Best Way to Add a bootable SSD

Installation
1

I am a new Home Assistant user confused about how to upgrade my data storage.

Background
I installed Home Assistant on a Khadas VIM1S using a Home Assistant image from the Khadas site. That installed Home Assistant Supervised with the following setup booting and running from from onboard eMMC :

  • host_os : Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
  • supervisor_version : supervisor-2024.06.2
  • agent_version : 1.5.1
  • docker_version : 24.0.2
  • eMMC disk_total : 14.4 GB (onboard EEMC)
  • eMMC disk_used : 10.7 GB

I am pleased with the setup and am enjoying learning about it…EXCEPT I know the 16GB eMMC has no future (sizewise). So I bought a SSK 256GB (SD102) with the plan to move OS and all of Home Assistant over to that and to have it be bootable.

My Plan

  1. Make a full backup of HA using the Settings/Backup route, downloading it to my PC
  2. Create a bootable SD card with a basic Linux system downloaded from the Khadas website. This will be a backup in case something goes wrong
  3. Attach the new SSD to my windows PC and and reformat it to FAT32 (it’s currently formatted as exfat)
  4. Flash, from my PC, the Debian/Home Assistant Supported image from Khadas to the using balenaEtcher.
  5. Take out the SD card and plug in the SDD to a USB
  6. Turn on and hopefully it reboots to the SSD and inititalizes HomeAssistant
  7. Reinstall the HomeAssistant files from the full backup.

My Questions (what could go wrong?:wink:)

  • Anything dumb about my steps above?
  • Do I need to reformat the SDD as I described in my plan?
  • Do I need a swap partition? or will it be put on automatically?
  • Will the SDD be automatically bootable with the Etcher flash or do I need to do something else?
  • Do I need to mount the SDD? If so, how and when in the process?
  • Is Home Assistant Supervised the right install for me?

I know this is a big ask. I’ve spent a lot of time researching this already and hope you all can help me avoid thrashing around in a cave with no light and a broken “return string”.

Thanks in advance, Michael

2

Hello,
I’m currently in the same situation as you. By any chance, were you able to resolve it?
Thanks in advance!

3

Howdy,
I ended going in a different direction by getting a RPI 5. I flashed a SD card with a basic system then used it to change the boot order with the SDD being first then the SD card second. Flashed the SDD with a HAOS installation since I didn’t want to maintain the os on the Raspberry. I then took the SD card out and started the RPI and it booted straightaway from the SDD. After initial setup I then restored my system from the backup and everything came over with no glitches. From this experience I think the Khadas would have gone as anticipated. There is a good manual page for doing this. Let me know if you need a link…I’l have to research for it.

4

Thank you, I’ll try that on my end. If it doesn’t work, I might also consider switching platforms.
Thanks!