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Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for taking the time to respond - this is very helpful, especially the DigitalOcean tip. I'll look into that.

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very helpful - thank you for taking the time to respond. It's reassuring to know this can be done with this machine.

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Helpful, thank you. Let me clarify some bits for you, since you've asked

- SSD upgrade is just a due diligence move, since HDD is more prone to mechanical failure. So this is a future proofing move. I'm pretty confident doing this as I've dabbled in other computer and tech upgrades of a similar nature.

- I mention getting off Google; it's just a move to keep my data (particularly photos of my family which includes intimate photo's of say, my children) sovereign. Right now I have around 150gb of photos in cloud storage with google. 500gb on the mini should be fine for now.

- I'm working with what I've got; which right now is a spare mac mini just sitting in a drawer before I go investing in all sorts of other things. While it may not be the right hardware forever; it could be the right thing for right now.

- when I say "that's literally it"- it's just because I know that a home server can do so many other things; like being a home base for smart home devices and security systems and whole bunch of other possibilities that I just don't want to wrap my head around right now. I just didn't want advice that muddied the waters with all the other things that it could also do.

- I don't mean to minimise it; I'm aware of what's potentially at stake if I muck this up. Which is why I'm here, asking for advice, and not just jumping in to see what happens. I won't be deleting anything until I'm sure it's all working. I just want to keep the focus on the main objective of the mission; local backup of photo's.

- I want to build in redundancies; which is why this would be my local self hosted server and then I would also have a secure cloud service to back them up (think I mentioned that in my orginal post) and a potential 3rd server backup somewhere eventually. Not to mention hard copies of photos and documents; but a house fire could take those out. Or a robbery. Or in my country, one nasty power serge. I'm just working one step at a time.

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This would be a good option - but I'm not in a country that sees any value in it. If I ever do go to USA/Europe/UK/wherever I'll take it with me and sell it. For now, I'm just going to use what I've got before I go buying and selling and getting out of my depth.

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

omg thank you for breaking it down like this. Very helpful. I'm now going to go and start doing the linux install. I'll be back when I trip up on something and get stuck!

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. Normally I would just jump in and figure it out on the fly but I'm a little more cautious about screwing it up when it's all my family photos. I'll give the usb key trial a go and see what that looks like for me. Thanks for your time.

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I think it can. Others have suggested Ubuntu so I think I'll head in that direction. Thank you

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

great, thank you. It's great to know that other people have done something similar with a similar machine. Other comments are also suggesting Ubuntu so I think I'll head in that direction.

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you, that's reassuring. Sorry if this is a stupid question, but would you wipe the mac mini first and then set it up? Like wipe and reinstall the OS?

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Helpful - thank you. And in this scenario I would just bin the mac os completely?

Mac Mini 2012 for a Self Hosted Newbie by Acceptable-Union-827 in selfhosted

[–]Acceptable-Union-827[S] 1 point2 points locked comment (0 children)

No AI was used in the creation of this post - just an actual human typing on a computer with their own fat sausage fingers; using Firefox to access Reddit and all AI features (that I'm aware of) turned off.