Tech enthusiasts know that finding ways to keep aging hardware out of the landfill is great for the environment -- even if your daily-driver Mac or PC is in need of an upgrade. That's easier said than done, though. I found a way to buy an old iMac for under $100 for use as an external monitor, until disaster struck. Amid the chaos of my apartment move, I shattered the 2012 iMac's display, and that left me seriously puzzled as to what to do with it. I couldn't fix it, because I could buy two more iMacs for the price of a replacement screen.
I'm sure, at some point, you'll find yourself in the same position. You might have a drawer or shelf filled with old or broken hardware -- sometimes both -- that stays powered off most or all the time. I wasn't ready to power down this aging iMac for good, because apart from the cracked glass, it's in great working order. So, I decided to turn it into a network-attached storage (NAS) device. It was surprisingly easy, and you should do it too if you've already upgraded to one of the best Macs and have an old one lying around.
The hardware I used
An iMac with a cracked screen from 2012, plus an optional DAS
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Apple bundles a few features with macOS, from the latest macOS Sequoia to older versions of Mac OS X, that make setting up a Mac as a NAS a painless endeavor. I used a 21.5-inch iMac released in late 2012 for this project, and these are relatively common machines. They were popular in the corporate and education sectors, and also sold well as family computers. This iMac came with 8GB of DDR3 memory, a 2.7-GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, and an Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics card with 512MB of vRAM.
For a basic NAS setup, you don't need any additional hardware. It's possible to connect this very iMac to your network using only a wireless connection and the computer's internal storage. However, an Ethernet connection is strongly recommended for the best performance. Additionally, the hard disk "Fusion" drives found within this model year of iMac, and those similar to it, have been spinning for over a decade. They're destined to fail, so I recommend doing the swap to an internal SSD, or simply connecting to an external Mac SSD and storing all your important files there.
Redundancy is important, and you won't want your precious files to be lost in the event an obsolete Mac kicks the can. That's why you should follow the 3-2-1 rule for NAS hardware and data redundancy. As a proof of concept, I connected a direct attached storage (DAS) unit to this iMac, configured as a RAID array. That way, my iMac becomes the network-attached device in the chain, and the DAS is there for redundancy.
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The setup process
All the features you need are built into macOS and Mac OS X
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As you've probably gathered by now, using an old Mac as a NAS can be as simple or as complicated as you'd like. In its most basic form, macOS File Sharing only takes a few steps to set up for the first time. After you complete the following steps, you'll be able to access your old Mac from another Mac or PC -- just like a typical NAS.
Open System Settings or System Preferences, whichever is available on your version of macOS Click the Sharing tab, either found in the sidebar or the icon grid.
You'll see a list of Sharing options. Enable File Sharing to use your Mac as a basic NAS file server. You can also flip the toggle for Media Sharing to share things like your iTunes library. Under the File Sharing tab, click + under Shared Folders to select a folder/volume. When you enable File Sharing, one Public Folder will be automatically created for your system. Now, it's time to set permissions for each user or group. You'll need these to access your Mac's files remotely. Read Only: The user or group can view the contents but not write data. Write Only (Drop Box): The user or group can write data but not see the folder's contents. Read & Write: The user or group can both see and write data in the Shared Folder. No Access: The user or group is unable to view the Shared Folder.
Check the Share files and folders using SMB box. This will allow users on Windows and other platforms to access your Mac's files, with an approved username and password.
After that, you can open up the Finder on any Mac connected to your network and click the Network tab. Now, you'll see the name of your iMac -- now configured as a NAS file server. You can remotely access the files as if they were directly stored on your Mac, or even remote into your Mac's desktop and control it from afar. This is all it takes to use your Mac's inbuilt hard drive or SSD as a NAS, and you can simply connect external storage or a DAS to expand your space.
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Should you use an iMac as a NAS?
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It took me about 20 minutes to get this old iMac up-and-running as a NAS, and that's certainly the appeal of a project such as this one. You don't need to buy any external hardware or spend a ton of time tinkering with specialty NAS software. Anyone, regardless of experience level, can use macOS File Sharing and set up a NAS server of their own in under an hour following the steps above. However, this method is only a realistic option for people who want basic file hosting, media sharing, and remote access. If you're dreaming of NAS projects and Docker containers, you'll want to build or buy dedicated NAS hardware.
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