RE:STORE — Turning an Old PC Into a NAS

Hey everyone! I’m Ayushmaan, a B.Tech Electrical and Electronics Engineering student. I have always liked making things that I can actually use after I finish building them.

For a time there was an old HCL computer sitting at home gathering dust. It was not really working as our computer anymore; its Pentium Dual Core processor had trouble with Windows. I kept thinking about taking it but I didn’t want to do that just for the sake of taking out a few parts. I wanted to find something I could make from it.

That’s when I started looking into NAS setups. I liked the idea of keeping the computer running in one place and using it to store files that I could access from my laptop over the network. It seemed like a task this PC might still be able to handle even though it could no longer work as a desktop.

I also had a wooden PC project made by my elder cousin Arnov Sharma. Its wooden frame and printed parts gave me something to work with for the case. The plan became: recover the working hardware from the HCL PC use parts from that older build, install Debian and CasaOS and see if I could get a file onto the machine from another laptop.

The NAS is now. I will take you through how I put it together. Let’s get into the build!

From the HCL computer:

1. Motherboard with Pentium Dual Core processor
2. 8 GB RAM
3. 200 W power supply
4. 128 GB SSD
5. Usable cooling parts

From the older wooden PC project:

1. Wooden frame pieces
2. Existing 3D-printed supports
3. Reusable screws and fasteners

For the setup:

1. USB drive for the Debian installer
2. Display and keyboard
3. Network connection
4. Debian
5. CasaOS

There’s no exact parts list you need to buy to copy this project. My build depended on what I could recover, and the enclosure was adjusted to fit those parts.

This is the old HCL computer that started everything. It had been sitting at home for ages. The Pentium Dual Core processor could no longer keep up with the Windows setup we were using, so the PC had gradually stopped being useful to us.

I didn’t want to throw it away without at least opening it up. The question was whether it needed to be a desktop PC to be useful, or whether the hardware inside could do a different job.

A NAS, or Network Attached Storage, is a machine that holds files and makes them available to other devices on a network. In my case, that meant leaving the old computer in one place and being able to reach its storage from another laptop.

This made sense for the HCL PC. I didn’t need it to be fast at running Windows applications. I needed it to run reliably, connect to my network and receive files. I decided to try that with the hardware I already had, starting with a single approximately 128 GB SSD.

The plan was to rebuild the computer, install Debian as its operating system, and add CasaOS so I could manage it through a browser.

Once I had a plan for the PC, I opened its chassis and started separating the parts. I recovered the motherboard with its Pentium Dual Core CPU, RAM, power supply, storage and usable cooling components.

I cleaned the recovered hardware and checked what I could use in the new build. The parts that went into my NAS included 8 GB of RAM, a 200 W power supply and an approximately 128 GB SSD.

This was the first real change in the project: the dusty HCL computer became individual parts I could work with.

The electronics were only half the build. Once I removed them from the HCL chassis, I needed a structure to hold them.

My elder cousin, Arnov Sharma, had made a wooden PC project that was also lying unused. It had wooden sections and existing 3D-printed supports. When I looked at those parts alongside the HCL hardware, I thought I could adapt the old structure for the NAS.

I didn’t make a new enclosure from scratch. This build uses the wood and printed pieces recovered from Arnov’s earlier project.

I disassembled the old wooden project so I could use its pieces in a different arrangement. I separated the wooden parts, existing printed supports and fasteners, then worked out which pieces could be used for the NAS.

Some pieces were close to what I needed, while others would need trimming to fit the HCL computer hardware. Taking the structure apart first let me work with each piece rather than trying to squeeze the motherboard into the old layout.

Before fixing anything in place, I put the parts together loosely to see where everything could go.

The motherboard would sit vertically on two of the plastic support pieces, raised above the wooden base. The power supply would go behind the motherboard. I checked how much room the parts needed and whether the computer’s connections would still be reachable once the remaining wood was fitted.

Because I was adapting an existing structure, I worked from the parts in front of me. I didn’t have a set of enclosure dimensions that someone else could follow exactly with a different motherboard and power supply.

The older wooden project wasn’t built around this HCL motherboard, so a few pieces needed to be trimmed and adjusted. I checked their fit against the actual hardware and modified them where they got in the way of the new layout.

This part was more about fitting recovered pieces together than building from a fresh set of drawings. I kept what worked and changed what didn’t fit.

I haven’t recorded the measurements or exact tools used for each cut, so I wouldn’t want to give someone dimensions that might be wrong for this build.

With the pieces prepared, I started putting the basic structure together. The front and rear wooden sections established the shape and the space available inside.

I checked the fit of the hardware against this structure before adding the remaining pieces. Once the motherboard and PSU were inside, reaching the mounting points would be more difficult, so this was the time to make any final changes to the layout.

I fitted the two reused plastic supports into the structure and positioned the motherboard on them. They hold the motherboard vertically and raise it above the wooden base.

I then positioned the 200 W power supply behind the motherboard and secured it in the frame. I checked that both components fitted together and that the ports I needed were still accessible.

With the motherboard and power supply in place, I could finally see how much room was left for the other parts. I checked their fit once more before adding the remaining wooden pieces.

After the motherboard and power supply were in place, I added the remaining wooden pieces, including the upper sections. I connected the SSD and the other hardware needed to run the system.

The finished structure isn’t meant to hide the fact that it was assembled from reused parts. You can see the wood, printed supports and recovered PC hardware. That’s exactly how this NAS was made.

With the hardware assembled, I moved to the software. Debian would be the operating system running directly on the NAS; CasaOS would be installed afterward.

I don’t have my original installer screenshots or terminal history. The instructions in this and the next few steps explain how someone can repeat the software setup; they aren’t a claim that I saved a record of every option I chose.

First, on another computer, download a Debian installer image from the official Debian site. Check the exact model and architecture of your CPU before choosing an image. “Pentium Dual Core” doesn’t tell us on its own which installer image is suitable. The netinst image uses an internet connection to obtain packages during installation. www.debian.org

Write the downloaded image to a USB drive using a bootable USB tool. Double-check that you’ve selected the USB drive: writing an installation image will erase its contents.

I connected a display and keyboard to the NAS, inserted the installer USB and booted the machine from it. If the PC starts from its SSD instead, open its boot menu or firmware settings and select the USB drive.

In the Debian installer:

1. Choose an installation option that displays correctly on the PC.
2. Select your language, location and keyboard.
3. Connect the installer to the network.
4. Give the machine a hostname you’ll recognise, such as nas.
5. Create your user account and password.
6. When asked about disks, carefully select the SSD intended for Debian.
7. Review the proposed partition changes before confirming them. Installing onto and repartitioning the SSD can erase files already on it.
8. Let Debian install its packages and boot loader.
9. Remove the installer USB when prompted, then restart the machine from the SSD.

Debian’s installation guide explains the installer screens, disk partitioning and boot loader choices in more detail. Use the guide matching the Debian release and architecture you install.

After Debian boots, sign in with the account created during installation. These commands are useful for checking the machine before adding CasaOS:

This lists the detected drives and partitions. Check that the SSD appears.

This shows the machine’s network address. Keep it handy because you’ll use that address to open the NAS from another laptop.

Then update the installed packages:

If your account doesn’t have sudo access, you’ll need to use an administrator account or set that access up before running the commands.

Debian got the old PC running again, but I wanted to access it from my laptop without keeping a display and keyboard attached. That’s why I added CasaOS. It provides a dashboard that I can open in a browser on my local network.

The following commands are for anyone repeating the setup. I didn’t save my original terminal history, so I can’t say that these are the exact commands I typed during my build.

First, sign in to Debian on the NAS and check that it has a network address:

You should see an address similar to 192.168.1.50. Yours will be different. If nothing appears, sort out the network connection before installing CasaOS. I used that address later to reach the machine from another laptop.

Next, update Debian and make sure curl is installed:

Then run CasaOS’s published installation command:

The first part downloads the installation script; sudo bash runs it with administrator privileges. The script installs CasaOS and the components it needs, so give it time to finish and watch for an error rather than closing the terminal as soon as text starts scrolling. The command comes from the CasaOS project’s installation instructions. Check its current compatibility information for your Debian version and processor architecture before using it. github.com

When installation finishes, it should show an address where CasaOS is running. If you miss it, you can get the NAS’s local IP again with:

On a second laptop connected to the same local network, open a browser and enter the address shown by the installer. If the installer uses the default web port, it will look something like:

That is only an example; enter the address reported by your NAS. Complete the first-time account setup shown in the browser. I then had the CasaOS dashboard open on my laptop while Debian continued running on the old PC.

Before uploading anything, I checked that CasaOS could see the storage available on the machine. This build currently uses just the approximately 128 GB SSD; I didn’t add a second drive or create a RAID array. From CasaOS’s file interface, I uploaded a file using the other laptop. I then checked the display connected to the NAS and showed that the file had reached it.

That upload was my practical test of the setup. I haven’t recorded the exact folders, permissions or optional apps I selected, so I won’t claim a particular SMB share or extra service was part of this build.

With CasaOS running, I used another laptop connected to the same local network. In its browser, I opened the NAS using the address shown after installation.

If you need to find the NAS’s address again, run:

Then enter that local IP address in the laptop’s browser, for example:

Replace 192.168.x.x with the address reported by your NAS. Complete CasaOS’s first-time account setup if prompted.

I haven’t recorded the exact optional apps or sharing settings selected in CasaOS, so I’m leaving those out rather than guessing which services were installed.

The test I actually carried out was straightforward. I opened the NAS from the other laptop and uploaded a file. Then I looked at the display connected to the NAS and showed that the file had arrived there.

That confirmed the part I most wanted to test: the old computer was running as a machine I could reach from another device, and it could receive a file over the network.

Add photos or screenshots: CasaOS open on the laptop during the upload, followed by the uploaded file visible on the NAS display.

And here it is: the old HCL computer that was collecting dust is now my NAS. The Pentium Dual Core motherboard, 8 GB of RAM, 200 W power supply andn128 GB SSD are back in use inside the wooden structure I recovered and adapted from an older project. The reused plastic supports hold the motherboard vertically, with the power supply behind it.

I installed Debian and CasaOS, and I can now open the NAS from another laptop on the same network. For the final test, I uploaded a file from that laptop, then checked the display connected to the NAS and found the file there. Seeing the file arrive was the moment I knew the build was working.

The SSD is enough to get the NAS running, but 128 GB won’t be enough for everything I want to store. I’ll upgrade the storage later as I start using it more. I may make further changes to the enclosure too, but those are future updates—the NAS itself is assembled and working now.

I started with a PC that could no longer keep up with the Windows setup we were using, plus pieces from another build that were also lying around. Now those parts have a job again. I’ll share an update when I add more storage.