution, and from there to FreeBSD in the form of FreeNAS, and from there to four 1.5TB Green/environmental/low power drives. After configuration, that comes out as a single 4.00TB pool with one drive for redundancy. The logic is pretty simple, so I won't go into the details here.
Its pretty cheap, with capacity over speed, and FreeNAS/ZFS is expected to be stable.
However, I can't reliably copy (large) files off. They copied on OK, but every time I try to copy a file - using SMB to a Windows PC - FreeNAS beeps and reboots. This makes me sad. I've managed to copy a DVD image, but nothing larger that 4.5GB.
In all other ways, I've been happy. I've had a (working) FreeNAS box for a few years, and ZFS seemed like the right option. The file server is an Intel P4 with 4GB Memory, a 60?GB Boot drive and four data drives. The network is a Netgear gigabit switch, and in real world terms I get about 300mbps copying from machine to machine.
My previous FreeNAS machine (still operational) is based on BSD 6 with a 500GB Mirror on a 1.xGhz Athlon. The long-standing success of that had given me confidence in FreeNAS and BSD in general.
Anyway, that's the sitch - I'm off to try FTP etc... to connect and see if I can copy some files.
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