I got into self hosting almost a year ago. Since then, I bought (low) hundreds of dollars worth of hardware, but I’ve never used any of my services outside of testing. My server is left unused since may (I think).
Now I’ve found a use for my server, but my HDD, (which I bought for a good price ($150 for HC530 14TB, 10k POH) for european standards in last November) isn’t really being used. To be frank, I never really used it, I don’t need a NAS, I always preferred (pirated) streaming services over local streaming, so I mostly had it just to have it.
I kinda know what I can do with it. I could set up a proxmox backups on it or run a nix cache (I run NixOS on my desktop PCs, I would be using the cache, but it would be annoying to set up and cachix free tier is enough for now).
I’m also anxious to use it, because I’m scared to wear it down, but, at the same time, I know that it will degrade if I don’t use it. I might want to sell it, but my previous sales on online marketplaces were abysmal and I know I might regret it if I change my mind and decide I need so much storage.
What would you suggest? If I want to keep it, how should I treat it?
Keep it spinning and put stuff on it, or sell it, probably for more than you paid for it. Drives on the shelf tend to fail.
10K POH is a little more than a year, so it may still be under warranty.
“Anxious to use it” in colloquial English means that you are eager or in a hurry to use it, btw. The opposite of being afraid to use it, which might be what you intended to say.