Create a cloud using NextCloud, Raspberry Pi, and a USB HDD from scratch

I’ll show you how to create a cloud for your files that you can keep running at a small cost of energy becaus of the low consumption of the Raspberry Pi board which is below 0.120 kWh / day, which translates in under 0.05 USD / day and that’s a maximal value.

— Updated for 2024 —

This tutorial is for users who like from-scratch setup 🤘.

Nextcloud 28 running on the Raspberry Pi

Let’s start with a minimal setup and check

You will need a:

• Raspberry Pi 3B/+, Raspberry Pi 4, 5 or above;
• Raspberry Pi OS (preferably 64-bit, Lite)
• USB HDD or SSD;
• A clean setup of Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit);

You should use FAT32 or EXT4 for storage format.

If you don’t need a lot of space, you can skip using an HDD, SSD, or memory stick, and just buy an SD Card of the size you think will acquire your needs. Make sure SD Card is compatible with the Raspberry Pi.

Initialize Raspberry Pi for this task

Power up and connect to the Raspberry Pi using SSH as shown in this guide or do things directly using a screen and a keyboard. Connect USB HDD to the Raspberry…