Mini PC NAS Setup with TrueNAS SCALE — Complete Guide

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A mini PC running TrueNAS SCALE makes a capable home NAS: ZFS for data integrity, SMB and NFS shares, Docker apps, and a clean web UI — all on hardware that draws 10–30W at idle. This guide covers installation, ZFS pool setup, and configuring shares for Windows and Linux clients.

Before You Start

Requirements:

Mini PC with at least 8GB RAM (ZFS uses RAM for caching — 16GB+ for better performance)
Boot drive: 32GB+ USB drive or dedicated small SSD for TrueNAS OS
Data drives: 2+ drives for RAID-Z (mirrors or RAID-Z1 minimum for data integrity)
Network connection
Estimated time: 45–60 minutes

Drive options for a mini PC NAS:

Option	Pro	Con
Internal M.2 NVMe	Fast, tidy	1–2 slots usually available
USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives	No internal slot needed	Slower, USB reliability concerns for 24/7
USB 3.2 Gen 2 enclosure (2-bay)	Adds multiple drives	USB bus saturation at 10Gbps with 2× HDDs
PCIe x4 HBA card (MS-01)	Best performance, SATA/SAS	Requires PCIe slot (only Minisforum MS-01 in this price range)

For most mini PC NAS builds, 2× NVMe drives (one for boot, one or two for storage) is the cleanest solution. External USB enclosures work but USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) is the minimum for HDDs.

Hardware recommendations: The Minisforum MS-01 with 3× M.2 slots and an optional PCIe HBA is the best mini PC NAS platform. See our best mini PC for NAS guide.

Step 1: Download TrueNAS SCALE

Download TrueNAS SCALE from truenas.com/download-tnscale/.

Current version as of March 2026: TrueNAS SCALE 24.10 “Electric Eel”

Download the .iso file (~1.5GB).

Step 2: Create the Installer USB

# macOS/Linux
sudo dd if=TrueNAS-SCALE-24.10.iso of=/dev/diskX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

# Windows: use Rufus — select the ISO, DD mode

Step 3: Install TrueNAS SCALE

Boot from USB. The TrueNAS installer is text-based:

Install/Upgrade → select the target drive for the TrueNAS OS
- Use a dedicated small drive (32GB+ USB drive or cheap SSD) for the OS
- Never use a data drive for the OS — the installer formats the target completely
Set an admin password
Select boot mode: UEFI (recommended for mini PCs) or BIOS
Installation completes, reboot without USB

After reboot, TrueNAS displays its IP address on the console:

You may try the following URL to access the web interface:
http://192.168.1.55

Open http://192.168.1.55 in a browser. Log in with admin and your set password.

Change the root password immediately: Credentials → Users → root → Edit → Password

Set a static IP: Network → Interfaces → select your NIC → Edit → disable DHCP → enter static IP, subnet, gateway → Save → Apply

Set hostname and DNS: Network → Global Configuration:

Hostname: truenas
Domain: home
Nameserver 1: 192.168.1.1 (your router) or 1.1.1.1

Step 5: Create a ZFS Storage Pool

This is the most important step. Your ZFS pool determines your storage layout, redundancy, and performance.

ZFS pool types for a mini PC NAS:

Configuration	Drives Needed	Usable Space	Redundancy
Single drive (no RAID)	1	100%	None — any drive failure = data loss
Mirror (RAID-1 equivalent)	2	50%	1 drive can fail
3-way Mirror	3	33%	2 drives can fail
RAID-Z1 (RAID-5 equivalent)	3+	N-1 drives	1 drive can fail
RAID-Z2 (RAID-6 equivalent)	4+	N-2 drives	2 drives can fail

For a mini PC NAS with 2 NVMe drives: Mirror (2-way) is the right choice. You lose half your storage but can survive one drive failure.

For a mini PC NAS with 3 NVMe drives: RAID-Z1 or 3-way mirror. RAID-Z1 gives more usable space; 3-way mirror has better read performance.

Create the pool:

Storage → Create Pool:

Pool Name: tank (traditional ZFS name) or something descriptive
Layout: Select Mirror, RAIDZ1, or RAIDZ2 based on your drive count
Drag your data drives into the VDEV
Click Create Pool

Verify pool health:

Storage → your pool → should show “ONLINE” status

# In the TrueNAS CLI (System → Shell):
zpool status
# Should show: state: ONLINE, status: Some supported features are not enabled on this pool.

Step 6: Create Datasets

Datasets are ZFS sub-volumes within a pool. Create separate datasets for different use cases — this allows per-dataset compression settings, snapshots, and quotas.

Storage → tank → Add Dataset:

documents — for personal files (compression: lz4)
media — for video/photo library (compression: off — already compressed content)
backups — for backup data (compression: zstd)
vms — for VM images if using TrueNAS with Proxmox

For each dataset, set:

Compression: lz4 for general data, off for media, zstd-3 for backups
Case sensitivity: insensitive (for Windows client compatibility)

Step 7: Configure SMB Shares (Windows/macOS)

Create a local user:

Credentials → Users → Add:

Username: nasuser
Password: your chosen password
Check “Samba Authentication”

Enable the SMB service:

Services → SMB → Edit:

Workgroup: WORKGROUP
Enable: checked
Start Automatically: checked

Create an SMB share:

Shares → Windows (SMB) Shares → Add:

Path: /mnt/tank/documents
Name: documents
Check “Access Based Enumeration”

Click Save. When prompted to start the SMB service, click Start.

Mount the share on Windows:

Open File Explorer → Network → right-click → Map Network Drive:

\\192.168.1.55\documents
Credentials: nasuser / your password
Check “Reconnect at sign-in”

Step 8: Configure NFS Shares (Linux)

Enable the NFS service:

Services → NFS → Edit → Start Automatically → Save

Create an NFS share:

Shares → Unix (NFS) Shares → Add:

Path: /mnt/tank/media
Hosts: 192.168.1.0/24 (allow entire home network) or specific IPs
MapRoot User: root

Mount on Linux:

# Install NFS client
sudo apt install nfs-common

# Create mount point
sudo mkdir -p /media/nas

# Mount
sudo mount -t nfs 192.168.1.55:/mnt/tank/media /media/nas

# Add to /etc/fstab for permanent mount
echo "192.168.1.55:/mnt/tank/media /media/nas nfs defaults,_netdev 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Step 9: Configure Automatic Snapshots

ZFS snapshots capture point-in-time copies of your data — the best protection against accidental deletion.

Data Protection → Periodic Snapshot Tasks → Add:

Dataset: tank/documents
Recursive: checked
Lifetime: 2 weeks (keeps snapshots for 2 weeks before auto-deletion)
Schedule: Daily at 2:00 AM

Recover a deleted file from a snapshot:

In TrueNAS Shell or SSH:

# List snapshots
zfs list -t snapshot tank/documents

# Access snapshot data (read-only)
ls /mnt/tank/documents/.zfs/snapshot/auto-2026-03-20_02-00/

# Restore a file
cp /mnt/tank/documents/.zfs/snapshot/auto-2026-03-20_02-00/lost-file.doc /mnt/tank/documents/

Running TrueNAS as a Proxmox VM

If you already run Proxmox and want NAS functionality alongside VMs, run TrueNAS SCALE as a VM with disk passthrough.

Pass drives to the TrueNAS VM:

# On the Proxmox host — find disk IDs by WWN (not /dev/sdX which can change)
ls /dev/disk/by-id/ | grep -v part

# Add disk to VM in the Proxmox web UI:
# VM → Hardware → Add → Hard Disk → Bus: SATA, Storage: none (select disk directly)
# Or via CLI:
qm set 200 -scsi1 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD80EZAZ-XXXX,cache=none

Passing disks directly (not as an image file) gives TrueNAS full control over the physical drives, which ZFS requires for correct SMART monitoring and error correction.

Troubleshooting

ZFS pool shows “DEGRADED”

One drive has failed or is failing. Check Storage → pool → Topology for the red drive icon. Replace the drive immediately — RAID-Z1 with a failed drive still serves data but has no redundancy. After physical replacement: Storage → pool → Disks → select the new drive → Replace.

SMB shares not visible on Windows

Ensure the SMB service is running (Services → SMB → status). Verify the Windows machine can ping the TrueNAS IP. If Windows 10/11 shows “Network Discovery” issues, enable it: Control Panel → Network → Change advanced sharing settings → Turn on network discovery.

Slow NFS performance

Check that Jumbo Frames are enabled consistently across your switch and network adapters. For 2.5GbE NFS performance, ensure your switch supports 2.5GbE. NFS v4.1 generally performs better than v3 for large file transfers.

Quick Price Summary

Minisforum MS-01 — 3× M.2 + HBA slot, 10GbE
Beelink Me Pro — 2× SATA + 3× M.2, NAS-focused
GMKtec K11 — dual Intel NICs, upgradeable to 64GB

Recommended Hardware

→ Check Current Price: Minisforum MS-01 on Amazon — 3× M.2 slots + PCIe HBA slot, 10GbE, best mini PC NAS platform → Check Current Price: Beelink Me Pro on Amazon — 2× SATA + 3× M.2, 5GbE+2.5GbE, NAS-focused design → Check Current Price: GMKtec K11 on Amazon — Ryzen 9, 2× M.2, dual Intel 2.5GbE, upgradeable to 64GB

Mini PC NAS Setup with TrueNAS SCALE — Complete Guide | Mini PC Lab