Network-attached storage (NAS) is usually a specific device that only serves to store data for clients to access. They’ve become more powerful over the years and can now run services that transform the small server into a media streaming platform, home surveillance backend, or even a web server. You can use your Windows 11 PC as a NAS without losing out on using the system as a general computer or for gaming. This guide will show you how to create a NAS with your PC and still use it as normal.
Getting your PC ready
Drives, drives, and more drives!
Source: XDA
You likely have some drives installed inside your PC, but there’s a good chance they’re not NAS or server grade. A standard-class hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) are not designed for heavier workloads, nor are they built to run 24/7, though an SSD would be better equipped without spinning platters and a motor. That’s where NAS or server drives come into play, such as the Western Digital Red and Seagate IronWolf series. They’re more expensive than your normal desktop drives, but it’s worth the extra cost when working with lots of data.
When shopping around for a drive to install inside your PC and use as a NAS, you’ll need to check how many storage slots and ports are available on your motherboard. 3.5-inch mechanical hard drives and 2.5-inch SSDs connect via SATA ports. Then there are M.2 slots that can take faster NVMe and SATA SSDs, but I’d recommend against using these for storing data and instead reserve them for your Windows 11 OS and any games or software you wish to store on the PC. Use the SATA ports for the NAS side.
Your PC case will also need to have enough mounting locations for all the drives. While you could get away with installing a single 8TB Seagate IronWolf HDD and call it a day, this wouldn’t provide any redundancy in case the drive failed. When working with more than two drives, factor in one being reserved by Windows for RAID. When installing three 8TB drives, you’ll have a usable storage capacity of 16TB instead of 24TB, with the 8TB reserved for recovering from a drive failure. Remember, the more drives you install, the more power the system will draw.
Related
Best hard drives for NAS
If you’re looking for new hard drives to increase the storage capacity of your NAS, you’ve come to the right place
Setting up a storage pool
RAID will become your best friend
Windows has never been designed with NAS in mind but Microsoft has made it easier to set up a RAID within the OS. We’ll use this method to create a single storage volume using multiple disks within Windows. This won’t affect your primary drives already used for the OS and any software and games. Simply select the new NAS drives through this process and you’ll be good to go.
When creating a RAID-protected storage pool with drives in Windows 11, all the data will be wiped on the selected drives. If these are not new drives, be sure to back up everything you want saved before following this guide.
Here’s how to set up a storage pool using RAID in Windows 11:
- Open Settings.
- Select System.
- Select Storage.
- Click Advanced storage settings.
- Click Storage Spaces.
- Select Add.
- Enter a name for the storage pool.
- Choose connected drives for the pool.
- Click Create.
- Set the desired pool size under “Size & resiliency”.
- Select a pool resiliency:
- Simple: Provides no data redundancy.
- Two-way mirror: Requires at least 2 drives and can handle a single drive failure.
- Three-way mirror: Requires at least 5 drives and can handle 2 simultaneous drive failures.
- Parity: Requires at least 3 drives.
- Dual parity: Requires at least 7 drives.
- Click Create.
- Set a volume label (name).
- Set a drive letter.
- Choose the file system (I recommend NTFS).
- Click Format.
The new storage pool will be displayed as a single volume in File Explorer with the assigned drive letter. The next step is to open up this newly created storage pool to the network, which we’ll do in the next step.
Related
How to turn an old PC into a NAS
If you have an old PC still lying around, you could turn it into a NAS.
Turn your PC into a NAS
A NAS device is a simple server where data can be transferred between clients. Now that we have a storage pool ready to go, all that’s left to do is open up the Windows 11 PC to the local network. Once this has been completed, any supported client will be able to connect and log into the Windows 11 system, accessing the newly created storage pool.
- Open File Explorer.
- Select Network in the sidebar.
- Click on the “Network discovery and file sharing are turned off. Network computers and devices are not visible. Click to change…” pop-up.
- Select “Turn on network discovery and file sharing”.
- Select “No, make the network that I am connected to a private network”. You can select the other option for public access if you know what you’re doing and wish to provide external access.
- Click This PC.
- Right-click the storage pool drive.
- Choose Properties.
- Choose the Sharing tab.
- Click Advanced Sharing.
- Check the “Share this folder” box.
- Enter a Share name to be displayed to others.
- Click Permissions.
- Configure permissions as desired.
- Click OK.
Your Windows storage pool will now be available to those on the LAN, so long as they have credentials to log into the system. You will be able to use your Windows 11 PC as normal and so long as you have a good enough CPU, you shouldn’t notice any difference in performance unless there are numerous clients simultaneously moving data to and from the PC.
Get rid of unwanted Windows bloat
If you want to get as much from your PC as possible, I’d recommend removing unwanted bloat that comes with a fresh installation of Windows 11. A small app called BloatnosyAI, available for free on Github, can be used for this task and it only takes a couple of minutes to run. BloatnosyAI detects everything that could potentially be removed. Other methods of keeping Windows bloat-free can be found in our comprehensive debloat Windows 11 guide.