I would like to start and create my first file server at home. I’ve never done this before and I’m a beginner. I would like to know how to create one, how to maintain it for years to come, and what costs are entailed with a direct or indirect costs. Thanks everyone.
Edit
Added the below for clarity.
What I am looking for is a way to storing my personal files at home. I am not looking for internet connected device that I can access remotely.
It will be mainly used to store my personal photos and videos, and not used to stream movies to a device.
Should be accessible by devices such as android, windows, and iOS.
The answer also depends on your level of experience and how much you want to learn doing this. You mentioned you haven’t done this before, but are you otherwise comfortable using computers and figuring things out? Are you familiar with Linux and/or the command line? In addition, are you hoping to tinker around and learn a lot from this, or are you more concerned with just setting it up so you can use it?
There are options for all levels of expertise and technical interest, but I recommend starting with any hardware you already have or can aquire for cheap/free (especially if you’re hoping to tinker and learn more). As another commenter suggested, finding an old desktop or laptop and putting a NAS operating system on it would be a great starting project. Then once you play around with it, you’ll know if/where you want to spend some cash on something better. If you don’t have old PCs laying around, check on whatever you use for local buy & sell listings, you can probably pick up something for pretty cheap.
If you’re mostly looking to play around and you don’t have any extra hardware, you can also try things out in a virtual machine (download VirtualBox), which will let you learn without any monetary investment.