I have an EX495 with Debug board (VGA/KB/Mouse) and currently NO hard drives in it. It was working fine when I built a WHS 2011 box and took the EX495 out of service.

So, I'd now like to repurpose it long as I have the box and some HD's laying around. I'd like to use it for Time Machine backups and simply as NAS type storage. I've considered buying a NAS enclosure, but seeing the EX495 sitting there makes me think I should be able to use it. I'm probably technically competent enough to poke around with things and get in trouble, nothing to lose witht he box just sitting there.

Searching around here it seems some issues are:
Can't use WHS v1 OR 2011 for Time Machine
The issue with AF hard drives I'll have to solve

What might be a good path to what I'm wanting to do? FreeNAS, Ubuntu as server, re-setup with WHS v1, something else?

And should I upgrade processor and/or memory to better suit any options?

Suggestions welcome as to what might be best, and yes, I've searched/read around and mostly got more confused, but I'm learning. Thought it might be OK to ask.

Thanks,
Tom

First thing I need to point out is that I am not a MAC person although I do have one in the house its a rather old MAC Server but it does run OS X 10.3.

Since your EX495 has a debug board you can install another OS that the hardware supports. If you install a newer OS you will not have to worry about AF Drives since they will run perfectly with 4K sector sizes. Its only when you install a legacy OS that supports 512b sector sizes that the issue with AF Drives becomes an issue.

I wish I were better able to point out what to install that will work with Time Machine but felt the need to point out you may not have to worry about AF drives running in your EX495 if you install a newer OS which hopefully supports Time Machine.

The other thing I will point out is that if you install something other than what HP shipped with your EX495 that the LED's will not function as your use to seeing them because they are controlled by drivers and software.

There are some MAC users on the site and hopefully one of them will chime in to offer some advise on what to use to support Time Machine.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Ok, cool, I can cross the AF drive issue off my list, that's good to know. UNLESS I go back to WHS v1 and simply use it for file server, but I'd like Time Machine support if possible.

So.....any Mac guys have suggestions as to what to do with this box?

I've have actually been thinking about doing this too, with regards to Mac, you should be able to use Netatalk with a linux distro to setup a "Time Machine" drive that your Mac can talk to. Keep in I have not actually done this yet, only read about it.

http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/