Turn an old PC into a powerful NAS solution using UNRAID! 

Great to hear :) I'm really pleased you found this tutorial useful!

You're welcome and I believe you made a great choice!

I'm so pleased it helped and thanks for the kind words - I really appreciate them! More UNRAID videos coming soon (just been super swamped recently)

That is awesome! I'm pleased that the video helped :)

Awesome - thank you so much for your feedback and I'm super pleased that it was useful!

That's great Anthony, Really pleased to hear that the video helped :) - I'm sure you will be more than happy with UnRAID - It's a fantasic NAS solution. Best of luck with the install and your migration over to UnRAID :)

Hey @Krydolph, I really appreciate the message and thanks for your kind words! I do have many more videos planned and in the pipeline but I'm just so busy with other family related stuff at this time :( - So it's just a case of me finding some more time at the moment but I do have more exciting things planned that will hopefully be released very soon :)

I was looking at TrueNas too but there's a learning curve compared to unraid which seems more straight forward. I don't mind learning about TrueNas but a NAS is something you setup and leave it, then in a few months if you have issues you'll need to learn about TrueNas again which I can't be bothered. So unraid ticks most of the boxes with ease of use like a Synology does.

I don't think it's that much harder to set up TrueNAS than it is to setup Unraid. And what's important - TrueNAS is free and open source. You never have to worry that support will be dropped because even if that happens - the code is out there and the community will maintain it. Because the code is available you don't have to worry that something you don't know of is happening inside of the system. Basically you're the only owner of your NAS without any proprietary software on it. There is nothing that Unraid can do that TrueNAS or any other open source solution can't.

Synology is worth it. Thier data security and apps are so good. I have both, my main nas is a synology running apps like photos drive etc. I use unraid as a backup server that's on only when I need it for plex etc. Synology shr raid is also the best.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm really pleased that you found it helpful - Have fun with UNRAID :D Thanks for the sub too :)

You're very welcome!

You're welcome! - More UNRAID videos coming soon (including the one that was released a couple of hours ago)!

Thanks for the kind words, this evening I've released another UNRAID tutorial and more content (covering many more aspects) are coming soon! Thanks for the support too :+1

Keep the synology for data backup like photos drive and files etc. So much easier. Unraid docker is so simple compared to synology tho. Just search click and install.

Glad it was helpful! - I have a ton of other UNRAID related videos coming out soon, Docker and Plex will be something that I cover so stay tuned :)

Glad it was helpful!

@@TheBearTech definitely helped me get started. Now I have vms and dockers and all the scripts. Thanks!

I was able to create a boot usb, setup the server and do a completed parity sync. Then I shutdown, now I get Syslinux 6.03 error at boot-up. Maybe I need as newer motherboard.

Personally (and as I mentioned in the video) I use UNRAID primarily as I can easily extend my storage capacity with a mix of various disk... If you don't have this requirement then TrueNAS might be a good option for you... I would say that is the main thing you need to consider here :)

Sure am, I've been really busy recently (switching jobs) but am now ramping up YT video production again and, this evening, have released a new one (might not be useful for you specifically at this time) but more are coming in the near future too!

Thanks for your kind feedback :)

More coming soon (including the one I released this evening) - Stay tuned :)

Should be a simple TPM2.0 switch in BIOS to Enabled. My 2990wx was “ineligible” until I changed the setting in bios and next thing I know, I’m installing Windows 11.

I'm fairly sure that UNRAID doesn't support 2x USB boot drives (just use a single one, that's all you'll need) but yes, for the cache drives, it's most recommended that you use two (mirrored).

@@TheBearTech ok cool I may have misheard , also, what is the best way to transfer my files from a hard drive over to my. unRAID?. It's very important info so I don't want to lose it. I have my system setup and ready just curious how to transfer it over. So I can finally dump drive and icloud ha

@@Eddylive The best way to do this is to use "rsync" in my opinion, run a command such as "rsync -avzP /local-dir/ my-unraid-server:/share-name/" and this will retain all timestamps (when files were created etc) and enable you to restart the transfer if for whatever reason it is interupted. It probably goes without saying but double and triple check you have copied across all data before re-using the old drives.

This is the first I've heard of this , are you referring to the USB flash device getting eaten or the HDD's failing?

@@TheBearTech Most of the time usb is in a state of non persistence. I.E. read only mode and most of the data in use is stored in 🐏.... persistence mode data is read and writen to disk (usb in this case) depending upon THE I/O of the device it can be SLOW. However unlike most disks USB as a writable device will last a bit in a pinch. However its been found that even if left in a raid 1 config the amount of time between failures unlike standard sata 3... M.2, U.2, or even ide drives it is just not worth it to keep a writable OS on drive. Its capable... Its just not safe to keep it on usb due to its high failure rate. USB as a bootable and writable OS device will ultimately wear itself out quicker and cannibalize itself in the end. Its cheap... Its effective... Just as a long haul device not as much.

​@@benjamin1254 The USB is only used for the initial boot, the operating system is run directly from memory, configuration changes etc are updated to the USB as and when needed but that's all

Quote "An Unraid Server runs entirely from RAM, minimizing writes to the Flash device. However, it is also used to store vital system configuration data and must remain installed in your server during operation."

I have a few unraid machines. The oldest flash drive is 12+ years and still going strong. So no not a problem. Writes to the drive are minimal, so only used to load the kernel. The rest happens on the system.

Yes, absolutely. Once you have UnRAID setup, I would recommend installing the "Community Apps" plugin and then, from there you can download and install NextCloud (which is effectively a clone of OneDrive and other such cloud file hosting services).

@@TheBearTech Hey! Thanks for your quick reply. Definitely your video gave me a lot of confidence to set up UnRAID. Currently in the process of settng up drives in UnRAID, will set up for NextCloud once its finished. Again, thanks for your help :)

That is correct - Unless you're using an AMD processor without onboard graphics then yes, all Intel Processors come with onboard graphics - simply whip out your graphics card and it'll work fine :)

Will do - Stay tuned as I have a TON more UNRAID and Linux/Docker content coming in the next few weeks. How to install a virtual machine on UNRAID is already scheduled to go live next Wednesday (if that's of interest too!?)

You can indeed, UNRAID ships with an easy to configure WireGuard VPN which can enable you to access your server securely over the internet OR you can opt-in to LimeTech's (the company behind UNRAID) "My Servers" solution (which is free) and you manage your server remotely via. their website (if that's what you're after).

Hi Alpha, It's certainly recommended to use NAS drives (assuming you plan to keep your NAS 24/7 and have several drives in close proximity). I personally use a mixture of NAS drives (WD RED and Seagate IronWolfs) in my main NAS as it's on all the time and NAS drives are less prone to damage by vibration from nearby drives) but for this particular build I just used whatever I had as it's generally only switch on and backed up to once every couple of weeks. I hope this helps :+1

That's great to hear :) - I suspect, if your BIOS has a 2TB HDD limit (not that I have ever heard that being "a thing") I would recommend getting hold of a HBA (Host Bus Adapter) controller on eBay, that should get around that limit :) I would recommend (as they work great and are relatively cheap) the LSI 9210-8i card (such as the Dell H200 HBA just makesure that you get one that is "flashed" to "IT mode").

Hi Sam, Thanks for your comment - There is a TON of "apps" that can be downloaded on UNRAID that support remote backups from devices like phones... NextCloud (your own personal, hosted OneDrive) being one of those apps, install the NextCloud client on your phone too and you can easily (and automatically) backup your photos and other items from your phone to your UNRAID NAS too :) Hope this helps!

The white speakers are Kanto YU2 speakers :)

@@TheBearTech thanks buddy

Editing 4K video directly from the server would require faster network cards - I certainly would NOT recommend trying to edit 4K video from the NAS using 1G network cards - Upgrade to a 10G network card and that'll do that job perfectly.

Apologies for the late reply (I've been so busy recently but am producing and pushing more videos over the coming weeks) - In answer to your Q - yes, by using a VPN you can set that up... I'll cover that in an upcoming video for you!

It boots from a USB drive, but runs entirely in RAM. Very dependable.

I suspect that you don't have enough RAM (Memory) in your server to run it - I would suggest trying with 8GB and see if that works for you.

I would personally recommend buying an old beater PC yes, most PC's would work but if you wanted a suggested baseline - I would recommend anything higher than an Intel 4th gen i5 or i7 - AMD would work fine too though! Depending on if you wanted to run VM's and a ton of Docker containers too, ensure you have a fair amount of RAM - Suggest 16GB of RAM as a minimum otherwise, if you're just using for file storage, 4GB or 8GB of RAM should be plenty :) Hope this helps and best of luck with your build :)

@@TheBearTech Thanks so much. A steep learning curve in the beginning, that I gather flattens out after a bit/

@@DCW96161 absolutely but rest assured that you'll get the hang of it super quick... you'll love it once it's all installed - I guarantee it :D

The missing answer is yes

leave in the usb and rstart

Hi Kevin, Yes, sorry if this wasn't clear... I'm pleased to hear that you managed to work it out in the end (sorry for the late reply, I've been super busy recently).

Sorry for the delayed reply and although you've already found the answer (probably), you CAN convert a VMDK disk image to UNRAID (KVM) format but I don't believe that VMDK is supported natively (you'd have to convert it first)

By anychance, are you using a Lenovo laptop? I had a family member with the same problem!

It does not run on any OS - it IS a solution with it's on Linux underneath.

So sorry to hear that John - that's super bad luck! Depending upon the number of HDD's you have, you may need to increase the size of the PSU - I run 6 HDD's in my server at the moment and after installing the 6th, I had to upgrade the PSU from a 500W to a 700W in order to provide enough power - certainly sounds like this *may* be the issue you're having. Hopefully you'll be back up and running again soon though my friend!

@@TheBearTech No worries! Had a new PSU delivered today, installed and the unraid server is up and running! Well running the parity sync, which will probably finish tomorrow. Your video was so helpful, thank you! I am a subscriber for sure.

@@JohnNelson68 Great stuff, I'm really pleased to hear it! Enjoy your new UnRAID server :)

Integrated via the motherboard.

Thanks for the tip