I don’t have a NAS. Can I backup on a SD or HD?

Published on 12.01.2026

Yes. BmuS is very cooperative here if you configure it correctly.

Technically speaking, BmuS doesn’t care whether the destination folder (BACKUP_PATH) is a mounted NAS, a USB hard drive, or an internal folder. The main thing is that it can write there.

Here is the behavior and necessary configuration for Native and Docker if you want to use a local hard drive (e.g., USB).

The behavior of the script (code level)

BmuS differentiates based on the NAS_IP variable:

  1. If NAS_IP is set: BmuS assumes that it needs to mount a network drive (mount -t cifs …). It performs ping tests and attempts the mount.
  2. If NAS_IP is EMPTY (“”): BmuS skips the entire network mount logic. It simply assumes: “The path specified in BACKUP_PATH is already there and ready.”

Native Installation

Configuration for native installation (e.g., Linux or Raspberry Pi with USB disk).

Let’s assume you have a USB disk that your Linux automatically mounted to /media/usbdisk (or you entered it in /etc/fstab). To do this, simply empty .bmus_credentials

NAS_USER=""
NAS_PASS=""

and empty bmus.conf

NAS_IP=""
NAS_SHARE=""

Then mount the medium and enter the path to it in bmus.conf under BACKUP_PATH.

BACKUP_PATH=“/media/usbdisk/BmuS_Backup”

Docker Installation

Here, it is slightly different. The container does not see your hardware directly. You must “pass through” the USB disk from the host to the container.

Scenario: USB disk is mounted on the NAS/host under /mnt/usb_backup.

Adjusting docker-compose.yml: You have to change the volume. Instead of using the config folder, you map the real disk.

YAML

volumes:
  - ./config:/config
  - /:/host_root:ro
  # We map the USB disk in the container to /target
  - /mnt/usb_backup:/target

bmus.conf:

No NAS connection required in the container.

NAS_IP=""

The path INSIDE the container (see docker-compose).

BACKUP_PATH="/target/MyBackup"

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