HowTo: OpenMediaVault - Set up an external hard drive as a drive - Nerdiy.de - Nerdy DIY HowTo's about electronic, 3D-printing and more.

As the name of OpenMediaVault suggests, it is about managing media. Of course, you also need the appropriate storage space for this.

In the article NetworkAttachedStorage / Building a NAS from a RaspberryPi 4 yourself, I used an external USB hard drive. However, many other drives can also be used as storage space expansion for your OpenMediaVault installation. Even the internal SD card can be used to make media available on the network.

The following article describes how to integrate a connected data medium into OpenMediaVault and create a first shared folder.

Safety instructions

I know the following hints are always a bit annoying and seem unnecessary. But unfortunately, many people who knew it "better" from carelessness lost their eyes, fingers or other things or hurt themselves. In comparison, a loss of data is almost not worth mentioning, but even these can be really annoying. Therefore, please take five minutes to read the safety instructions. Even the coolest project is worth no injury or other annoyance. https://www.nerdiy.de/en/sicherheitshinweise/

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Requirements

Helpful articles:
Before you start this article, you should have prepared a Raspberry Pi so that it can be reached via the network and controlled via SSH.

The following articles describe what needs to be done to prepare the Raspberry Pi.

In the following lists you will find all the parts you need to implement this article.

Required tool:

Number	Link
1x	*Screwdriver set* Buy at Amazon
1x	*SD card reader* Buy at Amazon

Required material:

Number	Link
1x	*Raspberry Pi* Buy at Amazon
1x	*Raspberry Pi power supply* Buy at Amazon
1x	*Raspberry Pi case* Buy at Amazon
1x	*Micro SD card 64GB* Buy at Amazon

Check connected data carriers

Before you can integrate the file system of a drive, you should first check whether the corresponding drive has been recognized correctly.

To do this, switch to the OpenMediaVault web interface and click on the tab there

Storage

... other

disks

If your external hard drive, USB stick or similar is already connected, this drive should already be listed here.

In the example shown on the left, the list shows the system drive and an additional external hard drive.

Here you also have the option of reformatting the data carrier (Caution! You should back up the data on the drive first.)

Mount file system

If your additional drive has already been recognized, you can continue with mounting the file system.

To do this, click on the tab

File Systems

in the category

Storage

This list contains all (in addition to the system partition, which is not shown) additionally mounted file systems.

In order to integrate your externally connected drive, you must first click on the plus symbol in the upper left corner.

Then click on

Mount

And in the next view, select the partition you want to integrate from the "File System" drop-down menu.

There are multiple partitions on some external drives. Here you should then take a close look at which ones you include.

At this point you can also set a limit for the "memory warning". If the memory used exceeds this value, you will be notified (provided email notification is activated).

Then click on "Save" to apply the settings.

And confirm this again by clicking on "Yes".

Then you have to confirm the changed configuration again by clicking on the check mark in the yellow area and…

… confirm this again.

The partition should now be mounted successfully.

In the example shown, the partition is now listed. You can see the current memory usage and connection status.

Create FolderShare under OpenMediaVault

After the partition has been successfully integrated, you can now create your first shared folder or share. This creates a folder, which can then later be used with the various plugins. For example, the content of the shared folder can be shared via SMB or FTP server.

Go to the category

shared folders

Now click on the plus symbol to create a new share.

You will then be redirected to the form shown.

Here you can give the release a name, select on which integrated partition it should be created and also specify the access rights.

After you have set everything as desired, you can accept the settings by clicking on "Save".

Then you have to confirm the changed configuration again by clicking on the check mark in the yellow area and…

… confirm this again.

How you can then continue to use this share is described, for example, in the article OpenMediaVault – Set up Windows release or SMB server.

Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described. If not or you have any other questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comments. Also, ideas for new projects are always welcome. 🙂

P.S. Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do this because I enjoy it, but if you appreciate that I share this information with you, I would be happy about a small donation to the coffee box. 🙂