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Mac Mini as a NAS

L

Lamont

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 26, 2004
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I have an old Dual Core Mac Mini (2009 Intel version). Was trying to get rid of it, and halfway through a purchase for a NAS setup from Amazon, I thought "Why not use the Mac Mini?". I have movies, music and such, but my biggest concern is using it to archive projects and photos from photography. What software do I need? Or is everything accessible via Terminal? Should I install another OS?

Also I kinda wanted to install versioning software (Perforce), I tried, but had no luck getting it going.

The current system has a 1TB HDD installed, and I have a 4 bay USB 3.0 drive enclosure ready to go.
 
How much do those things sell for these days. You might be better off selling it and getting a real NAS.
 
Since I already have all the hardware, it's just a software issue at the moment. On Amazon I saw a 4 bay NAS for about $400. Then drives will run at about $110 each.
 
I've never tried to load Linux on Apple hardware, but you could look into that and run a bare Linux install with NFS/SMB. I don't know how well a dedicated NAS distro like FreeNAS would work on Apple hardware.
 
I recommend against this. If you just want external storage, you're better off selling it and using the funds to buy a WD My Cloud or something. If you want a serious NAS, the shell of an 8 year old Mac Mini is in no way an ideal starting point.
 
Terpfen - I will research the WD MyCloud device today more thoroughly, but at first look it provides everything I need and the cost/physical footprint/disk space is much better than the setup I was going to put together. (4x 3TB HDD's). I just never thought of these little boxes as being good or better than what some software and elbow grease can put together. I should give them a chance.
 
Read the reviews and what it does and the WD My Cloud was ordered. Thank you Terpfen!
 
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