Extending lan storage

[titan]

I have 3 PC's connected to a LAN , I have an additional PC , cheap and cheerful with my spare
hard drives sitting in it with lots of goodies that I only occasionally use , when it's connected to the lan and booted up , it looks for a key pad and mouse. Can I have this PC bootup , connected to the LAN ,without looking for these items so that my other PC's can access the hard drives ? , is this very basic or what ??

Titan

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

I know that you can make it bootable from a network, just don't know how.. Something to do with "Wake on Lan"? But why not just hook the keyboard and mouse up, boot it and unhook them when your done. Don't know which of the two if either is best to do. eGo

[FlyingPenguin]

I think all you're worried about is being able to leave the computer running as a file server without a mouse or keyboard connected to it right?

Unless it's a retail system (Compaq, Dell, HP, etc) there should be a setting in BIOS to disable boot errors. It's usually on the "Standard" settings BIOS menu (same page you setup the hard drives).

By default it's set to "Halt on all errors". You want to set it so it "Never Halts on Errors".

Windows won't care that there's no mouse or keyboard, although if it's a Win 9x system the first time you boot without a mouse you'll get a popup telling you no mouse could be found, and the computer will stop booting until you hit okay. There's a checkmark on that popup that will disable it so it doesn't come up again.

If you plan on using it as a file server I would disable any screensaver or power saver features. Uninstall or disable any background apps for stability. Let the drives spin 24/7.

[Pugsley]

This is exactly how my file server runs. no keybord mouse or monitor. Just that the first time you do it have a keyboard plugged in to disable the mouse popup like it was stated... then youll be good to go! Mine is a 233 mmx running 98 and it has a total of 120 gigs of usable space.

[RubberDuckie]

also if you want to take control of it at any time ... I highly suggest WinVNC

http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/winvnc.html

This is an awesome program that works like PCanywhere but without all the over head and more importantly without the cost...its free.

We use it at work and I use it at home all the time
Just have it start up with your file server and you can access it anytime from your computer as if you had a keyboard, mouse, and monitor on the file server.


PS - FP is correct about your problem....disable halt all errors on bootup in bios and that will fix your situation

[VooDoo]

i have a AMD k6-2 450 running 700000 megs of memory (because i have the spare chips)

OS Windows ME
one 30 gig drive

storage
two 60 gig drive
one 30 gig drive

it also is a server for games like CS, UT, Q3A and others

i start a ram disk and load the server program into the ram disk

i have a remote admin (and no its not pc anyware) program that i use i can log on to the computer and control everything

here is the one i use
Remote Administrator

me

[Pugsley]

oh yea.. .forgot about VNC... use that too on this server! works like a charm... and people wonder how it works wiht out all the input devices!

[Hipnotic_Tranz]

RubberDuckie - Great program! I tried it out and its pretty sweet. Now I don't have to get off my lazy ass if my mom has a problem with her computer in the other room

[PreDatoR]

Well if your running Windows XP Pro remote desktop does the same thing i have it setup on my server and love it.

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

700000 megs of ram? That's like A Lot isn't it? Like 700Gig? Or is my math wrong? eGo

[PreDatoR]

I want to see a picture of 700000 megs of memory... All in 1 computer being used. Most K6-2 boards only supported about 1000 megs or 1 gig max.

[VooDoo]

ops my bad.....

i was half asleep when i posted it last night

does 700 megs sound bedder

3 slots of 256 megs

me

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

That makes a lot more sense!! lol..

[Hipnotic_Tranz]

Predator - Nope, Win2k here and 98 on my other machine. I would have used netmeeting (in fact I tried) but I didn't see a way to enable remote desktop sharing to start when windows does. You can make netmeeting, but not RDS. I don't care now that I've seen VNC, it runs smoother.