You write up a procedure for the setup of your server and any virtual machines contained within.

Using declarative Distros makes the procedure shorter and easier to maintain in the long run.

Then you use it to setup your system (fixing issues in your procedure along the way)

Then wipe and do it again (this time should be done without issue or you may need another spin)

Then slowly grow your documentation and what services you have running.

My general Digitizing VHS tapes advise is:

Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC5Zr3NC2PY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQioCb4KUHM

Look into:

https://legacybox.com/products/vhs-conversion

https://lotusmedia.us/convert-tapes/

https://www.memoriesrenewed.com/video-transfer-services/

and only if you have a shitload of personal VHS tapes should you get a TV tuner card and try to convert.

let me know if they actually end up having full capacity, because slow drives I can deal with. That price per TB is close enough to spinning metal to finally tip the scale for me towards SSDs

ssh -X ${hostname} works better than both even on ancient hardware (pre 1990)

If you are going to self-host please embrace a shell (bash, powershell, fish, zsh, etc) any shell; then you’ll be fast and productive even at 300 Baud.