I installed 3 node software today: Start9, Mynode, and Umbrel.
And none of them allow the use of an external drive for bitcoin 🤔
Actually, maybe they do with the command line, but nothing supported out of the box.
It seems when you use a PC instead of a Raspberry Pi, things get harder.
But I need to use an external drive...
Any recommendations?
#AskNostr #BitcoinDIY
I have been trying to run my own node with an external drive for a while now. Almost a year. On a pretty beefy chromebox turned linux box.
In that time, the external USB drive randomly disconnected 3 times and needed me to manually fix it. Worse still, Fulcrum, the electrum server I was recommended, just refuses to function after that and I need to restart the whole indexing.
I have retired the node temporarily and will replace it with an internal drive going forward. I don't recommend an external drive in general.
In the past I had an external drive (NVME inside an enclosure) connected to a raspberry pi and that straight up died. The NVME wouldn't function as a drive at all, so I couldn't even recover any of the data including Lightning channel states. Fortunately I was still able to recover most of the funds.
Thanks for your input. It's too bad.
Seems like 2 drives should be the standard. Basically like on a Raspberry Pi. OS on a drive, apps or time chain on another.
I have always been afraid of starting my own lightning node because of what you went through. I am afraid that my computer will die and I won’t be able to recover the funds. You are basically giving your bitcoin to your computer right? And if the computer dies you loose your funds right? Is there anything you have learned to help me avoid this?
Wow! Thanks so much for this. I will check it out.
Why do you need to use an external drive?
My internal drive is too small.
I suppose that's the question. Why not upgrade your internal drive?
Save costs. I have the external hard drive I was using with my Raspberry Pi node.
What case do you have? No open internal bays? I've not seen a case (save for SFF Dell/HPs) that don't have at least one if not two spots.
I have a Dell 3070 micro.
I've played with those. IIRC they have 2 internal drives -- one 2.5 and a M2 socket right. Are you already using both? If so, that does stink.
I may have found a way with Start9. As it was my favorite node software, I tried again.
After flashing, I installed it selecting my internal drive.
Then, I removed the USB drive, and did the initial setup. And I selected my external drive to store data.
Looks like I got what I wanted!
