Windows 10 Putting external hard drives on a server

[LDG]

Hi all!

I'm hoping this is an appropriate place to post this question. Here is the rundown of equipment:
Three laptops, each running a different OS-7, 8 (or 8.1), and 10.
Three external hard drives that are used and accessed regularly (and one back up)

Currently, I have a Homegroup hosted on the W10 laptop. That allows 7 and 8 to connect to it for file sharing, transfers, and streaming. This current set up requires one computer (7) to be rooted with hard drives connected. The others can be carted around as we please.

I'm posting this in Windows 10 based on the idea that a 7 computer can connect to a 10's Homegroup, but not the other way around.

My goal: I have this idea that I could just get a server to house my hard drives and then stream to all three computers wirelessly. This would help me clean things up as I'd love to transition to some sort of hard drive rack or holder that would stack them.

I'd also need to be able to continue streaming, sharing, and transferring as I currently am. I stream a lot to my Roku 2 using Emby and for the sake of ease would like to be able to continue doing so.

I am just not very knowledgeable when it comes to servers, so I don't know if this is possible the way I envision it. Hoping someone here can show me to a simple but effective solution (you may also have to tell me how to use the server...).

Thanks!

 

[Neemobeer]

HGST, WD and Samsung make the best drives in my opinion.

 

[RichM]

Always a matter of opinion here but I only use WD mostly and some Hitachi.
I don't understand why you want to take apart the existing drives as they function just fine as they are.
You can use any hard drive inside the Nas drive units and buying 7200 Rpm drives make the most sense.
Out of curiosity are your external drives 3.5" drives or 2.5" laptop drives anyway?
Someone in here mentioned that a Nas drive is faster than a server and that is just not true at all. Best performing on a network are gigabitconnections for Nas and for your computers and while there isn't a huge difference today there will be as time goes on.

I used to use a gigabit Buffalo NAS drives for files for 4 computers, but the life expectancy isn't that long and I don't know why but I burned through them every 3 years. From the time I started using servers, I have long been away from those. I just bought a small Lenovo server with a xeon E5-2000 range cpu and outfitted it with two 256 gb ssd drives and 16 gb ram for under $500 and my files fly all over this place!

 

[LDG]

I want to take apart the existing externals to reduce clutter. That is really my only goal there. Putting them in a NAS would have done it and now, putting them in a custom tower will as well. Not sure on those measurements, but they are WD Elements, if helps.

I'm still not sure what I'll do on further expansions though. Hopefully something that keeps clutter down and doesn't require drives to be plugged into a laptop 24/7. I'd like wireless accessibility (from computer, roku, and ps4) and the option for a sleep mode and maybe self diagnostic checks.

The down side I am now seeing to NAS's (for me, anyway) is that I am forever expanding my drive sizes when I can just fill up 2 tb after 2 tb drives for cheaper than buying a 5 and then a 10 (for instance).

 

[RichM]

That's what I was wondering WD Elements drives are portable drives so the drives are 2.5" which is laptop size so to fit them in a NAS drive you will have to use adapters like we use for SSD drives in a desktop.
Link Removed
As for size of drive well needs change so we try to account for that in choosing size.