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rf_fozzy
rf_fozzy
8 Jan
4:42pm, 8 Jan 2025
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rf_fozzy
For various reasons, I would like to build a home server for back-up and storage reasons so that I can move away from using external hard drives as erratic back-up.

I also want to be able to dump stuff from my phone to clear it out more frequently.

What is the best/cheapest way to do this?

I probably don't need more than a maximum 4TB back-up space - but do I need to double this and have 2x 4TB to enable a back-up? I know SSDs rarely fail (certainly compared to HDD), but it is possible.

It should be possible to have the server (if small enough) hardwired into my router I think, but all other devices will have to access via WiFi.

I have seen that you can do this using a Raspberry Pi (e.g. https://dpw-developer.medium.com/a-guide-on-how-to-build-your-very-own-nas-network-attached-storage-9a2e7aa55e63) which has some attraction as that would make things cheap - probably doable for ~£300 once the cost of SSD is factored in.

The bit I'm wary of is that I'm going to need to build two of these - one for me and one for my often slightly technologically challenged Mum - it needs to simply act as a windows folder she can see to move files onto and off for her.

Advice and comments welcomed.
rf_fozzy
rf_fozzy
8 Jan
4:44pm, 8 Jan 2025
23,471 posts
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rf_fozzy
The other thing I should say is that although 4TB is sufficient at present, I'd like it to be expandable in future....
Cerrertonia
Cerrertonia
8 Jan
4:58pm, 8 Jan 2025
22,584 posts
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Cerrertonia
Not directly answering your question, but I have an old, unusable phone with a damaged screen, which I've put a large SD card into, which holds an archive of wikipedia and some other stuff, from kiwix, so that I essentially have my own offline copy of useful parts of the internet which I can make available on wi-fi locally should I need to. You don't strictly need to buy new hardware, although the R-Pi solution you link to is a good one.

You might find Derek Sivers' piece on tech independence useful for ideas

sive.rs
rf_fozzy
rf_fozzy
8 Jan
9:43pm, 8 Jan 2025
23,472 posts
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rf_fozzy
Thanks. I'm hoping for someone who's done this before (or similar) at the moment as I'm not quite sure if the pi will do what I want.

I'd rather not spend close to £1000 building an overspec'd sever when basically I just want a way of having a hard drive accessible from different devices

The bit I'm really not sure about is backing up and redundancy. Can I trust a modern external SSD? Or do I need 2 and regular backing up of the first?
Cerrertonia
Cerrertonia
8 Jan
10:13pm, 8 Jan 2025
22,587 posts
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Cerrertonia
They are far more reliable than a hard drive, but yes, a SSD can fail, so you need two and regular backing up of the first. Paying for cloud storage might be cheaper and easier?
Sam Jelfs
Sam Jelfs
8 Jan
10:19pm, 8 Jan 2025
1,573 posts
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Sam Jelfs
Why build, would a dedicated NAS not be sufficient if it's just for data storage?
jacdaw
jacdaw
8 Jan
10:34pm, 8 Jan 2025
4,700 posts
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jacdaw
We had a Buffalo Terastation running raid5 for redundancy over multiple traditional (IDE / sata?) disks, which was great for a while (several years), but we had multiple drive failures, so moved to cloud storage. The Buffalo was easy to access, appearing as another drive on our laptops. I always backed up the disks, so even when we lost the array completely, we had the data on external media.

If I wanted a similar server again I would go for a redundant system with SSDs, but there seems to be a view that the increased number of reads with raid5 kills SSDs quickly, so maybe just mirrored drives.
Unsafe Breadbin
Unsafe Breadbin
8 Jan
10:39pm, 8 Jan 2025
163 posts
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Unsafe Breadbin
I've built a Rpi4-powered NAS, running openmediavault to host movies and store backups which was simple enough. However that's connected to a 6tb external HDD. I imagine there are a myriad of build options with the newer Rpi5s, extension boards, nvme drives and such.

As an alternative, you can also build a dedicated NAS enclosure for far less than the proprietary brands are asking. I've always found
https://www.youtube.com/@nascompares
to be a good resource for tips and info on DIY builds.
Unsafe Breadbin
Unsafe Breadbin
8 Jan
10:41pm, 8 Jan 2025
164 posts
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Unsafe Breadbin
Sorry, don't think that link carried across properly. Try nascompares.com
FergusG
FergusG
8 Jan
10:53pm, 8 Jan 2025
5,834 posts
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FergusG
If you do want to build your own, you can use somewhere like PCSPECIALIST to create your own spec that suits your needs e.g. cheap processor, free Operating System (I use Ubuntu Server) but loads of storage.

I built the following in September 2023 for £755 (including VAT and delivery).

About This Thread

Maintained by rf_fozzy
For various reasons, I would like to build a home server for back-up and storage reasons so that I can move away from using external hard drives as erratic back-up.

I also want to be able to dump stuff from my phone to clear it out more frequently.

What is the best/cheapest way to do this?

I probably don't need more than a maximum 4TB back-up space - but do I need to double this and have 2x 4TB to enable a back-up? I know SSDs rarely fail (certainly compared to HDD), but it is poss...

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