Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Low-Cost DIY NAS with Raspberry Pi 5

You’ve probably heard the buzz about “cloud” and thought, “I could do that at home for pennies.” A DIY NAS (Network Attached Storage) lets you keep your files, backups, and media right on your own network, and the new Raspberry Pi 5 makes it cheap enough to try without breaking the bank.

What You Need

The hardware list

Raspberry Pi 5 – the 8 GB model gives you plenty of headroom for future tweaks.
Micro‑SD card (32 GB or larger) – this will hold the OS. I stick with a reputable brand like SanDisk to avoid random corruption.
Power supply (5 V 3 A USB‑C) – the official Pi supply is cheap and reliable.
Case with good airflow – a simple aluminum case works well and keeps the Pi cool.
External USB‑3.0 hard drive or SSD – 2 TB is a sweet spot for a home lab. If you’re on a tighter budget, a 1 TB HDD will do.
USB‑3.0 to SATA adapter – make sure it’s a “UASP” compatible model for faster transfers.
Ethernet cable – a short cat‑6 patch cord keeps the connection stable.
Keyboard and monitor (or just a headless setup) – you’ll need them for the first boot.

Optional but handy

Heatsink and fan – the Pi 5 runs warm under load, especially when the USB ports are busy.
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) – a small UPS protects against sudden power loss and keeps your NAS online during brief outages.

Preparing the Pi

Flash the OS

Download the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite image from the official site. The “Lite” version has no desktop, which saves resources.
Use a tool like Balena Etcher (works on Windows, macOS, Linux) to write the image to your micro‑SD card.
After flashing, open the boot partition and create an empty file named ssh. This enables SSH so you can manage the Pi without a monitor.

First boot

Insert the SD card, plug in the power supply, and connect the Ethernet cable. Give the Pi a minute to boot, then find its IP address. I usually check my router’s client list, but you can also run arp -a from another computer on the same network.

Open a terminal and type:

ssh pi@<IP_ADDRESS>

The default password is raspberry. Change it immediately with passwd – security first!

Installing the NAS software

Why I chose OpenMediaVault

OpenMediaVault (OMV) is a free, Debian‑based NAS distro that runs nicely on the Pi. It offers a web UI, plugins, and solid support for Samba (Windows file sharing) and NFS (Linux file sharing). You could also go with plain Samba, but OMV saves a lot of manual config.

Install OMV on top of Raspberry Pi OS

Run these commands one after another:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y wget curl gnupg
wget -O - https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript/raw/master/install | sudo bash

The script will download and install OMV. It takes about 15 minutes on a Pi 5. When it finishes, note the IP address shown – you’ll use it to log into the web UI.

Adding storage

Hook up the drive

Plug the USB‑3.0 to SATA adapter into one of the Pi’s USB‑3.0 ports (the blue ones). Connect your hard drive and power it up. The Pi should detect it as /dev/sda.

Format the drive

I like to use ext4 for Linux‑only shares, but NTFS works if you need Windows compatibility. In the OMV web UI:

Go to Storage → Disks and select your new disk.
Click Wipe to clear any old partitions.
Move to File Systems, click Create, choose the file system type, and give it a label like NAS_DATA.
Finally, click Mount and set the mount point to /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAS_DATA.

Setting up file sharing

Samba shares for Windows and macOS

In the OMV UI, navigate to Services → SMB/CIFS → Shares and click Add.

Share name: media
Device: select the mounted disk you just created.
Path: /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAS_DATA/media
Permissions: I usually enable “Public” for a home network, but you can create separate users for tighter control.

Save the share and enable the SMB service under Services → SMB/CIFS → Settings.

Quick test

From any computer on the same network, open a file explorer and type \\<PI_IP>\media. You should see the share and be able to drag files in and out.

Tweaking for performance

Enable USB boot (optional)

If you want to run the OS directly from the external SSD, you can enable USB boot in the Pi’s EEPROM. Run:

sudo raspi-config

Select Advanced Options → Boot Order and set it to USB first. Then clone the OS onto the SSD and boot from there. The speed boost is noticeable, especially when copying large video files.

Turn on UASP

Make sure your SATA adapter supports UASP; it speeds up write operations. You can verify with:

dmesg | grep uasp

If you see lines mentioning uas, you’re good.

Set up automatic backups

OMV has a built-in rsync plugin. I schedule a nightly backup of my /home directory to the NAS. Go to Plugins → Rsync → Add, point the source to your home folder, and the destination to the NAS share.

Personal note: My first DIY NAS

My first attempt was a cheap Raspberry Pi 3 with a USB flash drive. It worked, but the drive would overheat and the Pi kept rebooting. After that fiasco, I upgraded to a Pi 5, added a proper case with a fan, and switched to a 2 TB SSD. The difference is night and day – the Pi stays cool, and file transfers finish in seconds instead of minutes. It’s a reminder that a little extra spend on cooling and a decent drive pays off.

Wrapping up

Building a low‑cost NAS with a Raspberry Pi 5 is a great way to get hands‑on with networking, storage, and Linux. You end up with a flexible box that can grow with your needs – add more drives, install Plex for media streaming, or run a personal cloud with Nextcloud. The steps above cover the basics, and from there you can experiment as much as you like.