Graphic designer, home labber, food junkie. I break expensive things. I usually can’t fix them.
Be careful with “like new” claims. I’ve had people in the past pull that with me, and the drive had 8 years of time on it.
If possible, serverpartdeals.com has an excellent range of used drives. Stick with the manufacturer refurbished. They come with a good warranty and so far have been rock solid for me (5 year timeframe).
I appreciate you.
Determination, patience, a willingness to learn anything you need to.
If you have those, in time, you will be able to get your lab up and running. I started mine with a minimal knowledge of Linux (I could install it from a USB and poke around). Now it’s the center of my families digital life.
You’ll get there in time.
Building a new, bigger, storage server using TrueNAS scale. I’ve been on CORE forever and it works well. Running out of space, though, and might as well upgrade the OS too.
I would highly suggest separating your storage from your compute. I’ve found this to be a cheaper and more flexible option over the years.
This is the correct answer.
I’m going to say this now before anything happens: backup, backup, and backup. Make multiple copies, store them different places. Please dear god backup your data, because no one else will.