How did you choose/config disk for your self hosted storage solution? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tab87vn · 2023-11-17 08:37 Okay, so I've have a mini pc running 24/7 as a server. I have set up, among the other things, nextcloud and jellyfin. The pc has 1TB SSD built-in, which should be enough for basic use and storage (books, photos, personal papers). But I'm not becoming more greedy and thinking maybe 1Tb will not be enough, soon, if I want to store, say, blue ray movies, or copy of years of data that are in different clouds, or data lying in several portable drives. NAS would be slightly overkill I'd say. I'm thinking of something more affordable. Could be another SSD (2TB?) to plug into a spare sata of the mini pc, or 2tb/4tb/8tb connected via usb3. What's recommended speed if hdd: 5400 or 7200rpm, or more? (I'm learning towards 5k4 as I heard it's less heat, thus less power consuming and lasts longer). Capacity & durability over performance (got a 3TB ssd in my gaming pc for that ;)). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Do_TheEvolution · 2023-11-17 09:00 8TB ssd samsung 870 QVO costs like 300€ 4TB is 180€ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-11-17 10:39 > I'm thinking of something more affordable. Define "affordable". What exactly is your budget? How important will be the data you put on this storage? Will it be the end of the world if it breaks? Will this storage be permanently connected to the mini-PC and you want it always instantly accessible? USB is doable but it will come with a performance penalty. But if you're stuck with USB you have to do what you have to do. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tech2but1 · 2023-11-17 11:46 No wrong answer here, do what you want? I have a small Synology NAS I picked up new unused cheap on ebay. Did me for years until I migrated to Xpenology on my ESXi server. Before that I had some random drives in an old PC running FreeNAS. All based on budget/what I had to hand. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- j0nathanr · 2023-11-17 20:03 A NAS is not overkill considering at a bare minimum it's simply file storage made available over the network. Technically speaking, another 1tb SSD connected to a pi and shared over the network as file storage would be considered network attached storage. Anyhow, if you plan on moving data away from the cloud I'd highly suggest mirroring two disks in case something happens to one of them. If your simply using it for a local backup then a single SSD I'd say is fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tab87vn · 2023-11-17 21:03 >Define "affordable". What exactly is your budget? Less than 200 bucks for 2-4 TB, which I think would be more than enough to the next 10-20 years. "Affordable" (or reasonably priced) doesn't mean cheap, it should be reliable over some 10 year period (i'm still having a maxtor bought around 2008) ​ >How important will be the data you put on this storage? Will it be the end of the world if it breaks? Frankly, 99% of the data are not crucial. Yeah, some good memories could be gone, but that's it, my world wont collapse. My code is with github and passwords are with (ahem) cloud-based password manager. > > >Will this storage be permanently connected to the mini-PC and you want it always instantly accessible? I think so, unless im away for a long time and I dont want anybody to access it, ​ >USB is doable but it will come with a performance penalty. But if you're stuck with USB you have to do what you have to do. Okay, so usb does not seem like an option. That'd more "affordable", but probably also noisier, considerably slower even performance is not the most important factor here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-11-18 10:22 > Less than 200 bucks for 2-4 TB Oh you can get 4 TB in HDD format for $80, probably as low as $60 if you look around a bit. SSD is more expensive but I don't recommend SSD for long term storage. Laptop HDD will be a bit more expensive but easier to handle for connecting to USB only when you do the backups. > it should be reliable over some 10 year period If you only connect it for backups you should have no problem with that (barring an unexpected failure of the drive). If you'll keep it running 24/7 inside a machine then it will be shorter, mine fail on average around the 6 year mark. In that case you may want to spend more for a drive designed for 24/7 operation, like WD Red Plus or Red Pro, Toshiba N300 or Seagate IronWolf. Be on the lookout for the new SMR technology that's used nowadays in low end disk drives. SMR has low performance because the tracks are "overlapped" and it takes the drive more time to figure out where stuff is, but it's cheaper to make and has fewer disks. In use, SMR will seem to "bog down" occasionally while it writes some data. It's fine to use SMR for backup disks that you connect occasionally, but you want CMR for drives that are always connected and you read/write from a lot. [This page](https://nascompares.com/answer/list-of-wd-cmr- and-smr-hard-drives-hdd/) lets you search by model number to see if it's SMR or CMR. > Frankly, 99% of the data are not crucial. Yeah, some good memories could be gone, but that's it, my world wont collapse. My code is with github and passwords are with (ahem) cloud-based password manager. The 1% would be recovery passphrases, which would give me some headache if lost. All HDDs fail. You have to plan for that. Use two of them and backup the data in two places. Alternatively you can write stuff that's crucial on Blu Ray disks and store them in jewel cases. Blu Ray is cheap and easy to store and you can write 2 or 3 copies each time just to be sure. > Okay, so usb does not seem like an option. Then it's best to go for a PC case that can take a couple of full size HDDs. No shortage of those around and they can be very cheap if you buy second hand. You can probably get a whole PC for something like $50 from the local ads.