Whilst I have been using Roon for some time now I am not very technical and a lot of what is posted goes above my head. I have a NUC/ROCK with an internal 4Tb SSD with an external USB attached.
I always thought that storing your library in the NUC internal storage was a no no (recollect reading this but don’t know why it is a potential problem) so I have my library stored entirely on the USB.
This works fine apart from having to disconnect the USB every so often to add files. However, I have just read a post elsewhere on the forum where it is obvious some users are storing their libraries in the NUC internal storage.
Please could someone clarify what is best. It would make life easier to store files internally on the NUC if it is not to the detriment of ROON software.
All NUC models have space and a connector for an M.2 SSD. This is where RoonOS and the Roon software are installed. It cannot be used for local music file storage.
Some NUC models have space and a SATA connector for an additional 2.5" drive (HDD or SSD). It is this internal drive that can be used for local music file storage.
In addition to what @Geoff_Coupe wrote, you can access the external USB disk over the network from your main computer while the USB disk is attached to the NUC. You don’t have to disconnect it to copy music to it, but there’s no harm in doing it that way, either.
If you do disconnect it, ensure that you shut down the NUC before disconnecting the disk, in particular if it is formatted with the NTFS file system of Windows. (And in this case also ensure that you follow the “safely remove hardware” procedure of Windows before you disconnect it from a Windows machine)
You don’t have to disconnect the drive to add files to a USB drive attached to the NUC. Rock has a network access via SMB sharing. You access this over the network via a file browser on Windows or by Connect to server in the MacOS Finder options. There is no advantage in using internal over a USB drive except for its less boxes, but USB gives you more freedom.
Just a heads up, your 4TB drive is way, way, way overkill for Rock. So there’s a huge amount of wasted space on there. I know this is a lot of work and you didn’t say which model NUC you have, but it may be worth it to swap the Rock install onto a 500GB drive (you could get smaller, but they’re not cheaper) and repurpose that 4TB drive for music storage. Just a thought.
No, you should never use any internal drive in a ROCK system for backups. Plug in a usb HDD drive and backup to that. Or setup a network share on a different PC and backup to that.
Why? Because all internal storage is watched as music location and the thousands of files ( my backup has over 7k files for example ) that make up a Roon database backup can cause the server issues as it tries to evaluate each new file showing up.
In addition to what Rugy said, and even it that was an option (which it is not): If the NUC dies and/or fries its disks, then a backup on the NUC is less than helpful
Thanks for the info everyone!
So how large of a file is the database backup? (At least For your 7k)
Just wondering if it’s a small little text file that’ll fit on a thumb drive etc, or do the multiple default copies add up to quite a lot?
Thanks again.
JZ
The backup directory is about 3 GB made up of 7,000 small files. It could fit on a thumb drive. I just want to emphasize that it is not 1 file, but a backup of thousands of small files.
Personally, I wouldn’t use a thumb drive unless I know that the brand I’m using has error correction. I would use a USB HDD.
A real help. I’ve managed now to access the USB drive over my network. I just needed to change permissions in macOS finder!
