Tag Archives: technology

Lots Of New Personal Computing Changes

I have lots and lots of data. For a long time, I was just adding hard drives. Now, however, I have a real solution and it’s all beautifully implemented.

Until recently, my home computing environment consisted of:

  • Dell Dimension 4400 (P4 2Ghz) that has been upgraded and tweaked extensively. It sports a 40GB main drive and three additional hard drives (120GB and 320GB internals and a 250GB external) I have been using for my storage needs. Other, less important for this post, tweaks include dual monitor and s-video support and 1GB RAM.
  • 12-inch PowerBook G4 (now with 1.25GB RAM).

I knew I needed a real data storage solution when I had to start tossing files onto my PowerBook and the sense of urgency was created when my 250GB external drive started acting funny (about-to-die funny, not haha funny).

So here is what I used to build my file server:

I went with Windows XP Professional over the x64 version because of some driver and app problems and the only benefit is being able to use more than 4GB of memory. XP Pro rather than a Linux distro is used because I have a Linux curse and I actually do like XP Pro. The OS is installed on an 80GB primary HD, but all non-application data is saved on the 1.5TB RAID-5 array I built using four 500GB SATA 3Gb/s drives. After formating, the usable space on this array is 1.36TB; not too bad. I also shared the RAID so I can access it from my other computers.

Because this computer will sit in my living room–it doesn’t look bad, I promise–I tweaked XP to look nice on my TV (32 inch flat-screen CRT), which is great because I do not need a monitor imposing itself on my living room setup.

I used TweakUI on my other Windows machine so that all ‘special folders’ (e.g., My Documents) point to the RAID array. This is great because now when I open applications, it looks to my RAID array by default for the relevant files. As a result, I can store all of my files on the array seamlessly.

I also wanted to back up the data on my PowerBook so I installed iBackup, which seems limited but fairly good, to regularly copy my important data (e.g., e-mails) to the file server. I am having a little bit of trouble setting the PowerBook to automatically connect to the file server (via SMB), but I have not focused on fixing this yet.

There are only a few tasks left:

  • Fix the PoweBook SMB connection to the file server so a connection is established on login/bootup
  • Review p2p clients and maybe switch from Shareaza
  • Buy another wireless keyboard (I have an extra wireless mouse)
  • Test remoting in to the file server
  • Hook up audio cables from file server to mixer/amp for watching video (music is currently played off main machine, which is wired into to two rooms/speakers)
  • Possibly get this other machine I have, an old dual-P3 with SCSI drives, up and running for the bedroom

Miscellaneous Tech House Keeping

My home computers are in need of some TLC. There are no major problems, just little things. Here is a wrap up of some of the issues and solutions, some of which the readers of this blog might find worthwhile:

About two weeks ago, I downloaded Juicen, a program that handles your “podcast” (I hate that term) subscriptions. I expected it to fail miserably, as do most RSS readers, but have been pleased with its performance. Now if I can only find worthwhile pods to cast (actually, NPR has a ton of good ones). FYI, I am running this on my primary desktop machine, which runs XP Pro and handles nearly all of my DL/UL tasks).

Today I decided I was going to deal with my inability to open links in new tabs in Firefox using the wheel button. Every Windows machine I have used except my primary one allows you to use the scroll wheel button to open a link in a new tab. In about five minutes I had the problem solved. Turns out Microsoft Intellipedia’s system-wide settings override Firefox’s mouse settings. The best solution I found is to Control Panel->Mouse and then set the wheel button to AutoScroll. Problem solved.

I have a number of large files that Windows won’t let me delete, and when I try to delete them, I am greeted by a “File In Use” error. I am running out of storage space, so this problem is becoming pressing. The “File In Use” issue is a known one and I found a very basic but possibly helpful solution here. The page gives you the basic advice of how to ensure you are not actually using the given file but also points you to a program that handles deleting, copying, and moving of files before Windows gets going. They say this should work. I am a bit hesitant but will eventually give it a try.

As previously mentioned, I’m almost out of storage space (I have a lot). And I really do need to set up a RAID 5 server. I have an old machine that has a nice tower for this type of set up and it should work well. I just need to scrap the money and time together to buy a controller card (any suggestions?) and hard drives. Ugh. I wish there was some little kid around who wanted to set this up for me. In that case, I’d just have him or her build me an entirely new machine just for this purpose. Once it will set up, I will be so happy. I even built a shelf in a closet that should be a nice spot for it.

I have noise on my line-in, making recording difficult. It has not stopped me before, but when I rearranged my apartment setup (furniture moving that involved some rewiring), I was hoping to eliminate the noise or spend time identifying the problem. Neither has happened, but it is on my agenda. But what isn’t.

I have an old laptop that I wanted to install Ubuntu on. It won’t get past the initial install screen, though. Ugh. Not an important project, but one that would be nice for music-in-the-bedroom action.