Turn a Spare 1TB HDD into a Raspberry Pi NAS: Step‑by‑Step Guide

Prerequisites

Raspberry Pi with Raspberry Pi OS installed.

External 1 TB 2.5‑inch (or 3.5‑inch) HDD in a USB enclosure.

Home router for network connectivity.

Bind the Pi’s MAC address to a static IP

Log into the router’s admin interface.

Navigate to the DHCP or LAN settings.

Add a DHCP reservation using the Pi’s MAC address and the desired IP address.

To find the Pi’s MAC address, open the router’s device list or use ifconfig on the Pi.

Install and configure Samba

SSH into the Pi: ssh pi@<em>IP_ADDRESS</em> Install Samba: sudo apt-get install samba -y Edit the Samba configuration file: sudo vim /etc/samba/smb.conf Append a share definition at the end of the file:

[share]
   comment = Shared folder
   path = /home/pi/share_files
   public = no
   writable = yes
   guest ok = no

Create the shared directory and Samba user

Create the directory that will be exported: mkdir -p ~/share_files Add the Linux user pi as a Samba user (you will be prompted for a password): sudo pdbedit -a -u pi Restart the Samba service to apply changes:

sudo service smbd restart

Mount the external HDD automatically

Connect the HDD to the Pi via USB.

Identify the partition and its UUID: sudo blkid Look for the line corresponding to /dev/sda2 (or the appropriate device) and note the UUID value.

Edit /etc/fstab to add an entry that mounts the partition at the shared directory on boot. Example entry (replace YOUR_UUID with the actual UUID):

UUID=YOUR_UUID /home/pi/share_files ntfs defaults,uid=pi,gid=pi,umask=000 0 0

Test the fstab entry without rebooting:

sudo mount -a

Enable write support for NTFS

Install the NTFS‑3G driver: sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g -y Load the FUSE kernel module (required by NTFS‑3G): sudo modprobe fuse Reboot the Pi to ensure the driver is active:

sudo reboot

Access the Samba share

Linux (e.g., Ubuntu) : Open the file manager and connect to smb://<em>IP_ADDRESS</em>/share. Authenticate with user pi and the password set earlier.

Windows : Press Win+R, enter \\<em>IP_ADDRESS</em>\share, and provide the same credentials.

Android : Use an SMB client app (e.g., ES File Explorer) and connect to \\<em>IP_ADDRESS</em>\share with the pi credentials.