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The $30 file server..........
This week's big project began on Sunday afternoon. I was driving to one of the local churches that has a monthly paper drive to drop off some newspapers. Along the way, I saw two computer cases sitting by the curb in front of a house. I passed by them, gave them a brief look, and thought, "I wonder if they can be reused or salvaged." And so I turned around and pulled into the driveway of the house that was discarding them.
When I pulled into the driveway of the house with the discarded computer equipment, I saw two young girls getting out of a van, followed by their mother, who then summoned her husband. I asked him about the computer cases, and mentioned that I knew a few people who refit and refurbish old computer systems. He said I could have them for free. I offered to pay him cash, but he turned it down. There was also a Umax scanner and an HP DeskJet printer in the pile. He said he couldn't find the power adapters for them, but if he did, he'd leave them by the curb for me.
And so we piled the computer equipment into my car. He was smart enough to gut the hard drives and other reusable components out of the systems before discarding them. I suspect that he either upgraded recently, or these computers failed one too many times.
A couple days later, I took the barebones systems into my house for initial inspection. The first was an old Gateway G6-400, with a Pentium II 400 MHz CPU and 192 Mb of memory. The second was a dusty old Quantex system with a Pentium 200 CPU and 64 Mb of memory. Both still had modem and video cards in them. The Gateway also had a DVD-ROM drive. (Bonus!)
For the initial tests, I connected a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse to each system. I then put in an old DOS 5 boot disk, and let it rip. Each system booted successfully.
At that point, I labeled the Quantex system with what was inside, and put it aside for later donation.
I continued to work with the Gateway, installing some parts I had taken out of a previous system that no longer worked. The DVD-ROM was removed and replaced with an unused 32x CD-ROM drive. I also added a 4 Gb hard drive from the old system, which had Windows 95 B on it. It booted and worked. But before I could install the other 4Gb hard drives or the floppy drive, I had to get some ribbon cables.
And so it was off to my favorite computer store -- the Computer Zoo -- for a small buying spree. I bought a generic network card, the ribbon cables, a power cord, and drive rails to install the hard drives in large bays. Total cost was just over $30. That night, I installed the rest of the hardware...until I realized I didn't have the right size screws. And so the next day, it was back to the Zoo for screws, which they gave me for free. (CompUSeless would have charged me a few bucks for screws. 'Nuff said!)
As I was connecting the rails and floppy disks together, it hit me -- the drive bay near the bottom of the machine can fit hard drives if they're installed *sideways*. And so I removed the rails, installed the hard drives into the bottom bay, and booted up again. Success!
The next step was to get the software drivers. A couple of visits to driverguide.com gave me updated drivers for the network card and the video card. Then I went to the Gateway web site to get drivers for the modem and the on-board sound card. Thankfully, the machine's serial number sticker was still on the case. There are also part number stickers on the motherboard, the modem, and the power supply. I could look up the drivers I needed based on those numbers. Make fun of Gateway and laugh all you want, but with this idea, they got it right.
And so I searched for the drivers based on either the machine's serial number or the part number, found them online, downloaded them onto my production system, uncompressed the archive files, copied them over to the "new" system, and installed them. So far, everything works. I have sound, the modem responds to inquiries, I can see both computers on the peer-to-peer network I've set up, and the video display rocks!
Not bad for a few nights' work. When I put together my 486/66 system back in '94, it took 3 weeks' worth of evenings. I don't have that much time to futz with hardware anymore. That's why I donated the system I had; there was no video display, and the BIOS was beeping at me.
Maybe I should consider going for my CompTIA A+ certification. If I can't get a job in software, maybe I could get one in hardware.
The next steps are to verify that the modem works, and then to install Mandrake Linux 8.1. This system will become my testbed and file server. It would be nice to make it my firewall as well. It will dual-boot to Win95B and Mandrake Linux.
When I pulled into the driveway of the house with the discarded computer equipment, I saw two young girls getting out of a van, followed by their mother, who then summoned her husband. I asked him about the computer cases, and mentioned that I knew a few people who refit and refurbish old computer systems. He said I could have them for free. I offered to pay him cash, but he turned it down. There was also a Umax scanner and an HP DeskJet printer in the pile. He said he couldn't find the power adapters for them, but if he did, he'd leave them by the curb for me.
And so we piled the computer equipment into my car. He was smart enough to gut the hard drives and other reusable components out of the systems before discarding them. I suspect that he either upgraded recently, or these computers failed one too many times.
A couple days later, I took the barebones systems into my house for initial inspection. The first was an old Gateway G6-400, with a Pentium II 400 MHz CPU and 192 Mb of memory. The second was a dusty old Quantex system with a Pentium 200 CPU and 64 Mb of memory. Both still had modem and video cards in them. The Gateway also had a DVD-ROM drive. (Bonus!)
For the initial tests, I connected a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse to each system. I then put in an old DOS 5 boot disk, and let it rip. Each system booted successfully.
At that point, I labeled the Quantex system with what was inside, and put it aside for later donation.
I continued to work with the Gateway, installing some parts I had taken out of a previous system that no longer worked. The DVD-ROM was removed and replaced with an unused 32x CD-ROM drive. I also added a 4 Gb hard drive from the old system, which had Windows 95 B on it. It booted and worked. But before I could install the other 4Gb hard drives or the floppy drive, I had to get some ribbon cables.
And so it was off to my favorite computer store -- the Computer Zoo -- for a small buying spree. I bought a generic network card, the ribbon cables, a power cord, and drive rails to install the hard drives in large bays. Total cost was just over $30. That night, I installed the rest of the hardware...until I realized I didn't have the right size screws. And so the next day, it was back to the Zoo for screws, which they gave me for free. (CompUSeless would have charged me a few bucks for screws. 'Nuff said!)
As I was connecting the rails and floppy disks together, it hit me -- the drive bay near the bottom of the machine can fit hard drives if they're installed *sideways*. And so I removed the rails, installed the hard drives into the bottom bay, and booted up again. Success!
The next step was to get the software drivers. A couple of visits to driverguide.com gave me updated drivers for the network card and the video card. Then I went to the Gateway web site to get drivers for the modem and the on-board sound card. Thankfully, the machine's serial number sticker was still on the case. There are also part number stickers on the motherboard, the modem, and the power supply. I could look up the drivers I needed based on those numbers. Make fun of Gateway and laugh all you want, but with this idea, they got it right.
And so I searched for the drivers based on either the machine's serial number or the part number, found them online, downloaded them onto my production system, uncompressed the archive files, copied them over to the "new" system, and installed them. So far, everything works. I have sound, the modem responds to inquiries, I can see both computers on the peer-to-peer network I've set up, and the video display rocks!
Not bad for a few nights' work. When I put together my 486/66 system back in '94, it took 3 weeks' worth of evenings. I don't have that much time to futz with hardware anymore. That's why I donated the system I had; there was no video display, and the BIOS was beeping at me.
Maybe I should consider going for my CompTIA A+ certification. If I can't get a job in software, maybe I could get one in hardware.
The next steps are to verify that the modem works, and then to install Mandrake Linux 8.1. This system will become my testbed and file server. It would be nice to make it my firewall as well. It will dual-boot to Win95B and Mandrake Linux.
no subject
Now, I don't derive pleasre from hearing my beloved Jinny annoyed... however, it's nice that she realized how much support work I've done on our puters in the leanest of times over the past few years... we'd have been seriously up a creek without some of those old backups I used to have. :-) The new $35 "wal-mart special" video card works fine, now. :-)
no subject
Hopefully she'll lett you keep at least one "bench system" now, if such a thing happens again.