02-21-2012, 06:34 PM
Currently I have one old computer in my house that sits next to my tv and serves as a file server for my home network. I have it running windows seven pro. Most of what I use it for is just to seed torrents and host files on my network from two 700 GB external HDDs hooked up to it.
I get nagged by windows to restart after installing updates a lot and I don't like having to restart my host computer that often so I was wondering if installing a version of windows server on it would be worthwhile. It is a 32 bit version so the only version of windows server I could install on it would be windows server 2008 or 2003. Since 2003 is XP based, I can't figure out how to set up file sharing permissions. (I only want certain computers on my network to access certain files.) So I would be more likely to choose server 2008, but the problem with that is that it is vista based. And vista has a bad taste in my mouth.
My question is, should I stick with the windows 7 pro on my fileserver computer, or should I go ahead and install server 2008?
I get nagged by windows to restart after installing updates a lot and I don't like having to restart my host computer that often so I was wondering if installing a version of windows server on it would be worthwhile. It is a 32 bit version so the only version of windows server I could install on it would be windows server 2008 or 2003. Since 2003 is XP based, I can't figure out how to set up file sharing permissions. (I only want certain computers on my network to access certain files.) So I would be more likely to choose server 2008, but the problem with that is that it is vista based. And vista has a bad taste in my mouth.
My question is, should I stick with the windows 7 pro on my fileserver computer, or should I go ahead and install server 2008?