Okay, let’s talk about this little project I wrapped up recently. I kinda started calling it my “survivor series” in my head, mostly ’cause it was about keeping some older tech kicking.
So, I had this old Raspberry Pi 3 just sitting there. It used to run my network ad-blocker, you know, Pi-hole. Worked great for years, but lately, it was getting really sluggish. Sometimes the whole network would feel slow, and I suspected the little Pi was struggling to keep up. Plus, accessing its web interface? Forget about it, took ages to load. I figured the SD card was probably on its last legs. They don’t last forever, especially with all the writing logs and stuff.
Checking Out the Problem
First thing I did was plug it into a monitor and keyboard, just to see what was going on. Boot time was slow, yeah. Once it loaded up, I ran a simple command to check system load. Yep, CPU wasn’t maxed out, but the disk activity seemed high whenever I tried to do anything. Classic sign of a worn-out SD card bottlenecking everything. I thought about just getting a new Pi, like a Pi 4 or something, but honestly? Seemed like overkill for just running Pi-hole. And I hate throwing working electronics away. Felt like a waste.
Making a Plan
I decided I wanted to make this Pi 3 survive, make it useful again. The processor itself was fine for the job. The weak link was the storage. So, the plan was simple: ditch the SD card for something faster and more durable. I remembered reading that you could boot newer Pi 3s from a USB drive. An SSD seemed like the best bet. Faster reads, faster writes, and way more reliable than an SD card for constant use.
Here’s what I figured I needed:
- A small, cheap SSD. Didn’t need much space, 120GB is overkill but often the cheapest option.
- A USB to SATA adapter cable.
Getting Hands-On
First, backup! I plugged the old SD card into my main computer and copied off my Pi-hole configuration files. Didn’t want to set all that up again from scratch. Super important step, always back stuff up before you mess with things.
Then, I got the parts. Found a basic 120GB SSD and a simple USB 3.0 adapter online. Nothing fancy.
Next, I prepared the SSD. Plugged it into my main computer using the adapter. Downloaded the latest Raspberry Pi OS image and used their official imager tool to write it onto the SSD. Pretty straightforward process, just like doing it for an SD card.
Now, the slightly tricky bit. My Pi 3 needed to be told it could boot from USB. I put the old SD card back into the Pi one last time, booted it up, and went into the Raspberry Pi configuration tool using the terminal (`sudo raspi-config`). Found the boot options menu, and there was a setting to change the boot order to try USB first. Made that change, saved it, and shut down the Pi.
Okay, moment of truth. I took out the SD card for good this time. Plugged the SSD (connected via the USB adapter) into one of the Pi’s USB ports. Plugged in the power cable. Held my breath for a second.
The Result: It Lives!
And… it worked! The Pi booted right up from the SSD. It was noticeably quicker, even just booting to the desktop. Success!
After the initial boot, I did the basic setup stuff – network, timezone, etc. Then I re-installed Pi-hole using their setup script. Once that was done, I copied my old configuration files back into the right places. Gave it a reboot just to be sure.
Man, what a difference. The web interface loaded instantly. Network felt snappy again. The little Pi 3 wasn’t just surviving; it felt totally refreshed. It’s been running solid ever since. Didn’t cost much, saved some e-waste, and I got the satisfaction of fixing it myself. That’s my little survivor story for this piece of tech.
