This is Part 2 of Building a Homelab on a Budget. This part is about what to buy so you can store data safely without overspending.
The core storage shopping list
Start with a simple split: one OS drive + one data drive + one backup drive.
- OS drive: 500 GB to 1 TB SSD (NVMe if available, SATA is fine)
- Data drive: 8 TB to 12 TB HDD (CMR preferred)
- Backup drive: USB HDD the same size or larger than your data drive
This setup is cheap, easy to recover, and scales later.
Capacity planning (simple rule)
Estimate usable storage like this: usable = (data_today * 2) + (monthly_growth * 12) + 30 percent buffer
Example: 2 TB now, 200 GB growth per month usable = 4 TB + 2.4 TB + buffer = about 8 TB
CMR vs SMR (what to check before you buy)
For NAS and RAID, CMR drives are safer. SMR can struggle with random writes and rebuilds. If the listing does not say CMR, assume SMR.
Drive health before you trust it
Run a short SMART test on any used or refurbished drive:
bash
