All data sorted...? Also: crazy step-by-step for setting up OMV.

 Saturday, 6th of Dec, 2025 - 1726

I think that maybe… all the data is sorted.

This is the most confident I've been that I have a definitive collection of directories containing all the data I've ever accumulated. 2 terabytes of stuff. Yikes.

Anyway, back to smashing my head against a wall, also known as configuring the Linux-by-another-name that is OpenMediaVault.

…but, to be fair, it hasn't been horrendous yet.

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Just in case it disappears, because the internet is fickle:
https://archive.ph/ev7l1

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…when I say “all the data is sorted”, obviously not all the data is sorted; there's still the messes that are Music and Comics, and the folder containing all my old work, pictures, etc. is a bit (lot) of a mess, but I'm fairly certain it's all there. I’ve got to the level of confidence that I'm being a bit gung ho with the data now, almost to the point that if it hasn't been swept up in my (not-very-fine-meshed) net whilst combing the piles of data, it wasn't meant to be.

I’d backed up a lot of stuff to a stack of loose 3.5” drives and had planned to copy the newly-sorted data over that old stuff, but I think I might keep it as-is, just in case things were lost, and, crucially, I ever actually noticed that something is missing.

Changing the subject back to OMV, here's a treat:

This is my version of those linked-to instructions for setting up shared directories. Again, I am struck by how very long-winded the process is. I do hope this system proves more reliable than the disappearing shared folders under Windows, i.e. I hope it's worth it. To lose the astonishing ease with which it was possible to share directories AND have it be unreliable would be most irritating.

But the general consensus online is that OMV is a fine option.

BIOS battery; Winamp to Wacup; taking lots of time to setup OMV

Decided to open up the PavNAS to replace the CMOS battery. It's such a pain in the arse compared to a lovely ThinkPad; ALL the back panel screws need removing, and then the crappy plastic back panel still needs spudging off anyway. Such a cheap PoS.

…but it works! Possibly.

The BIOS is awfully basic, so doesn't have the option to auto-power-on after a power cut; I've toggled some settings so it auto-turns-on at midnight everyday (might mod that to be something more sensible like five in the morning, to catch power cuts in the wee hours, though I don't know if this feature actually works yet).

Had a funny moment just now when I couldn't remotely access the harddrive I had mapped yesterday from Windows’s File Mangler, and when I logged into the system via a browser it said the drive was “Missing”. Uh oh.

…then I noticed the CD bay adaptor containing a HDD lying on the desk which I had not yet replaced after opening up the laptop. Derp.

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Completely unrelated aside: I've been using Winamp to play MP3s since 2000, when I first bought my first, own PC. There was a whole thing with Winamp (that I never learned about and don't have the bandwidth to care about) and some forkage which resulted in me using 5.666 for the last few years.

I'm not entirely sure what prompted the transition a few weeks ago, but I've stumbled upon Wacup as an alternative. It has some kind of lyrics plug-in, which seems to sometimes work, but the greatest improvement I've found so far is being able to use the spacebar for pausing. ZXCVB controls still work, but the spacebar is soooo much easier to hit to pause, and it's intuitive after so long using space to pause in e.g. youtube and VLC. I'm finding it particularly useful as I'm transitioning away from youtube towards listening to audiobooks instead.

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One side-effect of replacing the battery was the BIOS resetting to defaults, including turning secure boot back on, and turning off legacy boot. This then resulted in the message “The selected boot devices failed” when trying to boot.

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That whole thing of Windows not copying everything in a directory because of pErMisSiOnS has come back to bite me on the butt: I've found some stuff that isn’t in the supposedly “definitive” sorted back-up folder of everything…

It seems that TreeSize ignores such nonsense, so I need to use that when copying in the future.

In other news, setting up shares in OMV is quite time-consuming; the process is long-winded with many, many steps, and the disk initialisation (or whatever it does) takes an aaaaaage, especially for a 1.8TB drive, but it does seem to work. 

…or does it…? The web interface says “allocating group tables” and the tables tick up very slowly (it's going to take until at least tomorrow morning to finish for the 1.8TB drive) but the screen on the actual laptop has a loooooong list of entries saying “usb 3-2.1: device descriptor read/64, error -110”. Some googling suggests this might be a power issue…

But the table allocating whatever is still ticking up, so I'll let it do its thing.

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I've now had a chance to compare two versions of the Backup\BAckup\BACKUP\BACKUP TEMP\BACKUP TEST directory and have found that, indeed, a whole swathe of stuff is missing from the “definitive” version. When I have some time (i.e. when work & the real world isn't taking up my valuable time) I'll collate two versions of the folder and ensure I have everything backed up.

OpenMediaVault!!!1!

I’d like to write in here one day and not have to detail a weird thing happening. But that day is not today.

As I have greatly reduced the amount of space taken up by the DataHorde™, I need less space to store it, so I thought I'd slightly reduce the amount of storage connected to PavNAS. Its main storage is a 2TB 3.5” drive in a powered external enclosure, which is nearly enough for the 2.1TB taken up by the DataHorde™ (yeah, I know the actual size of the drive is only about 1.8TB, but it's still capable of holding the vast majority of it). There's also a 465GB drive in a CD bay adaptor, and two more drives (465GB and 931GB) connected via ‘naked’ USB caddies. My plan was to take out the 1TB drive for use in another portable caddy, and fit a mere 320GB drive instead. 

So, I swapped the hardware, and booted the PavNAS.

First problem was a time\date error. I vaguely remember this being an issue before; it seems the BIOS battery is dead, but I ignored because the system would always be on.

…Until I have to unplug it to move it or whatever, and then I need to put in the time & date again. Oopslol. Need to wedge a new 2032 in there at some point.

Next bit of fun: the 931GB drive has left behind a very persistent ghost. I've definitely unplugged it and replaced it with a 320GB drive, but File Mangler, Fdisk, AND Diskpart all report the 931GB drive as still being present.

Karabast to it, I thought, Windows is being a twonk, and I'm going to over-write it all anyway because…

Next, I proceeded to install OpenMediaVault (more on this later, don't worry; I won't skip this momentous movement) and during installation it asks where it wants installing to. This also reports the 1TB drive as still being connected. I figure we're still in the realms of this being an artefact of the Windows installation.

So I install OMV, and there are the usual Linux learning curve issues (compounded by there not being a GUI at all this time, thus I am UTTERLY reliant on googling for commands), but after some piddling about I am, astonishingly, actually able to log on to the new system in a browser on another computer!!

And guess what I find there…?

The 931GB drive is still showing up.

What the actual zark is going on…?

Anyway….

https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenMediaVault/comments/g3q47o/how_to_keep_laptop_from_turning_off/

https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php?thread/33773-unable-to-prevent-laptop-suspend-shutdown-when-closing-the-lid/

I think that's stopped it turning off or sleeping when I shut the lid. Check: lid closed, and can still work on the system via web.

I tried plugging in the 298GB (“931GB”) harddrive again, and this time nothing at all showed up, which might be an improvement. Then I tried unplugging the USB cables (power from USB PSU, and power\data from USB hub) and replugging. Fdisk (thrilled to find that on Linux, though probs shouldn't be surprised) then reports a 298GB drive - success! 

It also appears on the drive list in the OMV browser interface on another machine. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.

Right, this entry has gone a bit zarz-backwards, but what's going on is that I'm attempting to use OpenMediaVault instead of Win11 on the PavNAS. This will mean yet one fewer Windows machine and make the PavNAS an actual NAS, rather than a Windows machine with a load of shared folders. True, it'll make it a one-trick-act, but it is definitely a good idea to learn this stuff, and get more Linux experience.

I'm following this guide:

https://www.xda-developers.com/building-a-nas-with-openmediavault/

…which is not flawless, and, as with many of these things, isn't exactly the same version as the one running in front of me, but I've muddled through.

Astonishingly, apart from the harddrive weirdness (something to do with it being connected via a USB hub?), it's gone really rather smoothly. I've only got one drive\share\folder online so far, but I've been able to access it using File Mangler on two Windows PCs, and copy files to and from it!

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…and managed to access it from a mobile phone! Working as well as Windows so far, so nothing lost yet. Seems to be using about 20W of power with lid closed and doing stuff.

A proper stretch goal would be to be able to access the files whilst not on the local network, and divest myself from reliance on a big tech company…

ACTUAL PROGRESS with sorting the data

…and get on with it I did. What a day! Everything is much more under control and I feel so much better about the DataHorde™.

I sat down and went through the several (many…) folders of unsorted stuff, dropping it over into categorised directories (Books, Films, Games, etc.) and, at the same time, discovering & eliminating replications. Overall, it clearer over 1TB of space by getting rid of replicated and unwanted stuff.

For the first time, nearly thirty years’ worth of my accumulated data is in one folder (well, there's a small amount still to sort, but less than 0.5% of the total).

There's still some sorting to do; I have previously mentioned that the Music and Comics directories are particularly lawless at the moment.

But it's all just so much more manageable without weird folders of unsorted crap all over the place. Now I can just get on with the business of backing-up the sorted stuff.

I began by starting to copy the sorted data (from the large external HDD I had done all the work on) onto the old Rock desktop (splitting the data across its three HDDs). Immediately, I made a mistake by deleting the (partially worked-upon) Unsorted directory from the external drive, rather than the completely unsorted version already on one of the internal drives. It's not the end of the world, as no data was lost, but it is annoying to have to redo work.

I must be more careful. Nothing was actually lost apart from a little time, but it could have been much worse…

Then a weird thing happened this evening, because of course it did. I gave a relative an external drive for them to back-up all their data on and then give back to me as an off-site back-up. (I have misplaced that original drive (it is in a “safe place”, hopefully) but thankfully made a few copies of its contents first.)

I thought to get that backed-up data onto a separate external drive (as well as it being multiply backed-up) so shuffled some 2.5” HDDs between some external caddies. The weird thing is that the drives behave differently, or are treated differently by Windows, depending on which caddy they're in.

Formatting the drive in one caddy (which happens to be the one from my first external HDD - Transcend Storejet) results in it “needs to be formatted before use” when plugged in via another caddy.

Some googling reveals that sometimes it just be like that. Which is ridiculous.

Tomorrow I'll try the same HDDs and caddies in Linux Mint to see if it's the same story there. Other than that, I guess I'll just have to leave one drive in the Transcend caddy, and that's where that lives.

Windows Explorer size reporting issues (still...) solved by switching to Treesize Free

 Monday, 1st of Dec, 2025 - 2210

Another surprise: T410 running Linux Mint; connect (2.5”) harddrive via eSATA; works & accessible straight away. At least something is functional.

I've moved the Rock old desktop setup with its ailing monitors out of LE’s side of the cellar; it was a bit of a pisstake using up some of their space.

Back to the issue of misreported folder sizes; it's reared its annoying head again. Some googling has revealed that this is a common Windows (especially 10, though that might be recency bias) problem, sometimes indeed to do with permissions.

I had a ridiculous situation where I went to copy a 299GB directory into 360GB’s worth of space, but only after completing most of the copying did the system inform me that I needed an additional 200-odd gib of space. 

It seems that copying folders solves the misreporting problem; you just have to ‘authorise’ the copying with admin permission once, and it works.

As an experiment, I copied the contents of the (allegedly) 299GB directory into a new folder on the same disk; as if by magic, the new folder’s size was 430GB. Silly Windows.

I had been using WinDirStat as a handy tool to quickly analyse & visualise directory sizes, but it misreports in exactly the same way as File Explorer (or File Mangler, as we used to call File Manager, many years ago).

The earlier googling suggested using Treesize Free instead, and it seems to be much more accurate. I'll use that in future, despite its constant advertising.

I just need to sit down for a day and get on with this silly project.