Setting up Power Mac G4 as home server?

[LOLZpersonok]

I have a 2003 Power Mac G4 MDD, dual 1.25GHz with 2GB of RAM, that I would like to set up as a file server for my home. I can get my hands on the hard disks no problem - it's the actual setting it up that I can't figure out.

I looked up tutorials on the Internet, but none seemed helpful. I'm not sure what to do. How do I set up my Power Mac G4 as a file server for my house so everyone can access it? Note that no one else in my family uses Apple computers - everyone uses Windows, with myself using Windows as my primary system, so I'm the only one in the family who has the Apple machines.

Also, is it possible to have a little bit of power running through the system so that the files on its hard drives are always accessible, while the system isn't actually running? I'm not sure how better to explain it.

 

[catzilla]

I have the same machine with 2x200GB ATA drives that I used as a server for Macs only. I have a Win laptop, but I don't remember if I tried to mount server volumes. Anyway, you have to enable sharing in system preferences and in the "get info" for each shared drive. I'm sure someone here will elaborate. As far as power goes it has to be running to share drives, but you don't need a monitor.

 

[eyoungren]

Create a folder where you want everything to be shared. Or a drive. To avoid permissions issues you can Get Info on a drive and make sure that the "Ignore Ownership" box is checked.

Add the folders you want to share (or drives) into the Sharing prefpane under File Sharing. You can add accounts for Sharing only if you like and you can adjust permissions in here for every folder/drive you drop in there.

If you press the Options button (which you will want to do) make sure the SMB option box is checked (so you can share with Windows PCs).

Lastly, just make sure that Wake for Ethernet Access is checked in Energy Saver and also that the "Sleep hard drives when possible" option is UNchecked.

I find I have issues when I sleep the Macs that I want to connect to, so I generally set the desktops I have to never sleep. It of course increases power use, but it also reduces frustration and having to restart because of connectivity issues when waking from sleep.

Lastly, you might be interested in Keep Drive Spinning. This is an Applescript that writes launch agents to your Home>Library folder. These launch agents run every so many seconds or so (as set by you) to write a small file to the HD. This forces the HD to stay awake and not spin down. Western Digital drives seem to be particular offenders as their firmware (which can't be changed) has them spin down after a few minutes of inactivity.