Converting Buffalo Terastation Pro NAS into FreeNAS NAS

[wraith]

My brother in law recently found a Buffalo Terastation Pro, 4-bay enclosure, on the side of the road [complete with drives]. It appears to be operational just veeeeeeeeeeeery slow. We're contemplating gutting it and, if possible, re-kitting it with new hardware capable of handling FreeNAS.

I've looked at the motherboard and mount points and it appears to be proprietary and doesn't seem to match miniITX or any other motherboard forms. However, I don't claim to be an expert on all possible motherboard forms.

Has anyone tried to gut a Buffalo box [or something of similar size] and make it worthy of FreeNAS?

 

[danb35]

I'm not finding much in the way of specs for one of these, other than that Win XP was the newest recommended client OS, and that I'm seeing reviews of its successor (the creatively-named TeraStation Pro II) from 2007. But that's enough to tell me it probably would have been better left by the side of the road.

 

[wraith]

Yeah, there's not much around. Judging by the dates on the back of the NAS, as you have noted yourself, these were built around 2007.

We don't intend on using the original hardware or software. The plan is put in a new server grade motherboard [assuming something appropriate can be found], RAM and power supply. Even considering messing around with the case backing plate to create a new template.

 

[danb35]

Yeah, I realized after I replied that I hadn't read your post very closely. Unfortunately, I can't help much with repurposing the case you have. I'd think your best bet would be to fit a Mini-ITX board, but mounting locations still might not work out.

 

[nightshade00013]

In all honesty by the time that you hack the case to fit a board in you would probably be better suited to just pick up a new case. I can understand you may want to keep the drive bays, I am guessing they are the hot swap variety and I can bet they would fit in a couple 5.25 inch external drive bays in a standard case.

Though in all honesty if the terastation is in good shape you can probably sell it and then put the few bucks you make towards just building out a FreeNAS and not worry about swapping the drives since there should not really be a huge need for it. Plus if there is any futzing that buffalo did in the backplane it may not even be suitable for use.