I Turned My Old PC Into A Private Cloud

Key Takeaways

Turn old PCs into private clouds with Nextcloud for easy data backup and file sharing.
Nextcloud installation is simple and can run on older hardware with decent Ethernet or Wi-Fi capabilities.
DIY cloud offers privacy and access to a range of applications, tools, and widgets through the App Store.

Creating regular backups of your important documents is a great way to prevent data loss in case of drive failure. While a dedicated NAS setup can help safeguard all your precious files, not everyone can spend hundreds of dollars on enclosures and drives. Even building your own NAS requires some technical skills, and the process can be quite daunting for beginners.

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Meanwhile, cloud storage provides a simpler solution to your data backup and file sharing woes, though privacy can be a major concern on third-party platforms. In this case, a local cloud that runs on your own hardware is a worthwhile option. The best part is that you don’t need to spend a fortune on dedicated components. Thanks to Nextcloud, you can turn any old PC into a full-fledged private cloud within minutes!

What you’ll need

Even a dinosaur PC would suffice for this project

Photos of a GTX 1080 on the Nextcloud UI

Unless you’re planning to regularly have several terabytes of data, a Nextcloud server isn’t even remotely taxing on your system. So, you can even go with hardware that’s older than a decade. The only requirement here is that your device should have decent Ethernet card or Wi-Fi capabilities.

Unlike self-built NAS setups that require at least two drives (one for the OS and the other for storing files), Nextcloud can be installed on top of an existing desktop operating system, and you can share the storage drive with the OS.

While we’re on the subject of operating systems, I used the GUI variant of Pop_OS!, as it’s highly optimized for systems with Nvidia GPUs. I could’ve gone with Windows 11, but a Linux distribution is always better when you want to minimize resource consumption. Heck, you should be able to replicate this project on CLI-based distros if you follow the same procedure as me.

Installing Nextcloud is easy

And so is transferring files to my DIY cloud

From Apache web servers to docker containers, there are numerous ways to set up Nextcloud. However, since I wanted to make the procedure as painless as possible, I decided to go with the Snap Store method.

Of course, since Pop_OS! doesn’t have Snap Store pre-installed, I had to use the sudo apt install snapd script to set it up. Once I’d restarted the system, it was time to configure Nextcloud. If you want to follow along, then here’s a general outline of the process:

First, I installed Nextcloud with the help of the snap command.
```
sudo snap install nextcloud
```
To make the process simpler, I used this command to create an admin profile with an easy-to-remember username and password.
```
sudo nextcloud.manual-install username password 
```
Since I wanted to access the cloud server on all my local devices, I decided to run this command to add my PC’s IP address as a trusted domain:
```
sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:set trusted_domains 1 --value=IP_address
```

Finally, I switched over to my main system and entered my spare PC’s IP address into Chrome’s Address Bar to arrive at the login page. Once I’d added my credentials, I entered the Dashboard and tried uploading some recent images via the Files tab. As someone who navigates Google Drive and Dropbox menus on a daily basis, I felt right at home on Nextcloud’s UI, and within a few minutes, I had my entire week’s worth of article images backed up on my private cloud!

Nextcloud: Running your very own cloud on a local machine

Afterward, I backed up some unused footage I’d created for my Aicoco onAir camera review on my Nextcloud server. In hindsight, I could have taken a few other steps to further enhance the cloud’s capabilities. At present, I can only access it from the devices on my local network, meaning I’d have to set up port forwarding and use a domain name if I wanted to transfer files when I’m away from the house.

Nevertheless, Nextcloud is a fantastic way to add a personal cloud to your computing space. Besides its simplistic UI, Nextcloud has a robust set of applications, tools, and widgets you can grab from the official App Store. Plus, it’s optimized enough to run on pretty much any device, including Raspberry Pi’s (though the setup procedure isn’t as straightforward for ARM-based SBCs).