Unraid
How to Turn a PC into a NAS – An Idiots Guide
How to Turn a PC into a NAS – An Idiots Guide
#Turn #NAS #Idiots #Guide
“NASCompares”
ACEMAGIC MINI PC used in this video –
Recommended Jonsbo N3 NAS Builds For $300 – $500 – $1000+…
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Wasnt this the mini PC that came bundled with malware?
Hola ya que he visto tu vídeo, quiero que me aconseje sobre el sistema NAS, actualmente tengo un NAS de terramaster arm, quiero cambiarlo pero estoy investigando si es más viable comprar un F2-424 de la nueva serie o una mini PC e instalar Unraid, que me aconseja?. Un mini PC si aguanta el estar conectado y prendido a todo momento como pasa con los NAS ya listos? Gracias por tu sugerencia
I'm a beginner to data storage look for a way to keep video pic and documents safe for long term mini pc with ORICO 2 Bay or 4 bay it to keep my father's memories alive
Btw…. You can install TrueNAS to a USB… When you install, just have an extra USB in the system, boot to your TrueNAS USB, and install to that extra USB. Given how much I/O that drive gets, though, I'd consider putting two extra USBs in there and software RAIDing them….
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:02 🖥️ Introduction to turning a Mini PC into a NAS
– Explanation of repurposing a Mini PC into a NAS.
– Mention of the Mini PC used in the video.
– Disclaimers about using a Mini PC as a NAS.
01:57 💡 Pros and cons of using a Mini PC as a NAS
– Pros: Cost-effectiveness, sustainability, power efficiency, and connectivity options.
– Cons: USB limitations, potential stability issues, drive identity conflicts, and separate power connections.
04:29 🛠️ What you need to convert a Mini PC into a NAS
– Required hardware components, including a Mini PC, USB drives, SSDs, external storage, HDMI monitor, and keyboard.
– Mention of specific Mini PC options and external storage solutions.
07:31 📥 Obtaining necessary software and tools
– Instructions for downloading the necessary NAS operating systems (TrueNAS and Unraid) and Rufus tool for USB creation.
– Guidance for preparing USB drives with the chosen operating system.
17:45 ⚙️ Preparing the USB drive for OS installation
– Extracting the downloaded zip file to the USB drive.
– Deleting the EFI folder (if present) and making the USB drive bootable.
19:25 🖥️ Installing NAS Operating Systems (UNRAID and TrueNAS)
– Explaining the installation process for UNRAID and TrueNAS.
– Discussing options for SSD installation based on the choice of NAS OS.
21:58 💽 Choosing the Right SSD for NAS
– Advising on SSD selection based on the Mini PC's M.2 or SATA support.
– Discussing SSD capacity considerations for various use cases.
26:27 ⚙️ Setting Boot Priority in BIOS
– Configuring BIOS settings to boot from the selected USB drive for NAS installation.
– Explaining the process for both UNRAID and TrueNAS installations.
28:06 🌐 Accessing NAS Installation from Web Browser
– Demonstrating how to access the NAS setup interface through a web browser.
– Recommending an IP scanning tool to locate the NAS on the local network.
29:55 ⚙️ Completing the NAS Installation
– Finalizing the NAS installation and creating login credentials.
– Explaining that TrueNAS can be accessed via HDMI or web interface.
33:44 ⚙️ Setting Default Boot Drive for NAS
– Ensuring that the newly installed SSD is set as the default boot drive in BIOS.
– Explaining the importance of this step to maintain the chosen NAS OS.
36:41 📂 Adding USB Storage to Mini PC NAS
– Explaining the process of adding USB storage to a Mini PC NAS.
– Highlighting the importance of choosing the right external storage configuration.
37:23 🧩 Differences Between UNRAID and TrueNAS for USB Storage
– Contrasting the approach of UNRAID and TrueNAS when connecting USB storage.
– Emphasizing that UNRAID allows individual drive access, while TrueNAS may utilize external RAID or JBOD setups.
38:41 🚧 Configuring USB Storage for UNRAID
– Demonstrating how to configure USB storage with UNRAID.
– Discussing options for creating storage pools and assigning parity disks.
39:48 🛠️ Setting Up USB Storage with TrueNAS
– Explaining the process of setting up USB storage with TrueNAS.
– Advising the use of external RAID devices for redundancy and data integrity.
40:03 💼 Conclusion and Considerations
– Summarizing the video's main points.
– Reminding viewers of the advantages and limitations of converting Mini PCs into NAS devices.
– Hinting at future content exploring the pros and cons of this setup.
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I can’t take AceMagician seriously as a company now. They had a nice Mini PC model on sale price a few months ago and I visited the site and added it to my cart, considering if I was going to buy it. Ultimately I decided to close the tab and “sleep on it”. I don’t like to make tech purchases too spontaneously.
A few days later AceMagician sent an automated email reminding me about the device in my cart and imploring me to go through with my purchase (I had made the mistake of entering my personal email address when I was on their site). I can totally understand them wanting to close the sale but the email they sent me was a mass email with 300 other recipient with all of the personal email addresses visible of everyone who had left a device in their cart in the last few days.
Now at least 300+ random people in the world have my personal email credentials. I didn’t even finalize my first purchase from AceMagician, and they already managed to compromise my personal data. What a joke.
I have an Intel NUC 9 Extreme kit, it have both USB 3.2 and thunderbolt ports. Can I use a DAS for TrueNas scale setup? Which connection I should use?
the socket is called "M.2", not "M2 NVME". NVME is just a protocol not the name of the socket.
I can't figure out how to get the drivers working for Plex Transcoding on any OS
Cracking video. I was thinking of using a mini pc with the tr-004 as a 4k Dolby Vision Plex server… should I go down this route first of just install Plex on the mini PC and hook up the TR-004?
What about adding ASM1166 NVMe card with 6xSATA for that minipc. Then use external power supply or pico psu for 3.5" hdds? Im using such setup currently and that pulls 9Watt when idle.
A couple of weeks ago, I built a NAS into a Jonsbo N2 case; something I wanted to try. It's a Core i3-8100 based machine with 5 x 18TB drives. Since the machine was built, I've been trying to find a NAS operating system to run on it. I've been pulling out my hair for those couple of weeks.
TrueNAS Scale had issues with the box. For whatever reason(s), I was unable to join my Active Directory domain. Unknown/unresolved time synchronization issues that shouldn't have existed. IX reached out, but they were unable to find the problem. I next tried OpenMediaVault. Wow. Nothing is included in the base OS and everything is added as a plug-in. Terrible architecture. There's a plug-in necessary to find other plug-ins! I was not able to get BTRFS working with OMV and gave up on it for that reason, and additional, reasons.
Next: Ubuntu Server 22.03. Geez. Nothing included with the base OS for NAS. Nothing for AD. I layered on top Cockpit and then Webmin. Neither was particularly helpful. I figured out how to creating an mdadm array on the command line, which took a day and a half to complete. I wanted to format that array BTRFS. Fail. Nothing enabled me to manage the array or even see it.
Unraid was not a consideration as, I believe, it uses RAID 4, and I don't care for the way that works, with a separate parity drive.
Finally, I grabbed the release candidate for the latest release of TrueNAS, and that seems to be working. Well, except for NFS. ESXi will mount the datastore, but I can't migrate a VM to it (no, it's not read-only).
Absolute nightmare. Documentation on the Web is either non-existent, undetailed, or out of date. I'm a Synology user for over a decade, with a couple of big units and some smaller ones as well. DSM is truly the best operating system available for NAS systems. (Unfortunately, Xpenology, which I also looked at, is not fit for production use.)
The new NAS was almost US$1600. I could have gotten another decently sized Synology for that. One that I trust. As it is, the TrueNAS box is going to be for additional backups, not live or can't-afford-to-lose data.
Found it! cheers btw
Extremely expensive or an Intel or a small case or 1980s specs, none of them being acceptable …
^ Besides, while I admit you could just toss the extra USB drives+PSU's when you buy a replacement, I still think the drives need to be physically attached to the machine to be practical.
^ That's why I'm looking for a case/machine I can run my own install of Linux on and put 4+ 12Gb+ drives inside to replace my numerous insufficient USB drives.
Were you spying on me? I was in the middle of editing my own video on a mini-pc NAS when this dropped. Of course, mine was a simple RAID1 setup, not this fancy stuff. 😉🤣
Those USB direct attachment boxes that do hardware RAID – what's inside them?
Don't use usb connected storage with truenas for anything other than occasional backups, it's in their documentation. it's too unreliable.
The same is probably true regarding unraid.
Perfect! This will be very helpful when I do my tinkering with old hardware.
Hi im having problems with Synology download station. I can't use it to download from YouTube can anyone help. Thanks great channel
And with USB HD devices on UnRaid you can’t have parity !
Even with no external storage but with just one or two internal NVME slots, one of these would be a very nice NAS for use when travelling, in your RV, or boat. When I want to pack along a bunch of videos, I rip the MKV files into much smaller mp4 files and the quality is plenty high enough when watching on a computer screen. When accompanied by a travel router, there is plenty of functionality and storage for two or more people on a trip.
Jonsbo n3 build. When?
As a first step, show us who exactly is the idiot… As second, non-Realtek LAN and dual channel DDR5 or quad slot DDR4 RAM are mandatory. ECC is a must, so the road goes to AMD, sorry GREEDtel. And run like hell from USB, either for network or storage for a server of any kind ever. Period. NO USB WHATSOEVER!!!
Many thanks – Looking forward to building a test environment to gain experience with TruNAS and old hard drives.
Those USB JBOD devices, they just have USB hubs in them?
Thank you, this was very informative
Use Debian with ZFS and an 6 bay case connected via USB 3.x.
Possible in 2023 ?
The NAS on this end has been an old PC that gets mostly old parts over time. First one ran Win2000. An old laptop works too. These days the NAS has moved to different Linux/BSD distros including FreeNas/TrueNas. Biggest thing has always been what ever the setup, always have the 3-2-1 backup strategy setup along the way. You'll learn lots along the way.
Yeaps,
The entry/home NAS market is gettings a lots more competitive/cheap especially with the upcoming USB4/Thunderbolt4, Wifi7, faster/cheaper storage, etc next year (??did yous hear that Synology ;).
PS: The trick to faster parity speeds on windows storage spaces https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2Z7NnguMxE
Depending on your requirements, You can simply use your router plus a cheap raid enclosure. Bought a Trip-lite 2 bay enclosure for about $80 bucks and installed dd-wrt software on my WRT1200AC router. The DD-WRT software has a miniDLNA server running on it. This allows me to stream my music, movies, and send hourly back ups off my computer without a hitch. Probably if you had a household of 3 or 4 people accessing it, it would struggle but for one person it works perfectly. Actually, you probably don't need to install DD-WRT since most decent routers have some sort of media server built in.
I'm guessing most house holds really don't need much more than that.
Great video/tutorial. Have try installing unRAID to your zimablade?
I wish there was great content like this for Home Assistant. Great videos, Rob.
Superb
I would really want to see more of this type of content.
As a constructive criticism, I think by joining two tutorials in one, this might have been more confusing than necessary.
If you have to join the tutorials maybe add a logo of each system in the upper left corner.
All and all…
I understood you just fine, I just fear other people might not.
Thanks again though for your great work.