On Sunday, 28 August 2022 00:30:08 BST Dale wrote:
> Mark Knecht wrote:
> > On Fri, Aug 26, 2022 at 4:37 PM Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com
> > 
> > <mailto:markknecht@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > > On Fri, Aug 26, 2022 at 4:21 PM Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com
> > 
> > <mailto:rdalek1967@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > > <SNIP>
> > > 
> > > > I have looked into OpenNAS and other NAS OS stuff.  Some are on
> > 
> > USB sticks and basically, you shut it down, upgrade the USB stick,
> > insert it back into NAS and boot up.
> > 
> > > <SNIP>
> > > 
> > > The first version of TrueNAS I used was on a USB stick and it worked
> > 
> > fine so I'm fairly confident you'd be at least functional.
> > 
> > One last thing for now - if you do buy a used MB do some research into
> > whether it will actually boot from USB. One of the ones I bought
> > actually did not do that so I had to dig up a old DVD drive to install
> > from a CD.
> > 
> > - M
> 
> I've got a older donated machine that doesn't boot from USB too.  The
> newer donated machine does, I've booted from USB sticks before.  I'm
> going to pull the side off and see how many drives it can hold and such
> in a bit.  If I gather up enough steam.  As it is, I only need three at
> the moment, four maybe later.  Most come with six but this is a factory
> built machine.  I can't recall what it comes with. 
> 
> Dale
> 
> :-)  :-) 

Depending on the age of the MoBo, even if it can't boot from USB, it should be 
able to boot with 'pixie'.  Set up a tftp PXE server on your LAN and the old 
MoBo will fetch the image(s) to boot with.  You can take a look here for 
ideas:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/
Installation_alternatives#Diskless_install_using_PXE_from_the_LiveCD