Moving media files

HertsEVAddict · December 3, 2025, 9:31pm

I have a very up to date version of HAOS that I run on a mini PC:

Installation methodHome Assistant OS
Core2025.11.1
Supervisor2025.11.5
Operating System16.3
Frontend20251105.0
I only had a 32Gb disk and was looking to add storage. I read hat HAOS can only use an extra disk for media files.
I formatted an ssd as ext4 and plugged it into the USB3 port.
I had a few problems:
1- I read that the filesystem would be automatically mounted onto /media, but this was not the case.
2- I then tried to use the option on Storage to move the media files onto my new SSD. As I had an SD card plugged as well, I could see two options on the menu, my ssd disk being /dev/sdc . But when I selected the ssd as a target, I saw an error message saying that it could not move to /dev/sdb (ignoring the fact I selected /dev/sdc)
3- I unplugged the sd card and I could select the move to be to the /dev/sdc disk
when the machine rebooted, I could see that all files had been moved, df shows the below results , indicating that all filesystems were moved:
mpfs 1407936 1776 1406160 0% /run/dbus
tmpfs 3519832 0 3519832 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sdb1 2015826932 26954536 1906921872 1% /run/audio
tmpfs 1407936 1776 1406160 0% /run/docker.sock
/dev/sdb1 2015826932 26954536 1906921872 1% /etc/

The performance of interacting with HA became extremely slow, including when using “terminal”.

When I tried to “roll the change back” (moving the contents of the data disk back to /dev/sda), the system does not allow me, as it says that it needs to move to a disk of the same or larger size (even if the used space is below the size of the original disk).: No suitable storage found

No suitable external device was found. The storage capacity of the external data disk must be greater than that of the existing disk

Do you have any suggestions of how to roll back?

danieldeni · December 4, 2025, 8:16am

Make backup through the official backup.
Store the backup file somewhere safe.
Reinstall on the flash storage you want
Restore the backup.

To mount extra drives in the same Home Assistant OS you will need to add a file so that it can automount and internal/external drive into the media folder, this is not supported to setup through the GUI.

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/Deckoz2302/489e3600bb9facbb3be65bd738e27d1c

81-mount-sata-to-media-by-label.rules

#
# udev rule
#   Mount internal drive to the media directory using the partition name as mount point
#
# Description:
#   Created for Home Assistant OS, this rule mounts an internal drive (SATA/NVME)
#   into the Hassio media directory (/mnt/data/supervisor/media).
#   When a internal drive is connected to the board, the rule creates one directory
#   per partition under the media directory. The newly created partition is named
#   as the following

This file has been truncated. show original

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/eklex/c5fac345de5be9d9bc420510617c86b5

80-mount-usb-to-media-by-label.rules

#
# udev rule
#   Mount USB drive to the media directory using the partition name as mount point
#
# Description:
#   Created for Home Assistant OS, this rule mounts any USB drives
#   into the Hassio media directory (/mnt/data/supervisor/media).
#   When a USB drive is connected to the board, the rule creates one directory
#   per partition under the media directory. The newly created partition is named
#   as the partition name. If the partition does not have a name, then the following

This file has been truncated. show original

From: [SOLVED] Mount USB drive in Hassio to be used on the Media Folder with udev customization - #103 by Jens_Wymeersch

I am using the first script with some additions to mount two extra NVMe drives inside my Terramaster F8 SSD Plus and have 3x WD850X 8TB in there, which works great.

HertsEVAddict · December 4, 2025, 3:59pm

Thank you for sharing, this rules file would have made it much simpler!

Now in terms of “how to roll back”:…

Make backup through the official backup.
Store the backup file somewhere safe.
I did the above two steps before the disaster “upgrade”
Reinstall on the flash storage you want
Do you mean I need to reinstall haos? Is it not just a matter of uopdating a few files to point to the old sda?
Restore the backup.
This would be fine.

danieldeni · December 4, 2025, 9:42pm

No, you moved all your data from the old disk to the new disk. So the old one is empty now.

So to restore it to the old drive, it’s best to reinstall HA OS on the correct drive and restore your backup there. Be sure to disconnect the incorrect drive and wipe it eventually before connecting it again.

I’ve done this dozens of times and the backup restore always worked, so should be fine if you have the backup file. Also works this way moving between systems and even platforms.