…But then my SD-card SanDisk 16GB (Type 10 A1) crashed and I looked into the alternative for running Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B (RaPi3B)
For me it is clear that the heavy file access of Home Assistant in my context will not work long term with any SD card. Therefore, I was looking for a simple HDD solution. There are many complicated solutions described in the web, but I found a very simple and straight forward approach which is written in German. Therefore, I translate the essentials for you into English.
First, you need to take care of the right power supply as this is the main hurdle for Rasperry Pis working with HDD. The RaPi3B needs 330 mA for running and offers up to 600 mA for USB and other external peripherals. This adds up from HDMI 50 mA, Ethernet 50 mA, or Mouse 50 mA. You can increase the peripheral limit to 1’200 mA but overall, you can not get more out of the RaPi3B than 2’500 mA at 4.75 – 5.2V or 11 – 13W. But of course your USB power supply must be able to deliver! And therefore, you better use the official Raspberry Pi 3 Model B which delivers 2500 mA at 5.1V and not an USB charger! But even this might not be enough to run a HDD drive. Therefore, I picked the simple solutions: an external HDD with Y-cable: two USB plugs, one for DATA and one for POWER.
