I have a desktop PC with two SSDs—one with Windows installed and the other currently empty, which I plan to use for Linux as I migrate to it. Additionally, I have two 4TB HDDs I intend to configure for NAS storage.
Since I can’t afford a dedicated NAS setup just yet, I’m considering dedicating a portion of the empty SSD to run a NAS solution like TrueNAS or Proxmox for self-hosting. Ideally, I’d like the NAS portion to operate continuously in the background, while allowing me to boot into either Linux or Windows as usual.
Is it possible to set up the NAS environment this way, so it’s always running and accessible, even as I switch between Linux and Windows on my main system?
First off you don’t need a second drive for Linux. You can dual boot with one drive without issues. If Windows decides to bork it the second drive will do nothing.
Second off, why do you want a NAS OS? Couldn’t you just use the second drive for your files? Maybe I’m missing something. I would install Windows and Linux to the first drive and then mount the second drive as extra storage.