I am looking about getting into linux, one way being installing it on my old computer and using it as my back up system. However I am unsure of what distro to use and whether I can back up windows file onto Linux?
I was thinking ubuntu server with GNOME, similar to @Logan.
No I wouldnt go the Ubuntu route.. Your going the server route so I would suggest something that works way more friendly with Windows and Mac... Since your starting out I would suggest opensuse 13.2... Download their full 4.7 gig iso.. Extract it and burn 1.iso to a disk or USB drive... When your in the install if you have an Internet connection you can actually choose which server software to start with via yast.. It also allows every possible de.. Its really nice.. I personally use opensuse as a daily driver...
On that note I suggest BTRFS for your backup drive as it supports snapshots and allows you to revert back if you messed anything up
In fact lols you may not even pm me once you read opensuse install guide for 13.2 lols.. Its very detailed... You can look in the networking server section and I forget exactly what to choose but I think it's nfs and then also check gnome base system.. Nfs is great for backing up data from. Multiple computers
Ubuntu Server soultions are rock solid. If you actually think they "don't work" you clearly don't know what your talking about or at least have never used them.
They power more Openstack deployments than all their competitors combined and are backed by Microsoft and Amazon Web Services,
OpenSUSE is a fine choice but don't compare Ubuntu desktop to Ubuntu server, two different beasts. Both reliable though.
I read in between the lines.. I do T think he actually meant the server is.. I think he meant the gnome distros with server software.. If I am not mistaken.. I have used them and they are great but I honestly prefer something more like centos etc.. But I guess it's a great point.. All the software does basically the same thing.. Its up to you on preference binaryjava
If he wants a lightweight OS than he can install Ubuntu Server and then install ANY desktop enviroment (LXDE is a good choice as its light) as you will only be using the desktop environment while setting up the server.
CrashPlan is a piece of software that allows backups to multiple sources. Be it a local hard drive, a network device (like the server he is setting up) or another CrashPlan users HDD (friends or family).
The video I linked shows the setup process. It does its backups automatically.
Ill look into that... I long used windows to back up to a linux based (opensuse) NFS server and it worked pretty darn solidly... Which explains my preference...
I used Ubuntu server once way back in the 10.04 days, I never looked back after switching... as Kai pointed out maybe I should turn my eyes back LOLs....
Ubuntu (last time I used it anyways) allowed you to access Windows files from Linux automatically (it mounted it for me and everything). The only issue is that while Linux can read Windows file systems (NTFS), Windows can't read Linux filesystems like EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, etc. so you'll have to take that into consideration. If you plan to jump back and forth between Linux and Windows a lot, I'd make a seperate partition formatted to NTFS, and store all your documents, videos, or whatever you need to share between the two on there. Then have smaller (like 40-50GB for Windows, you could get by with like 16 for Linux) partitions for each OS's system partition. That way both access the shared one, but each one also has it's own seperated system partition.
Also, BSD offers some really solid backup solutions, that may work out to be the best choice for your hardware and operational requirements. FreeNAS is of course well known.
There is no need for Windows to be able to read and write non-Windows file systems. Linux and BSD have full samba functionality, the access is not dependent on the file system, but on the networking. This even works between a host and a virtualized client for instance. It's generally a good thing that Windows can't read or write other file systems, that increases safety and privacy enormously, but most of all, it increases file system performance and data safety enormously to not have to use the archaic Microsoft file systems. I would advise very much against using NTFS partitions in Linux, share with Windows through samba, and set up clamtk and samba permissions carefully to ensure data safety and privacy, in the long run, it will save a lot of time.