Having a my own Ubuntu home server since 15+ years (mail smart host, samba, Logitechmediaserver, Picapport Media server and more) I'm currently in the process of moving and modernizing services on a Proxmox VE. All my former iterations had extern USB 3.5 and later 2.5" (less noise) USB hard disks as data grabs. The new proxmox host with multiple Linux Containers (no VM) is running in a laptop with an internal 1 TB SSD for alle the day to day stuff and has an external USB3 6 TB 2.5" HDD with btrfs attached. The majority of our data is 3.5 TB photos and videos from our smartphones plus about 100 GB of Maildirs on the SSD.
I got a large collection of older and newer HDDs of various sizes like 160GB, 300GB, 2x 500GB, 2x 1TB, 4TB an 5TB. I'm looking for good ways to make use of those HDDs - but they shouldnt run all the time (energy, noise) and only improve my system e.g. adding space for temporary media downloads (couple of weeks) or increasing data safety like in adding Raid modes etc.
What would you guys do with those drives?
Or would it be just better to get a cheap 18 TB USB drive and go with that - I'm just a little bit afraid it could be too loud sitting in a shelf in the living room...