Author: David Shanske

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2011-09-25 06:23:49

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Are Refurbished Hard Drives Worth It? Buying Used Enterprise Drives for a NAS in 2026

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For most of the years I have been buying hard drives, I bought them new.

For servers and NAS systems, I generally preferred NAS or enterprise-grade drives from Western Digital, Seagate or Toshiba. Storage is one of the last places I want to discover that saving a few dollars was a bad idea.

Then my backup strategy started getting expensive.

I do not want my primary NAS to be the only copy of important files. I want redundant backups, including a copy stored somewhere physically separate from the primary NAS. Once you start duplicating tens of terabytes of storage, buying every drive new becomes a substantial expense.

So I tried something I previously would have avoided: refurbished enterprise hard drives.

I bought a pair through GoHardDrive for one of my secondary backup systems. That machine sits at a family member’s house and receives another copy of data from my primary NAS.

After using refurbished drives this way, I no longer think the answer is simply “never buy used storage.”

But I also would not buy an unknown used hard drive from a random marketplace seller simply because it is cheap.

In 2026, I think refurbished and recertified enterprise drives can be an excellent value for a NAS or backup server—as long as you understand what you are buying, test the drives when they arrive, buy from a seller that actually stands behind them, and never make one drive the only copy of anything important.

Quick Answer: Are Refurbished Hard Drives Worth It?

Yes, refurbished hard drives can be worth buying when:

The savings over a comparable new drive are substantial
You are buying from a reputable seller
The seller provides a meaningful warranty
You verify that the interface and sector format work with your system
You test the drive before trusting it with data
Your storage has redundancy
Your important data exists somewhere else too

I particularly like refurbished enterprise drives for:

Secondary NAS systems
Off-site backup servers
Large media libraries that can be recreated
Homelab storage
Cold or secondary copies of data

I am more conservative about using them when I am building a brand-new primary storage array containing important data, although I would not rule them out there either.

Use	Would I Consider Refurbished?	My Take
Off-site backup	Yes	One of my favorite uses
Secondary NAS	Yes	Excellent place to save money
Plex/media storage	Yes	Especially if the files exist elsewhere
Homelab	Yes	Enterprise capacity can be inexpensive
Primary NAS	Maybe	I would want good redundancy, testing and backups
Only copy of important files	No	I would not do this with a new drive either

Refurbished vs. Recertified vs. Used Hard Drives

These words are often treated as though they mean the same thing.

They do not necessarily.

Used Hard Drive

A used hard drive is exactly what it sounds like.

Someone used it and is now selling it.

That tells you almost nothing about:

How long it was used
What workload it handled
Whether it has been fully tested
Whether every sector has been checked
How it was stored
How it was shipped

I would be reluctant to buy an ordinary used drive without knowing considerably more.

Seller Refurbished

A seller-refurbished drive has been inspected or tested by the company reselling it.

The important question is what refurbished means to that seller.

Did someone plug it in and check whether it appeared in Windows?

Or did the seller inspect SMART data, perform read/write testing, scan the full disk surface and reject questionable drives?

Those are very different products even if both listings say “refurbished.”

Manufacturer Recertified

A manufacturer-recertified drive has gone through a recertification process associated with the original manufacturer.

That is generally more meaningful to me than a vague marketplace “renewed” label, but it still does not mean the drive is new.

And it does not automatically mean you receive the same warranty that came with the drive when it was originally sold.

ServerPartDeals, for example, distinguishes between manufacturer-recertified and seller-refurbished drives. Its manufacturer-recertified drives have been recertified by the original manufacturer, while the warranty on drives it sells may come from ServerPartDeals rather than the drive manufacturer.

Always check the exact listing.

Recertified Does Not Automatically Mean a Five-Year Warranty

This is something I would pay much closer attention to now than I did when I originally wrote this article.

Warranty terms vary enormously.

For example:

Many current GoHardDrive certified-refurbished enterprise listings advertise five-year seller warranties, although some products have shorter warranties.
Many ServerPartDeals manufacturer-recertified and seller-refurbished drives currently carry a two-year seller warranty.
Seagate says its factory-recertified drives sold through its own program include a six-month warranty.
Western Digital says recertified products purchased through its own store currently carry a 12-month manufacturer warranty.

That is why I would never write:

“Refurbished drives come with a five-year warranty.”

Some do. Some do not.

Before buying, I want to know:

Who provides the warranty?
How long does it last?
Does the seller pay return shipping?
Will I receive a replacement or refund?
How long is the initial return period?

A cheap 16TB drive with a real five-year seller warranty is a very different proposition from a cheap 16TB drive sold “as-is.”

Where Do Refurbished Enterprise Hard Drives Come From?

One reason this market exists is the enormous number of drives used in data centers and enterprise storage systems.

Businesses replace equipment for reasons that have nothing to do with an individual drive failing.

A data center may replace an entire generation of hardware because:

Higher-capacity drives make the rack space more valuable
A storage lease expires
Equipment reaches a planned refresh cycle
A server fleet is retired
Capacity is consolidated
The economics of operating older equipment change

The drives coming out of those systems can have years of power-on time.

That does not automatically make them bad drives.

But it absolutely makes their history relevant.

Yes, Some Refurbished Drives Have a Lot of Hours

If you expect a refurbished enterprise drive to arrive with 12 hours of use, you may be disappointed.

GoHardDrive currently has listings that explicitly disclose drives previously used in data centers for several years. ServerPartDeals also sells refurbished drives for which power-on-hour limits may be disclosed.

A drive that spent four or five years in a data center is not remotely equivalent to a new drive.

The question is whether the remaining useful life and warranty justify the price.

For my off-site backup use, that trade can make sense.

If I can buy substantially more redundant storage for the same budget, I am sometimes willing to accept an older drive—especially when failure means replacing the drive and rebuilding another copy rather than losing the only copy of my files.

Does a High Power-On-Hour Count Mean a Drive Is About to Fail?

No.

It also does not mean you should ignore the number.

Hard drives are mechanical devices. Bearings, motors, heads and other components accumulate use.

But there is no magic SMART value where a drive with 19,999 hours is safe and a drive with 20,001 hours is doomed.

A drive with many hours can run for years.

A brand-new drive can fail next week.

I use power-on hours as one piece of information rather than as a prediction of the date the drive will die.

What SMART Data Should You Check on a Refurbished Drive?

SMART—Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology—lets a hard drive report a variety of health and usage information.

At minimum, I would look at:

Power-on hours
Reallocated sectors
Current pending sectors
Offline uncorrectable sectors
Reported uncorrectable errors, where available
Interface CRC errors
Overall SMART health

The exact attribute names and meanings vary by manufacturer.

A CRC error can also come from a bad SATA cable or connection rather than damaged platters, so I would not treat every nonzero SMART counter as proof that the drive itself is dying.

SMART is useful.

It is not a crystal ball.

I Would Test a Refurbished Drive Before Putting It Into Service

This is probably the most important practical advice in this article.

I would not receive a refurbished 16TB hard drive, see that it powers on, immediately add it to a production array and start trusting it.

I want to exercise the drive first.

My initial testing would include:

Check the SMART data when the drive arrives.
Run the manufacturer’s or operating system’s extended drive test.
Perform a full-surface read test.
If practical before adding data, perform a full write/read test across the drive.
Check SMART data again afterward.

The important idea is to make the drive do some work while it is still easy to return.

A complete test of a very large hard drive takes a long time. A 16TB, 18TB or 20TB mechanical drive is not going to complete a full-surface exercise in twenty minutes.

Let it run.

I would much rather discover an error on day two than three months after adding the drive to a remote backup server.

Some Refurbished Sellers Do Substantial Testing Before Shipping

This is one reason I care who sells the drive.

ServerPartDeals currently describes a four-stage testing process that includes:

Physical inspection
SMART analysis
Read/write and throughput testing
A full sector scan

That is much more reassuring than a marketplace seller saying only “tested working.”

I would still test the drive myself after shipping.

Hard drives do not particularly enjoy being thrown around by delivery companies.

Packaging Matters More Than It Does for Most Computer Parts

A hard drive can be perfectly healthy when it leaves the seller and damaged by poor shipping.

This is another reason I prefer sellers that specialize in drives and server equipment.

A bare hard drive bouncing around inside an oversized cardboard box with one air pillow is not how I want storage shipped.

I want:

An anti-static bag
Substantial shock protection
A drive immobilized inside the package
A box appropriate for a heavy mechanical device

When a refurbished drive arrives, I inspect both the drive and packaging before putting it into service.

GoHardDrive vs. ServerPartDeals

These are the two sellers I would look at first if I were shopping for refurbished enterprise hard drives today.

GoHardDrive

GoHardDrive has been around for years and sells drives through its own site as well as marketplaces including Amazon.

I have personally bought refurbished drives from GoHardDrive.

What makes many of its listings attractive is the warranty. A number of its current certified-refurbished enterprise drives include five-year seller warranties.

The warranty varies by listing, so check rather than assume.

The 10TB HGST Ultrastar drive from my original article is still available through the same tracked Amazon listing:

Check the current price of the 10TB refurbished HGST Ultrastar on Amazon

I would still compare it with current new-drive pricing before buying. The refurbished market changes constantly, and a bargain at one price can be a poor deal after new drives go on sale.

ServerPartDeals

ServerPartDeals is another seller I would seriously consider.

It separates listings into categories including:

New
Manufacturer recertified
Seller refurbished

I particularly like that distinction because “refurbished” on the wider internet can mean almost anything.

ServerPartDeals also publishes details of its drive-testing and packaging procedures.

Many of its current refurbished and manufacturer-recertified drives carry a two-year seller warranty.

I have not personally bought drives from ServerPartDeals, so I am not going to turn that into a firsthand endorsement. It is simply one of the sellers I would compare based on its specialization, testing process and reputation.

Should You Buy Refurbished Enterprise Drives or New NAS Drives?

There is no automatic winner.

I would compare the actual cost per terabyte.

Suppose you are deciding between:

A new NAS drive with a full manufacturer warranty
A manufacturer-recertified enterprise drive
A seller-refurbished enterprise drive

If the refurbished drive costs 90% as much as new, I am probably buying new.

If it costs roughly half as much and comes from a seller I trust with a meaningful warranty, the decision gets much more interesting.

The lower cost can allow you to buy:

More capacity
An additional parity drive
A complete second backup
An off-site backup server

That last option is what changed the calculation for me.

I would rather have multiple copies of my important data on reasonably reliable hardware than spend the entire budget making one copy as expensive as possible.

Refurbished Enterprise Drives Can Be Very Different From NAS Drives

A Seagate Exos, WD Ultrastar or Toshiba MG enterprise drive was designed for a different environment from a typical desktop hard drive.

That can be an advantage.

Enterprise models are designed for heavy workloads and continuous operation.

But they can also be:

Louder
More noticeable when seeking
Higher power consumers
Warmer
Less pleasant in a NAS sitting beside your desk

I am much less concerned about drive noise in a basement server rack than in a Synology sitting three feet from my bed.

Know where the NAS will live.

Check SATA vs. SAS Before Buying

This is an easy way to buy a very cheap drive that you cannot use.

Enterprise drives are commonly available with either SATA or SAS interfaces.

Most ordinary PCs and consumer NAS boxes expect SATA hard drives.

A SAS drive does not simply plug into a standard SATA controller because the connectors look similar.

If your server has a proper SAS HBA or controller, SAS drives may be excellent options.

If you are putting drives into an ordinary Synology, UGREEN, TerraMaster or consumer motherboard, you probably want SATA unless you know otherwise.

Check before ordering.

Watch for 4Kn vs. 512e Drives

Enterprise storage listings may also identify drives as:

512e
4Kn

These refer to how the drive exposes its sector format to the operating system.

Modern storage systems can often handle 4K sectors, but compatibility can become an issue with older controllers, operating systems and some NAS appliances.

If you do not know whether your hardware supports 4Kn, a 512e SATA model is generally the simpler purchase.

This is another reason not to choose a drive based only on the lowest $/TB number.

What Is SATA Power Disable, and Why Won’t My Refurbished Drive Spin Up?

There is another wonderfully obscure enterprise-drive trap.

Some newer SATA enterprise drives support Power Disable, often called PWDIS.

On those drives, applying 3.3 volts to a particular SATA power pin tells the drive to remain powered off.

Some older desktop power supplies provide 3.3V on that pin even though the system has no idea what Power Disable is.

The result:

You install the perfectly healthy drive and absolutely nothing happens.

ServerPartDeals specifically warns buyers about this and supplies an adapter with some affected drives.

If a newly arrived enterprise SATA drive will not spin up in older hardware, check PWDIS compatibility before declaring the drive dead.

Check CMR vs. SMR Too

For RAID, ZFS and general NAS use, I prefer CMR drives.

SMR—shingled magnetic recording—can provide perfectly useful storage in the right workload, but its write behavior can create complications during sustained writes and array rebuilds.

Most large enterprise data-center drives you are likely to encounter in this market are CMR, but I still verify the exact model number before buying.

Model numbers matter more than marketing names.

Are Helium-Filled Refurbished Hard Drives a Problem?

Not inherently.

Many high-capacity enterprise drives use helium inside the sealed drive enclosure to reduce aerodynamic resistance.

There is nothing automatically wrong with buying one used or recertified.

But I would treat any SMART warning or indication of a sealing problem as a reason to investigate rather than shrugging because the drive appears to work.

Again, this is where buying from a seller with a real return policy is useful.

Should You Put Refurbished Drives in a Primary NAS?

I would consider it, but my standards would be higher.

If I were building a four- or six-drive primary NAS from refurbished enterprise drives, I would want:

A reputable source
A meaningful warranty
Full testing before deployment
Redundant storage
SMART monitoring
Regular scrubs where supported
A UPS and graceful shutdown
At least one completely separate backup

At that point, a refurbished-drive array can be a perfectly rational way to obtain a lot of capacity.

But if the savings were modest, I would still lean toward new drives for the primary NAS.

Our 2026 guide to the best home NAS systems covers the larger decision between Synology, UGREEN, TerraMaster and building your own NAS.

Refurbished Drives Make Even More Sense for a Backup NAS

This is where I became comfortable with them.

My primary NAS holds the active copy of my files.

I wanted another machine at a different physical location holding another copy.

That changes the risk calculation substantially.

If a drive in the remote backup server fails:

The primary data still exists.
The redundant backup system can identify the failed drive.
I replace the drive.
The backup copy is rebuilt.

That is inconvenient.

It is not a data-loss catastrophe.

Using refurbished enterprise drives allowed me to create more backup capacity for considerably less money than duplicating my primary storage entirely with new NAS drives.

For me, that is a good trade.

RAID Does Not Make Refurbished Drives Safe

This needs to be said every time storage comes up.

RAID is not a backup.

Neither is RAIDZ. Neither is a mirror.

Redundancy can protect you against a drive failure.

It does not automatically protect you against:

Accidental deletion
Ransomware
Filesystem corruption
A bad software update
Theft
Fire
Flood
Electrical damage
Losing the entire NAS

If the data is important, it should exist somewhere else.

This is true whether your drives are five years old or five minutes old.

A New Drive Can Fail Too

Buying new improves some parts of the equation.

You know the drive has not already spent years spinning in somebody else’s server. You usually receive the full original warranty. You have a known ownership history.

What you do not receive is a guarantee that the drive cannot fail.

This is why I do not design storage around predicting which individual disk will live longest.

I design it assuming any disk can eventually fail.

Then the question becomes whether the system survives that failure without losing data.

Don’t Buy All Your Safety in the Hard Drive

Suppose you have $1,000 to spend on storage.

There are situations where:

$1,000 of new drives in one machine

is less useful to me than:

$700 of drives in the primary system plus $300 toward a geographically separate backup.

The exact numbers will vary.

The principle does not.

Storage reliability is a system problem rather than a shopping problem.

You cannot buy a hard drive so expensive that backups become unnecessary.

Don’t Forget Power Protection

A storage server also depends on everything around the drives.

I use UPS battery backup for my NAS and networking equipment. I have experienced an unsafe shutdown during a power outage, and that made me considerably less casual about power protection.

A UPS does not need to operate the NAS all afternoon.

Its most important job may simply be to ride through a brief interruption or give the server enough time to shut down cleanly.

See our guide to the best UPS systems for a NAS and home network closet.

What NAS Software Should You Use With Refurbished Drives?

The drive does not particularly care whether you use TrueNAS, Unraid or OpenMediaVault.

But the storage architecture matters.

I currently use TrueNAS, which gives me ZFS checksums, scrubs, snapshots and redundant pool configurations.

Unraid is especially attractive if you are accumulating drives of different capacities over time. OpenMediaVault provides a lighter Debian-based NAS platform.

We compare all three in our updated guide to the best NAS software for home use.

My Checklist Before Buying a Refurbished Hard Drive

Before clicking Buy, I would check every one of these:

Check	Why It Matters
Seller	I want a company that specializes in drives and honors returns.
Condition	Used, seller refurbished and manufacturer recertified are different.
Warranty	Check who provides it and for how long.
SATA or SAS	A cheap SAS drive is useless if your system only accepts SATA.
512e or 4Kn	Make sure your controller and NAS support the sector format.
CMR or SMR	I prefer CMR for NAS and array workloads.
Power Disable	Some enterprise SATA drives need an adapter with older power supplies.
Physical size	Most enterprise HDDs are 3.5-inch drives.
Noise and power	Enterprise drives may be less pleasant in a quiet room.
Price per TB	Compare against new-drive sale prices, not MSRP.
Return window	You want time to perform a complete test.

What I Would Do When the Drive Arrives

Photograph the packaging if anything looks damaged.
Inspect the connectors and enclosure.
Confirm the model and capacity are what I ordered.
Read the SMART information.
Check the reported power-on hours.
Run an extended SMART test.
Perform a full-surface test.
Check SMART again for new errors.
Only then add the drive to the storage system.
Continue monitoring it after deployment.

A refurbished-drive bargain does not need to be treated like fragile contraband.

It just deserves more scrutiny than a new drive pulled from a sealed retail box.

When I Would Buy New Instead

I would probably buy new when:

The price difference is small
The NAS will contain the primary copy of important data
Noise and power efficiency matter a lot
I want the full manufacturer’s warranty
I need a particular current-generation model
I am building a small system where drives are not a large part of the total budget

A two-bay home NAS with two drives is a different economic problem from a backup server requiring eight large disks.

When I Would Buy Refurbished

I become much more interested when:

I need a lot of capacity
The savings per terabyte are substantial
The drive has a good seller warranty
The data is already backed up elsewhere
I am building a secondary or off-site NAS
I can easily replace and rebuild a failed drive
I am comfortable testing and monitoring the hardware

Frequently Asked Questions About Refurbished Hard Drives

Are refurbished hard drives reliable?

They can be. A properly tested refurbished enterprise drive may provide years of additional service, but it has an unknown or partially known prior history and often has substantial power-on time. Buy from a seller with a meaningful testing process and warranty, and design your storage assuming any individual drive can fail.

Are manufacturer-recertified drives better than refurbished drives?

I generally give manufacturer recertification more weight than an undefined seller-refurbished label, but the seller’s testing and warranty still matter. A manufacturer-recertified drive sold with a strong seller warranty may be very attractive.

How many power-on hours are too many for a used hard drive?

There is no universal cutoff. Power-on hours are useful context, but they cannot tell you exactly how much life remains. I would consider the hours together with SMART health, full-surface testing, price, warranty and the role the drive will serve.

Should I buy refurbished drives for TrueNAS?

You can. I would thoroughly test them first, use an appropriate redundant ZFS configuration and maintain an independent backup. TrueNAS cannot make an unreliable disk reliable, but ZFS provides useful integrity checking, scrubbing and redundancy features.

Can I mix new and refurbished drives in a NAS?

Yes, assuming the drives are compatible with your storage layout and hardware. The NAS does not require every disk to have the same ownership history.

Should refurbished drives be used for backups?

I think this is one of their best uses. My own refurbished enterprise drives were purchased for a geographically separate backup system. The important requirement is that the backup drive itself must not become the only copy of the data.

Is a five-year seller warranty the same as a five-year manufacturer warranty?

No. If a reseller promises the warranty, that reseller—not Seagate, Western Digital or Toshiba—may be responsible for replacing the drive. I care about the reputation and longevity of the seller when evaluating that promise.

Can I use a SAS enterprise hard drive in my desktop or NAS?

Usually not unless the system has SAS support. Most consumer motherboards and NAS appliances use SATA. Verify the interface before ordering.

Why won’t my enterprise SATA drive power on?

Some enterprise drives support SATA Power Disable. Older power supplies can apply voltage to the Power Disable pin and keep the drive switched off. An appropriate power adapter or compatible backplane can solve this particular issue.

Are enterprise drives too loud for home use?

They can be noticeably louder than quieter consumer and NAS models, especially during seeks. I have little concern about that in a remote backup server or basement rack, but I would think harder before filling a NAS sitting on my desk with enterprise drives.

Would I Buy Refurbished Hard Drives Again?

Yes.

I would not use that answer as an excuse to buy the cheapest used disk I can find.

What changed my mind was realizing that drive reliability is only one part of data reliability.

I care about:

The drive
The seller
The warranty
The testing
The storage layout
The monitoring
The backup
Where that backup physically lives

A new hard drive used as the only copy of irreplaceable data is a bad storage plan.

A carefully tested refurbished enterprise drive sitting in a redundant off-site backup system can be part of a very good one.

For me, the attraction is not that refurbished drives are somehow just as good as new drives in every respect.

They aren’t new.

The attraction is that they can make large amounts of redundant storage dramatically more affordable.

When that lower cost allows me to keep another complete copy of my data somewhere else, I am willing to make the trade.

More Home NAS and Storage Guides

Published on July 21, 2024

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Amazon Prime Deal Alert: Keychron C3 Pro Keyboard QMK/Via Hotswap

I previously reviewed the C3 Pro keyboard. I’d gotten the C3 regular edition for $29.99 and was happy with that. However, today, the hotswap version is showing at $29.99 for Prime members(Link here). The keyboard comes in two switch varieties, red and brown. It offers a red backlight in the non-hotswap version and full RGB in the hotswap edition. The keycaps are replaceable, but the switches are not.

To remind everyone, the C3 is a TKL….a full keyboard less the number pad. It supports QMK/Via, which allows you to reprogram the keyboard and save the configuration to the device itself, over having it in software, meaning it doesn’t carry between computers.

The Keychron C3 Pro continues to be a great budget deal, and the fact they released a hotswap version, and now are selling at such a low rate…I hope they create this quality level of board at this price point in different form factors.

Published on July 15, 2024

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Woot Offers Great Sale on Last Generation Q Series Keychron Keyboards

Although not without their caveats, Keychron has a reputation as a reliable and quality brand of Keyboards. Their top of the line Q series, as of the original date of this post, is on sale over at Woot through July 12, while supplies last(link) as well as some from the K series.

These are the previous generation. They are slowly being replaced by the Q Max series, which adds wireless vs the Q. For the K, they are moving to K Pro(QMK/VIA support), and now the K Max as well.

So, these are popular, if last year’s models being sold.

These are great buys, especially for a Q series, which is an all aluminum construction with plenty of insulating foam…it can make anything sound great.

Published on July 8, 2024

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Typing Off Key: Do Keyboards Really Need These Legacy Keys and Can You Reuse Them?

With my recent interest in keyboards and customization of keys, I keep thinking of all the keys on the keyboard I don’t use. The latest keyboard I acquired has an F13 button, and it made me think…what is that doing there? So, I thought I should cover a few keys I question whether or not I really need, and might be able to repurpose.

Caps Lock – Chromebooks already got rid of the Caps Lock key. On my 40% keyboard, I set Caps Lock using a Tap-Hold function on the Shift key. When you tap the shift key, it triggers Caps Lock, otherwise, holding it is a shift. Double-tap is a common caps lock command on Smartphone keyboards. Also, the key is 1.75u…so even if you keep it, it takes up more space than a traditional key. On a Colemak layout, the Caps Lock position serves as a second backspace key to allow it to be reached by both hands.
Scroll Lock – This used to be used to change the behavior of the arrow keys, but it is not usually used for that outside of some programs any longer, making it less useful. On one keyboard I have, this was replaced by a microphone mute key.
Pause/Break – We’re back to….this doesn’t seem to do much on modern computers. On one keyboard I have, this was replaced by a control key for the lighting.
Num Lock – Num lock locks the keypad to numbers. Without it, the keypad can act as arrows, as well as having functions for home, end, insert, delete, page up and page down. Things pretty much every keyboard with a built in number pad already has.
Menu Key – Also known as the Application key, it has been used to launch a context menu with the keyboard, as opposed to a right mouse click. Microsoft recently decided to start replacing this with a Copilot or Search button.
Function Keys – Most keyboards has F1-F12. Macs remap these to media keys, which are often a secondary function on Windows systems. But computers actually support up to 24 function keys…thus my weird F13. These can be mapped in software to trigger operating system functions and are often used by default by software.. But, you can also just lock them to the media functions if you want to.

This doesn’t factor in the ANSI layout popular in the US with the alternate ISO layout popular in Europe. On the ISO keyboard, the Enter key is a larger L shaped key, the left shift is smaller to make space for another key, the right Alt is often replaced by a key to support additional languages, and the extra long backslash key is gone.

On many keyboard formats, some of these keys are omitted and generated using combinations of other keys. So, is this just a pointless exercise? I don’t think so. So many new keyboards still have all these keys, and they are sitting there, and you might as well use them for something, if not their original intention.

Published on July 7, 2024

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A New 4 Bay Network Attached Storage(NAS) Option: The Aoostar Mini PCs

In a previous post, I had mentioned how tempting the Aoostar Mini PC was if I’d needed a 2 bay NAS. I’d wanted a 4 bay NAS. Of course, the 2 bay would be perfect for a remote backup receiving location, over my primary location, where I would want more redundancy. I’ve already ended up with 2 4 bay NAS options, but I’d looked at Aoostar, and they’d promised a 4 bay version at the time. But now, apparently they have it.

It hasn’t made its way to Amazon, where I often link because I don’t like having to wait for things to be drop shipped from the factory, but it is on the manufacturer’s website. If this had been available a few months ago, this would have probably been my purchase. It has the N100 processor I like as a budget low power processor, a good SATA chipset, decent looking ventilation…supports an NVME slot for the drive, 2.5 gigabit LAN…

It is just a lesson, there is always something new around the corner. You can either wait, or get the best available and not sweat the small stuff.

Published on July 5, 2024

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Peeling Back The Keyboard Onion, Layers Upon Layers: Reprogramming Your Keyboard

In a previous post, I briefly mentioned QMK and VIA.

QMK is compiled firmware for supported keyboards. This allows you to load firmware with custom functionality and maps onto a keyboard. This allows you to customize nearly every aspect of the keyboard’s behavior. So, what is VIA? VIA is a feature in QMK that lets you change your keymap on your keyboard without needing to reflash firmware. Some keyboards, Epomaker ones come to mind, have implemented VIA support without QMK…or at least possibly violating the open source license of QMK. I could live with that, I’m not an open source purist, but their implementation is also frequently incomplete and buggy.

There is also a fork of Via called Vial, which requires porting firmware to include support for additional QMK firmware features in software.

The advantage of all of these options is you can reprogram and customize the behavior of your keyboard and save it to the keyboard…making it independent of any computer. Many keyboards provide driver software that can do ‘some’ of the same things, but they are also only for Windows. I’m a Linux user, so I’m often out of luck there. Linux does have some key remapping options, but my current recommendation is a very low level option called keyd. It remaps keys at that level, and supports a lot of the features that you usually need QMK for. Keyd supports multiple keyboards with different layouts, modifying based on the USB vendor ID of the keyboard, and always you to remap any key combination and even add layers.

So, let’s dig into some of the features. Layers are built into most keyboards using the FN key…when you press it, this allows for different keys. Layers are essentially overlapping keyboard maps, which can be triggered. The Mac/Windows toggle on your keyboard, if you have one, toggles between two keyboard maps. The FN key activates a new layer when it is held. I have coded something in QMK to actually change the backlight color of a keyboard to indicate what layer was activated.

QMK/VIA allows the following sorts of behaviors to be triggered by keypress

Change the default layer
Activate layer when key is held
Activates layer when held, keypress when tapped
Activates layer until next key is pressed
Toggle the layer on/off
Tap the key 5 times to lock the layer in place.

Increasingly, discerning keyboard users are demanding this feature on keyboards. I wrote about the budget C3 Pro from Keychron, which is a full QMK/VIA supported TKL. The other budget option I found was the Skyloong GK61 60% hotswappable QMK/VIA keyboard. Budget as in, under $50. The 50-100 market is getting options as well. This shouldn’t be a luxury feature, and increasingly it isn’t.

My layer needs are very simple. I have a 75% keyboard which has Delete, Page Up, and Page Down on the right side…which means no Home, End, Insert. The 75% profile is not consistent about what keys will be offered in the format factor. With a QMK/VIA keyboard, I could make those keys whichever ones I wanted, change the keycaps…and it would behave that way forever. This keyboard though, doesn’t have that…so I’m using the keyd daemon…which of course means if I move to another computer, it no longer works.

The icing on the cake for these options are macros. The ability to trigger sequences of entries. And again, with QMK/VIA can be stored in the keyboard itself.

So, why not check this out? And here’s hoping more manufacturers include the option.

Published on July 4, 2024

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This May Be the ODroid You Are Looking For: ODroid H4 Series

In a previous post, I was excited about the arrival of the ODroid H4+. Then I got a bit nervous because of broken SATA connector on the board. For one, the longevity of the product, having never bought anything like this in the ODroid line, and that Ameridroid would make the return difficult. As mentioned, I had no evidence of that, but dealing with returns is stressful at times, and I think I may have imagined the worst based on some of my less pleasant dealings with other companies.

A few conclusions about the ODroid H4+…The Type 4 NAS case and the positioning of the SATA ports puts too much stress on the SATA cables. You need to buy the ODroid cables because I can’t find anyone else who sells the exact same power cables, as power for the drives comes off the board. I opted to switch to this thinner set of bundled cables. There is a right angle version, but I’m not sure, due the positioning of the ports, if you could place this without straining the ports, which after what happened, I’m a bit worried up. But the thinner cabling does seem to strain less.

Thinking about this for the future, I also had gotten a Jonsbo N2 and put a mini ITX board in it. That feels a lot more robust than the ODroid’s metal sheet case, but it also takes up a lot more room.

As I write this, I’m running tests on some drives I bought to place in it, and then I will work on deployment. You can see below how tiny this thing is, but the fact that the hard drives are providing the structural support makes me wonder about its longevity. I would have felt better it there had been some corner brackets. Also, there are no dust shields around the ports, and the bottom is open. So it could accumulate a lot of dust.

The ODroid line is popular, and if you look, all of these cases for the H4 line and its predecessor, the H3 line have this scratchbuilt in a garage feel to them. But, just because something has that look and feel doesn’t mean it is bad. I would recommend this as a server.

Published on June 18, 2024

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A Guide To Choosing Switches For Your Budget Silent Keyboards

In order to learn more about assembling keyboards, I’ve been buying a series of budget keyboard equipment. In a previous post, I had talked about buying a barebones TKL keyboard in the mid twenty range and filling it with switches and keycaps. More recently, I found myself stumbling across these $20 hefty barebones 75% keyboards, which I’d share the link to if it hadn’t sold out and been delisted rather quickly. It seems to be older stock someone was clearing out, which is a lesson that you can get some reasonable deals if you hunt around Amazon. Some people prefer something like Aliexpress, because certainly you can get some good deals drop-shipped from China, but I find Amazon has a bit more payment protection.

The switches I tried in my previous post were silent linear switches, but there are also silent tactile. Tactile switches provide a bump through the keystroke, which many individuals prefer, especially those who type a lot.

To evaluate switches of the same type, we need a few more terms. Actuation or operating force is the amount of force needed to activate the switch. Lighter switches may allow for fast registering of keypresses, but they can also increase mistakes due accidental triggering of a key. Heavier switches may reduce accidental keypresses, and can also cause fatigue after long typing sessions. The pre-travel is the distance the switch travels before it is pressed.

I explored a few switches. The Gamakay Pegasus Silent Pegasus Switches, which has a 50g actuation force and 2mm pre-travel. It is reasonably priced at well. Then I checked out the Outemu Silent Yellow Jade Switch, which is even less expensive, and also has a 50g actuation force, but a 3.3mm travel. There are also ones that require less force, for example, the Outemu Lime. Force is a matter of preference. I’ve found the Silent Yellows feel better to me.

Trying out switches is an endless road of preference. There are multiple vendors, multiple types(we didn’t even get into clicky as they aren’t silent deliberately), and a variety of opinions. Today, I’m enjoying the Silent Yellow Jades, tomorrow, I may try something different.

Published on June 5, 2024

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Best NAS Software for Home Use in 2026: TrueNAS vs Unraid vs OpenMediaVault

I originally wrote this article in 2024 while deciding what software to use for a home-built NAS. The basic question has not changed, but the software has.

TrueNAS has consolidated its Linux-based platform under the name TrueNAS Community Edition. Unraid has added much more ZFS support and changed its licensing. OpenMediaVault has moved to Debian 13 with OpenMediaVault 8.

My own answer has not changed very much.

My current NAS runs TrueNAS on a low-power Intel N100 system. I chose it because I wanted the NAS to behave primarily like a storage appliance. I have other computers for applications, containers and general home-server work. I want the box containing my files to be boring.

But that does not mean TrueNAS is automatically the best NAS software for everyone.

If I were building a home server around a collection of mismatched hard drives and wanted Plex, Docker containers and virtual machines on the same machine, I would look very seriously at Unraid. If I wanted a lightweight, completely free NAS operating system for modest hardware, OpenMediaVault would be hard to ignore.

Here is how I would choose between them in 2026.

Quick Answer: Best NAS Software for Home Use in 2026

NAS Software	Best For	Biggest Advantage	Main Tradeoff
TrueNAS Community Edition	Storage-first NAS, ZFS, snapshots and data integrity	Excellent integrated ZFS storage platform	Storage layout requires more planning
Unraid	Home servers, mixed drive sizes, Plex, Docker and easy expansion	Very flexible storage and application platform	Costs money and its classic array works differently from traditional RAID
OpenMediaVault	Free lightweight NAS, older hardware and Linux users	Simple Debian-based foundation with low overhead	More dependent on plugins and manual configuration for advanced features

If you want my short recommendation:

Choose TrueNAS if protecting and managing storage is the primary purpose of the machine.
Choose Unraid if you want one box to be both your NAS and your home server.
Choose OpenMediaVault if you want a free, lighter-weight NAS platform and are comfortable doing a little more yourself.

The Most Important Question: Is This a NAS or a Home Server?

A lot of NAS software comparisons start with features.

I would start somewhere else.

Decide what job you want the computer to have.

A dedicated NAS has a relatively simple job:

Store files
Share files over the network
Protect those files against a drive failure
Create snapshots
Monitor drive health
Replicate or back up important data
Stay running quietly for years

A home server may also run:

Plex or Jellyfin
Home Assistant
Immich
Nextcloud
Docker containers
Virtual machines
Game servers
Download clients
Web services
Dozens of other self-hosted applications

TrueNAS, Unraid and OpenMediaVault can all stretch beyond simple file storage.

But they approach the problem from different directions.

TrueNAS feels like storage software that learned how to run applications.

Unraid feels like a home-server platform that is also very good at storing files.

OpenMediaVault feels like Debian turned into a manageable NAS appliance.

That is a more useful way to think about the choice than counting checkboxes.

TrueNAS Community Edition: Best for a Storage-First NAS

TrueNAS is still my choice for my primary home NAS.

The main reason is ZFS.

ZFS combines the filesystem and volume-management layers and provides features that are particularly attractive for storage:

End-to-end checksums
Snapshots
Data scrubbing
Replication
Compression
RAIDZ redundancy
Mirrored pools
Dataset-level management

For a box whose main job is protecting a large collection of files, those are exactly the features I want.

TrueNAS CORE vs. SCALE Is No Longer the Decision

This was one of the biggest areas of confusion when I first wrote this article.

TrueNAS used to have two major community platforms:

TrueNAS CORE, based on FreeBSD
TrueNAS SCALE, based on Linux

That is no longer the way I would approach a new installation.

TrueNAS SCALE was renamed TrueNAS Community Edition in 2025 and is now the company’s primary free community platform.

TrueNAS CORE entered sustaining engineering, and TrueNAS says 13.3-U1.2 was the final release in that train. New development is happening on Community Edition.

If I were installing TrueNAS from scratch in 2026, I would use Community Edition rather than begin a new CORE system.

At the time of this update, TrueNAS 25.10 is the current stable release family, while TrueNAS 26 is still moving through beta development. You can check the current TrueNAS software status before installing.

TrueNAS Is More Flexible to Expand Than It Used to Be

One of the longstanding criticisms of ZFS was that you needed to plan your storage layout carefully before filling the pool.

That criticism is less severe than it once was.

TrueNAS now supports RAIDZ expansion, which allows an existing RAIDZ vdev to be expanded by adding drives one at a time.

That is a significant improvement for home NAS builders who do not want to buy every drive on day one.

There are still reasons to plan carefully. The capacity of drives inside a vdev, parity level and layout all affect usable capacity and performance. Adding a drive to RAIDZ also does not make every historical block magically identical to a freshly created larger vdev.

But the old advice that a RAIDZ configuration is essentially frozen forever is outdated.

TrueNAS Hardware Requirements

TrueNAS is not particularly demanding by modern computer standards, but it is heavier than a bare-bones Linux NAS.

The current minimum recommendations include:

64-bit x86 processor
At least 8GB of RAM
A dedicated boot device
Separate drives for the storage pool

More RAM becomes useful as storage, applications, virtual machines and client workloads increase.

My N100-based NAS is a good example of why I like building rather than automatically buying a commercial appliance. Modern low-power CPUs can provide plenty of performance for ordinary home file serving while using very little electricity.

If you would rather buy the whole box instead of building one, see our guide to the best NAS systems for home use in 2026.

You Can Run Apps on TrueNAS

TrueNAS is no longer merely a file server.

Community Edition can run applications and virtual machines, and the platform continues to expand its container capabilities.

You can absolutely use one TrueNAS machine as both your storage system and a broader home server.

I simply prefer not to.

Every extra service I put on the storage machine creates another dependency, another update and another thing that can break.

I would rather reboot a home-server machine without thinking about every computer in the house suddenly losing its file shares.

That is a preference, not a requirement.

What I Like About TrueNAS

Excellent ZFS integration
Strong snapshot and replication tools
Free and open source Community Edition
Good storage monitoring
RAIDZ and mirrored storage layouts
RAIDZ can now be expanded incrementally
Apps and virtual machines are available if you want them
Large user and documentation base

What I Don’t Like About TrueNAS

You should understand ZFS and vdev layout before creating the pool.
It is heavier than a minimal NAS operating system.
Mixing random drive sizes is less elegant than it is with Unraid’s classic array.
The number of storage options can be intimidating for a first-time builder.
It can tempt you to turn a storage appliance into an everything-server simply because the features are available.

Unraid: Best for Flexible Home Servers and Mixed Drives

Unraid solves a different problem extremely well.

Suppose you already own:

One 16TB hard drive
Two 12TB drives
An 8TB drive
A couple of SSDs

And you would like to turn all of that into one useful server without replacing the drives simply to make everything match.

That is exactly the kind of situation where Unraid becomes attractive.

How the Unraid Array Works

Unraid’s traditional array does not stripe every file across all of the disks in the way conventional RAID does.

Files live on individual data disks, while one or two parity disks can protect the array against drive failures.

The parity drive must be at least as large as the largest data drive, but the data disks themselves can differ in size.

That makes expansion unusually convenient.

If you need more capacity, you can often add another disk rather than rebuilding the entire storage layout around a matching set.

For a home user accumulating storage over many years, that flexibility has real value.

Unraid Also Supports ZFS

The old shorthand that “TrueNAS is ZFS and Unraid isn’t” is no longer accurate.

Modern Unraid supports ZFS storage pools in addition to its classic parity-protected array and other storage pools.

That gives you choices.

You might use:

The Unraid array for large-capacity media storage
An SSD pool for applications and fast data
A ZFS pool for data where you specifically want ZFS features

That combination is one of the reasons Unraid has become such an interesting all-purpose home-server platform.

Unraid Is Especially Good at Applications

This is where I think Unraid has its clearest advantage for many homelab users.

Docker containers, virtual machines and the Community Apps ecosystem are central to the experience rather than feeling like features added around a storage appliance.

If you want one machine running:

Plex
Jellyfin
Immich
Nextcloud
Home Assistant
Download applications
Game servers
Windows or Linux virtual machines

while also holding a large collection of files, Unraid makes a lot of sense.

Unraid Pricing in 2026

Unlike TrueNAS Community Edition and OpenMediaVault, Unraid is commercial software.

Current pricing is:

License	Price	Storage Devices	Updates Included
Starter	$49	Up to 6	1 year
Unleashed	$109	Unlimited	1 year
Lifetime	$249	Unlimited	Lifetime

The licenses themselves are perpetual. Starter and Unleashed include a year of updates; you can continue using the version you have after that or pay to extend update access.

Check Unraid’s current pricing before buying in case the structure changes.

For a server that may contain thousands of dollars of drives and years of your data, I do not consider $49 or $109 an inherently unreasonable software expense.

The question is whether Unraid’s flexibility provides enough value for your particular build.

What About Unraid 8?

Unraid announced Unraid 8 in August 2026, with planned changes including a new distribution base, Docker Compose integration and integrated backup features.

That is interesting, but I would not delay a NAS build or choose a platform based primarily on unreleased software.

Buy or install the platform based on what it does today.

What I Like About Unraid

Excellent support for mismatched drive sizes
Easy incremental expansion
Very good Docker and application experience
Strong community ecosystem
Virtual machines are well integrated
ZFS pools are now available alongside the classic Unraid array
Works particularly well as a combined NAS and home server

What I Don’t Like About Unraid

It is not free.
The classic Unraid array is a different storage model from RAIDZ or conventional RAID and should be understood before use.
Running every service on one machine can make that machine increasingly important and complicated.
Users who only want a storage appliance may never use much of what makes Unraid attractive.

OpenMediaVault: Best Free Lightweight NAS Software

OpenMediaVault is the option I think gets overlooked most often.

OpenMediaVault 8 is based on Debian 13 and provides a web interface for managing a NAS without requiring you to configure every service manually from the command line.

It supports ordinary NAS functions including:

SMB/CIFS file sharing
FTP
SSH
rsync
Drive health monitoring
Volume management
Network configuration
Notifications
Plugins

The result is something much closer to a conventional Linux server than TrueNAS, but much easier to administer as a NAS than installing Debian and building everything manually.

OpenMediaVault’s Biggest Advantage Is Simplicity

OpenMediaVault does not impose as much of a storage philosophy on you.

You have Debian underneath. You have a web interface on top. You can add the services you actually need.

That makes it useful for:

An old PC being repurposed as a NAS
A low-power small computer
A simple two-drive or four-drive file server
Users who already understand Linux
People who want free NAS software without adopting the full TrueNAS ecosystem

OpenMediaVault also has a large plugin ecosystem that can add functionality beyond the base installation.

The Tradeoff Is Integration

TrueNAS is built around ZFS.

Unraid is built around its storage array and home-server ecosystem.

OpenMediaVault is more modular.

That flexibility is useful, but it also means that some configurations depend on plugins, additional packages or more manual decisions.

If you want a carefully integrated ZFS appliance, I would choose TrueNAS.

If you want a deeply integrated Docker-heavy home server, I would lean toward Unraid.

If you want Debian with a good NAS management interface and the freedom to shape the machine yourself, OpenMediaVault becomes very appealing.

What I Like About OpenMediaVault

Free and open source
Based on standard Debian Linux
Lower hardware overhead
Web-based administration
Good choice for repurposed hardware
Modular plugin architecture
Easy to understand if you already know Linux

What I Don’t Like About OpenMediaVault

Advanced setups can rely heavily on plugins.
The storage experience is less unified than TrueNAS.
The application ecosystem is less central to the platform than it is with Unraid.
You may end up doing more Linux administration yourself.

TrueNAS vs. Unraid vs. OpenMediaVault: Feature Comparison

Feature	TrueNAS	Unraid	OpenMediaVault
Software cost	Free	$49-$249	Free
Best storage model	ZFS pools	Parity array plus storage pools	Flexible Linux storage
ZFS	Core feature	Supported	Possible with additional configuration/plugins
Mixed-size drives	Possible, but planning matters and each vdev is constrained by its smallest member	Excellent in classic array	Depends on chosen storage configuration
Easy drive-by-drive expansion	Improved with RAIDZ expansion	Excellent	Depends on configuration
Snapshots	Excellent with ZFS	Available depending on storage pool/filesystem	Depends on filesystem/plugin setup
Docker/apps	Yes	Excellent	Available through additional components/plugins
Virtual machines	Yes	Excellent	Not a primary strength
Minimum hardware	Moderate	Moderate	Light
Best personality	Storage appliance	All-in-one home server	Lightweight Linux NAS

Which NAS Software Is Best for Data Integrity?

I would choose TrueNAS.

ZFS is central to the platform rather than one filesystem option among many.

Checksums, scrubs, snapshots and replication are all integrated into how TrueNAS expects storage to be managed.

You can absolutely build safe storage with the other platforms. But if storage integrity is the reason the machine exists, TrueNAS is the easiest answer for me.

Which NAS Software Is Best for Plex?

I would probably choose Unraid if I were building a combined Plex server and NAS.

The combination of flexible drive expansion, Docker applications and hardware passthrough makes it particularly well suited to a large media server.

You can run Plex on TrueNAS too.

But if Plex and other self-hosted applications are central to the server rather than secondary functions, I think Unraid’s priorities line up better with the job.

Which NAS Software Is Best for Old Hardware?

I would look first at OpenMediaVault.

It is lighter and closer to ordinary Debian Linux.

TrueNAS officially recommends at least 8GB of RAM, while a simple OpenMediaVault system can be useful on much more modest hardware.

That does not mean every old PC is a good NAS.

Power consumption matters. A free twelve-year-old tower that idles at 80 watts can cost more to own than buying newer low-power hardware.

Which NAS Software Is Best If Your Drives Are Different Sizes?

Unraid has the clearest advantage.

The classic Unraid array was designed around exactly this problem.

You can add different-capacity data drives as long as the parity drive is large enough for the largest data disk.

If you have accumulated a pile of usable drives over the years and want to turn them into one system, Unraid can save a lot of money.

Which NAS Software Is Best If You Want to Add Drives Later?

Unraid remains the easiest answer, but TrueNAS is much more competitive than it was when I first wrote this article.

RAIDZ expansion now lets TrueNAS users add drives to an existing RAIDZ vdev one at a time.

That removes one of the biggest historical advantages Unraid had over ZFS for small home systems.

Unraid is still more forgiving if your future drives are likely to be whatever capacity happens to be cheap when you need more storage.

Should You Run Your NAS Inside Proxmox?

You can.

That does not necessarily mean you should.

Proxmox is primarily a virtualization platform rather than NAS software. A common homelab design is to run TrueNAS or another NAS operating system as a virtual machine under Proxmox.

If you do this, the storage controller or physical disks should be presented to the NAS in a way that gives the storage operating system appropriate direct access.

This can be an excellent design when you understand the virtualization and storage layers.

For my primary storage, I prefer fewer layers.

I want the NAS operating system running directly on the hardware because the ability to run another virtual machine on the same box is not worth making recovery more complicated for me.

Why Not Just Install Debian or Ubuntu?

You certainly can.

That is effectively what I did with some of my older home-server systems.

Install Linux, configure Samba, configure NFS, set up SMART monitoring, create filesystems, configure snapshots, configure notifications and maintain everything yourself.

It works.

It also made me appreciate NAS software.

The point of TrueNAS, Unraid or OpenMediaVault is not that Linux cannot share a directory.

The point is that I want storage management to behave like an appliance instead of becoming another custom Linux project I have to remember how I configured three years later.

What About Synology DSM, UGREEN UGOS and TerraMaster TOS?

Those are important NAS operating systems, but they are primarily part of buying their manufacturers’ NAS hardware rather than software I would normally install on a DIY server.

If you want the simplest home NAS experience, that may actually be the better route.

I would still recommend a prebuilt NAS to many friends before recommending that they build a server and install any of the software in this article.

Our 2026 home NAS buying guide compares Synology, UGREEN, TerraMaster and building your own.

Your Network Can Become the Bottleneck

Once you build a decent NAS, storage software is often no longer the thing limiting performance.

A single hard drive can already saturate a 1Gb Ethernet connection during large sequential transfers.

Modern SSD pools can go dramatically faster.

If you are building or upgrading a NAS, consider whether your network should move to 2.5GbE or 10GbE as well.

Our guide to 2.5GbE vs. 10GbE for a home network covers that decision.

Redundancy Is Still Not a Backup

Whichever NAS software you choose, RAID, RAIDZ and parity do not replace backups.

Redundancy can protect you when a drive fails.

It does not automatically protect you from:

Accidentally deleting a file
Ransomware
Filesystem mistakes
Software bugs
Theft
Fire
Flood
A major electrical event
Losing the entire NAS

Snapshots help with some of those problems. Replication helps with others.

Important data should still exist somewhere other than the primary NAS.

My Choice: TrueNAS, but for a Specific Reason

I still use TrueNAS.

My current system runs on an Intel N100 platform and primarily serves files.

I could load it with applications.

I don’t.

I have other systems for that.

I want the NAS to boot, make the storage available, monitor the drives and otherwise stay out of the way.

TrueNAS fits that philosophy extremely well.

If I instead wanted to consolidate my NAS, Plex server, Docker host and assorted homelab applications into one machine, I would be much more tempted by Unraid.

If I were turning an older low-power computer into an inexpensive two-drive file server, I might use OpenMediaVault.

There is no universal winner because these three platforms are trying to solve slightly different problems.

Frequently Asked Questions About NAS Software

What is the best NAS software for home use?

For a storage-first home NAS, I prefer TrueNAS Community Edition. Unraid is an excellent choice for a combined NAS and home server, especially if you have mixed drive sizes. OpenMediaVault is a strong free option for a lightweight Linux-based NAS.

Is TrueNAS better than Unraid?

It depends on the job. TrueNAS has an advantage if you specifically want a ZFS-focused storage appliance. Unraid is generally easier to expand with mismatched drives and has an especially strong home-server and application ecosystem.

Is Unraid worth paying for?

It can be. If Unraid allows you to reuse several mismatched drives, expand the server gradually and consolidate applications onto one machine, the license cost can be small compared with the hardware savings. If you only need basic file storage, a free platform may make more sense.

Is OpenMediaVault still good in 2026?

Yes. OpenMediaVault 8 is a current Debian 13-based NAS platform. It remains particularly attractive for lighter hardware, simple file servers and users who prefer a conventional Linux foundation.

Is TrueNAS CORE still recommended?

I would not start a new TrueNAS CORE installation in 2026. TrueNAS has moved new community development to the Linux-based TrueNAS Community Edition, formerly known as SCALE. CORE is now effectively a legacy branch.

Can TrueNAS use different-size hard drives?

Yes, but ZFS pool design matters. Within a vdev, usable capacity is constrained by the smallest drive, so matching drive sizes is usually more efficient. TrueNAS now supports expanding RAIDZ vdevs one drive at a time, which makes later growth easier than it used to be.

Does Unraid support ZFS?

Yes. Modern Unraid supports ZFS storage pools in addition to the traditional Unraid parity array and other filesystem options.

Do I need 10Gb Ethernet for a NAS?

No. 1GbE is adequate for ordinary file storage, backups and media streaming. 2.5GbE is an inexpensive and useful upgrade for many homes. 10GbE becomes more attractive for large transfers, multiple fast clients and SSD-heavy storage.

Can I use an old PC as a NAS?

Yes, assuming the hardware is reliable and has suitable storage connections. But check idle power consumption before assuming an old computer is the cheapest long-term choice.

Which NAS Software Would I Choose in 2026?

If I were starting again today:

TrueNAS Community Edition for a serious storage appliance
Unraid for an all-in-one home server with flexible drives
OpenMediaVault for a lightweight free NAS or inexpensive repurposed system

I chose TrueNAS because I wanted my storage to be storage.

Someone building a large Plex server from a pile of mismatched disks could make an equally rational choice and end up with Unraid.

And someone who wants little more than a reliable SMB share on modest hardware may find that OpenMediaVault is all the NAS operating system they need.

The software should follow the job you want the server to do.

Published on May 31, 2024

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Building My New Network Attached Storage(NAS): A Change of Plans, Keeping Up With The Jonsbo

Despite the fact that my ODroid H4+ had an issue, I still remained committed to the course of action of building a NAS to replace my commercial one. So, even as I pursue the Odroid H4+, I decided to explore the other option I’d explored. My original plan was build a mini-ITX NAS. And so, feeling nervous about the ODroid future, I decided to revisit that plan.

I really wanted a low power, small NAS, but while I liked the simplicity of the Odroid 4 drive case, the experience of assembling the case made me a bit concerned about how running a case that is supported entirely by the drives might work out. I decided, since I need to have a secondary location to store the backup for the NAS, I would use this for that, and I’d go more conventional for the primary location. That is a bit more than I’d budgeted for, so this is going to have to last me a while.

On reading a lot of commentary on Mini-ITX NAS cases, I had decided on the Jonsbo line of NAS cases. There’s the Jonsbo N2, which supports five hard drives, or the slightly larger Jonsbo N3, which supports eight hard drives. While I opted for the N2, I can understand some wanting the extra space for future expansion.

The budget board I opted to try is also a N100, the same line I’d been advocating for. There are a variety of variations of this board sold. For example, by CWWK. Or HKUXZR. Or Dytebeply. With minor variations, these boards contain 6 SATA ports…5 of which are via an expansion chip, which may cause throughput issues. They also have 4 2.5 gigabit ethernet ports and 2 M.2 ports on the board. Reading a lot of reviews of these boards, it takes a long time to post, may have limited RAM options, but a lot of people are using these boards, it seems. I’ll be talking a bit more about how I might set up the options I’ve chosen.

If I only wanted a 2 drive NAS, the Aoostar mini PC would be tempting.

The next challenge is how I am going to configure this. There are a lot of decisions, even once I have the hardware.

Published on May 27, 2024

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