old SATA drive to share media

[gralf]

Hi there, just reading about giving a second life to old HDD

I was wondering if this i doable

I have an old HDD, chuwi machine with proxmox, which runs a VM with home assistant and a LXC with Pihole.
Is it a good idea to buy a SATA-to-USB adapter and connect the HDD and share a folder from any, the VM or the LXC?
This just came up for the idea of taking advantage of the fact that I have my PC on 24/7.
Obviously i want this HDD to enter suspension mode when not in use, for power saving reasons and for keeping the life of the HDD itself.

 

[DerekG]

Hi there, just reading about giving a second life to old HDD

I was wondering if this i doable

I have an old HDD, chuwi machine with proxmox, which runs a VM with home assistant and a LXC with Pihole.

It's definitely doable, I would suggest another VM with Open media Vault to be used for sharing the drive over the network.

Having said that, shared storage tends to become more vital the more it's utilised, so even for starting out I would be looking at redundant drives & some form of backup. That is if you don't want the real headache when a family member stores some important data and then it's lost due to drive failure - that problem will be ALL on you if it happens.

 

[gralf]

It's definitely doable, I would suggest another VM with Open media Vault to be used for sharing the drive over the network.

Having said that, shared storage tends to become more vital the more it's utilised, so even for starting out I would be looking at redundant drives & some form of backup. That is if you don't want the real headache when a family member stores some important data and then it's lost due to drive failure - that problem will be ALL on you if it happens.

hi, yhx for your reply. Do you have something about suspension mode? I have read that a regular HDD will last short if up 24/7

 

[DerekG]

hi, yhx for your reply. Do you have something about suspension mode? I have read that a regular HDD will last short if up 24/7

I wouldn't worry about that too much, if the drive is shared (and other family members need access) then you want it to be always available. I know there is a way to tell OMV to spin down the drives, but I never use it myself.

More important than the longevity of the drive (that can always be replaced), more important is the data, your family photo's can't be replaced, or it could cost you 5-10 times the cost of the drive in data recovery service if it comes to that.! I can't stress enough how important thinking about what could happen in the future, is before you even start. I have seen lots of people literally crying due to drive failures.

 

[gralf]

well, letting it go suspend is important to me, I apreciate your concern about data store and backup, and you are right. but I have all can't lost data sored at several places. I know how valuable some pics are, mostly if thare are people gone.

So, you talked about OMV, is taht a system for suspending disks?

 

[DerekG]

So, you talked about OMV, is taht a system for suspending disks?

OMV is a file server application. with some extra's bolted on.

It does have the advanced power management for spinning down the drives, but as I say, I never use them.