Geeky Goodness, and Data Access

As I mentioned earlier today, an old hard disk took a crap on me, and caused one of my machines to not boot up. Frankly, there were a few other minor issues with that computer, too, like the core temperature that was generally about 120% of rated temperature, and a +5V rail that was running at close to 6V. Add to that the general flakiness of an old processor that’s been running under those conditions for better than 5 years, and it was time for retirement.

But wait, I don’t have any money. I can’t build a new PC today!

Enter the $10 government surplus computer that, while still a PIII-class computer, hasn’t seen anywhere near the run-time or abuse that the old Athlon has.

I ended up completely dismantling both computers, and, using the best bits from both, have built a fairly serviceable file server. I had a real honkin’ 450W power supply in the old case, and the old case was a little larger, so into it I’ve stuffed an old Intel PIII/733 motherboard, a whopping 256M of RAM, 4 various hard drives, a CD-ROM and DVD-burner. There are also 4 USB 2.0 ports for hanging more hard drives on.

There’s no keyboard, mouse or monitor on this monster, as it (along with my other desktop/print/file server) are both now accessed strictly across the network using RealVNC. It’s very slick, and somehow it all actually works. My next order of business (in the configuration department — I’ve got a lot of other things to do first) will be to attempt to make the servers accessible, using our laptops, from wherever we happen to be.

And, don’t ask. I don’t do this kind of thing for a living any more, and I won’t do it for you, either. So there.