Nas boot drive

[DragonWing_88]

Hey everyone 

I'm building a small nas/media server for my home. I'm trying to do it on the cheep so I picking up a used !7 computer off ebay and some used ram. I plan on getting new hard drives for the storage but I'm wondering about the boot drive. How big does my boot drive need to be? How critical is it if a boot drive fails? Is this something I can cheep out on and buy used? 

[Zando_]

What OS are you going to run on the NAS? 

[DragonWing_88]

12 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

What OS are you going to run on the NAS? 

TrueNas

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, DragonWing_88 said:

TrueNas

You probably only need like 32 for. boot drive, and it doesn't need to be that fast.

 

I'd probably get a small ssd here, you can get 128/256gb drives very cheap now. 

 

If the drive failes you can reinstall and havae all the data, but you lose all the config. I'd setup config backups in case you lose the boot drive.

[DragonWing_88]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You probably only need like 32 for. boot drive, and it doesn't need to be that fast.

 

I'd probably get a small ssd here, you can get 128/256gb drives very cheap now. 

 

If the drive failes you can reinstall and havae all the data, but you lose all the config. I'd setup config backups in case you lose the boot drive.

Thank you I appreciate the info

[silentdragon95]

And just in case you end up having too few SATA ports, it is also still possible to install TrueNAS on a USB stick. It technically hasn't been recommended in ages, but I've been doing it forever and only ever had one stick die after about two years, which is pretty good considering that a 32/64 GB USB 3.0 stick is about €7 on Amazon. If you're worried about downtime in case of a stick failing, it is also completely possible to use two USB sticks in a mirror (which feels silly but it works!). Just make sure to point the SWAP space to another volume that isn't the boot drive in this case, which can be done in settings.