Installed on 1TB disk. Any way to use the space?

[RaidPirate]

Hi,

I'm just about to deply my second TrueNAS system at home.

I've installed the OS on a 1TB SSD. It's all I have available - a whole bunch of 1TB SSDs. I could go and buy a smaller SSD from Amazon but that seems kind of pointless.

Is there any way to use some of the pretty massive amount of space I have available on this SSD for data storage?

Seems kind of dumb to just have 1 TB drive sitting there for nothing except the OS.

There doesn't seem to be a way to do this using the GUI (why would there be, it's an unusual thing to do). So perhaps there is a way to create a partition from the command line and have this show up as an available option for a storage pool?

Even if it's a case of allocating 800 GB for use as a scratch / non RAID storage space. Would be nice to at least be able to use it.

Thanks all

 

[irTwit]

You can, but I have seen users recommending against it. I use a single dev pool with the extra space on my 120GB boot SSD for downloads, jails, and temp files.

I'm biased towards my method here but here is another method.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I've installed the OS on a 1TB SSD. It's all I have available - a whole bunch of 1TB SSDs.

Good problem to have.

Given the very low amount of activity that a boot device hits, have you considered a small, refurbished datacenter SSD? Intel DC S3500 80GB are often in the $15-20 range online - you can even chain it in through a USB-to-SATA converter if it makes sense from an architectural perspective to free up the SATA port.

 

[RaidPirate]

Good problem to have.

Given the very low amount of activity that a boot device hits, have you considered a small, refurbished datacenter SSD? Intel DC S3500 80GB are often in the $15-20 range online - you can even chain it in through a USB-to-SATA converter if it makes sense from an architectural perspective to free up the SATA port.

I'm in the UK. Refurbed (second hand) SSDs are nearly as expensive as new ones here. Literally can't really do better than SSD from Amazon, cheapest per GB is about 85 GBP at the moment for 1TB.

I considered buying a 240 GB SSD from Amazon, but they're about 25 GBP... Which with 85 GBP for 1TB available makes these smaller drives look kind of pricy.

My other idea was to somehow find a bulk buy of new old stock drives. Like I'd quite happily hand over 50 quid for a pack of 10 128 GB drives. But I literally couldn't find any such thing avaialble in any kind of bulk. Even the prices on eBay were insane. Over 1 GBP / GB for used drives. Who is buying these?

Basically computer hardware in UK has always been extortionate. I hear about people in the US buying a Thinkpad for $200. I check eBay UK and even a Thinkpad from 4-5 years ago is minimum 250 GBP. Approx 500 for more recent models 2018 - 2019.

 

[ThreeDee]

I picked up an M.2 32gb SSD for about $10'ish off of Ebay shipped ..it's been working great... But, if you don't have an M.2 slot or an adapter of some kind .. kind of moot.

 

[RaidPirate]

I picked up an M.2 32gb SSD for about $10'ish off of Ebay shipped ..it's been working great... But, if you don't have an M.2 slot or an adapter of some kind .. kind of moot.

Good idea - I do actually have an M.2 slot so this could be a good solution

 

[Constantin]

32GB and up is perfect. I use SATADOMs but only because my motherboard has two such slots. If you can swing it, buy a spare too.