doommood

I would suggest using OpenVPN/Wireguard to build a VPN network and Syncthing to synchronize data or Nextcloud to build a fully functional file server with synchronization capabilities. Personally, using OpenVPN with Nextcloud configured on a homelab server.

Yes. It is possible. It requires PXE and iSCSI servers to run on separate hosts. Use Tiny PXe Server with Starwind Virtual SAN to build such a server. http://reboot.pro/files/file/303-tiny-pxe-server/ https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san-free This guide should help with the configuration. http://labalec.fr/erwan/?p=1862

Backup hidden 505MB partition. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files-0320fe58-0117-fd59-6851-9b7f9840fdb2 Remove it. Extend C drive, keeping in the end 505MB free Restore the hidden partition.

I have just found on this list ST4000VN008 is not an SMR drive. https://nascompares.com/answer/list-of-wd-cmr-and-smr-hard-drives-hdd/ At this source, I have found it is actually a PMR drive. https://www.thestreamingblog.com/seagate-ironwolf-4tb-nas-hard-drive-review/

Oracle, AWS and Azure have free subscriptions allowing to create and use cloud VMs. Check them out. https://aws.amazon.com/free/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/ https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/

From what I have found, ST4000VN008 is SMR, 5400 RPM drive and WD40EZRZ is CMR, 7200 CMR drive https://blocksandfiles.com/2020/04/15/seagate-2-4-and-8tb-barracuda-and-desktop-hdd-smr/ https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-blue-desktop-sata-hdd#WD5000AZLX For general usage, I would suggest going with a CMR WD40EZRZ drive. It is good for random and sequential read and write operations thus you will get expected performance. https://www.vmwareblog.org/shopping-hdds-notes-right/

In order to clone one drive to another, both connected to the same computer, use Clonezilla. It is free-to-use software that allows performing the disk-to-disk clone. Here is the guide. https://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/03_Disk_to_disk_clone. Another approach would be using Macrium reflect to create a system backup of the first drive. It needs you to have another, the third drive to store the backup. It can be an external drive or a network share. Once you get the backup created, boot the computer from Macriums's recovery ISO and restore the system to the new (second) drive. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Use Starwinds converter. Once get XP converted into VHD or VMDK, create a Virtualbox VM, attach the virtual disk as a boot device, and boot the VM. Once set, get guest tools installed onto the VM. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter Another option that does the job is to use Clonezilla. Its image would allow you to restore the system to a virtual or physical machine. https://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/01_Save_disk_image https://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/02_Restore_disk_image

Backup and restore if you won't to/have no time to configure the operating system from scratch. Use Macrium Reflect. It allows to backup and restore a system to a new disk. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree Once restore you would just need to log into your Microsoft account to reactivate Windows.

Use built-in tools, such as Diskpart and Disk Management to format the new drive. https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-and-format-storage-drive-using-diskpart-windows-10

Linux Mint, Ubuntu, PopOS, Manjaro, MX Linux - all these distributions are good for daily driver usage. For a beginner user I highly recommend using Linux Mint Cinnamon as it provided similar to Windows user experience.

If you need just to copy data, use rsync on Linux or robocopy on Windows. https://www.garron.me/en/go2linux/rsync-backup-linux-using-rsync-to-backup-files-or-folder-under-linux.html https://adamtheautomator.com/robocopy-the-ultimate/ If you need to make a backup to store it in your backup HDD, proceed with duplicati. https://www.vmwareblog.org/single-cloud-enough-secure-backups-5-cool-cross-cloud-solutions-consider/

Another vote for Nextcloud. In case you would find it as overkill, LibrePhotos and Lychee are good alternatives. https://cloudcone.com/moving-away-from-google-photos-take-a-look-at-these-self-hosted-alternatives/

From what I found, there should be no problems with the backups. Some users had this for a while https://misdirectedrequest.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/synology-iscsi-pc-backblaze/ And the performance is quite well. Hopefully, Backblaze does not throttle the upload speed https://www.reddit.com/r/backblaze/comments/7yhnlm/large_files_upload_very_slowly/

I suggest you get a drive + cloud storage. Do not make it a single point of failure storing all data (backups) in one place. https://www.vmwareblog.org/3-2-1-backup-rule-data-will-always-survive/. E.g., Backblaze personal backup costs $6 per month https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html For instance, to add redundancy you can get a cheap 2-bay HDD enclosure and make it RAID 1. https://www.amazon.com/usb-raid-enclosure/s?k=usb+raid+enclosure&page=3