Setup a small server type thing...

[cwilhelm]

Hey, I'm looking to setup not so much a server but just basically...hmm. Well, I just want to have a rack or a server chassis that I can just load a bunch of hard drives in and be able to access the hard drives from two separate computers. What's the best way to do this? Apologies, I'm not familiar with servers or networking at all...

 

[Dangman]

- How much money are you willing to spend?
- How much storage are you looking for?
- What OS are you planning to use?
- What will this server be doing? File serving? Database? etc.
- What router do you have?

 

[GushpinBob]

hmm. Well, I just want to have a rack or a server chassis that I can just load a bunch of hard drives in and be able to access the hard drives from two separate computers. What's the best way to do this?

Sounds to me that what you're looking for is a NAS solution. If you want, go with the do-it-yourself method: get hold of an old machine, install large hard drives, throw WHS/Linux/FreeBSD/whatever, and start serving.

Apologies, I'm not familiar with servers or networking at all

This might clear some things up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_(computing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage