hard drive vs. storage computer question
 

Here's a question for those who know more about installing a secondary hard drive...

I have three computers... one acts as a server... it is a three-year old 766Mhz 30GB HP Pavillion.

Monitor and keyboard/mouse-less, it sits under my desk always on, but it houses all of my personal files, MP3s etc.

All it is, is a fancy hard drive.

I have a main computer and laptop which both hook into my dsl/network and use files of this computer.

The idea is have a central location for these files, but off of my main computers hard drive because I hate backing crap up when I reformat.

I figure I want to sell the computer system I am using for this "server" and use that money to buy a 100+GB HD.

If I install a 100+HD as a secondary HD on my main computer, first of all, can you confirm that I will be able to access it via a network?

Using windows xp.

Would this be a fairly simple way to go or would have a system outside the systems used by people be faster and safer (for the data?)

sure.. share the drive via Home Networking options....

IMHO I'd keep the server... just that much easier and you have a seperate place to store your stuff.

i have a server out of an old machine... just that much easier. It's more like a NAS (networked attached storage) than a server... but still.

Besides, yer going get just a few bucks for it... save your $$ and just buy a new drive and install it in the server.

Yes, you can share it very easily on your network. Having a server is very cool though. Especially for games.

-Lasereth

The issue is, is that I have a son on the way and can't spart $100 for a new hard drive... I need to sell the storage computer for that amt to get the money for the hard drive.

I only have a 30GB drive in that comp... I need more space.

Yeah, I hear that. My 75GB drive is pretty loaded. I'd like to pick up a 200GB drive, but those cost money, too! So, I'm forced to keep the quality stuff. Like that's a bad thing!

If you have a fileserver with 75gb, I sure hope you have atleast raid 1 going :) A buddy of mine had a 80 gb that shit out only a year after he bought it. He wasn't too happy when he list around 60~65 gb mp3s, movies, and data.