I’m not 100% sure but this might also depend which OS you are running on your pi. Did change from SD card to SSD few years back for my home assistant setup (now running with a mini pc) at the time I went for a geekpi adapter (can’t recall exact model).

Try a quick ducduck search “sata adapter #yourOS#” and see if a list come up. Here is one for HA (but surely more models are compatible than the ones listed here) https://community.home-assistant.io/t/working-usb-enclosures-and-adapters-with-hassos/212763

Edit: as for SSD, I went for Samsung EVO model

Sidenote: all SSD will be more reliable than a sd card because they are less sensitive to rewrite counts

As far as photo librabry, you can compare the different solutions at https://github.com/meichthys/foss_photo_libraries

On your Xiaomi first time you launched app, you can determine wether you always allow or allow on prompt (but you should still be able to manage that setting afterwards). You also need to disable battery optimization for that app and set app to be able to auto launch in background. This is at least what I do with my home assistant app to determine GPS location in background (app record every 15mn) and no issues with battery draining.

Don’t have particular case to recommend as the one I have has been printed but get one where you can add an SSD. SD card are not well suited for home assistant due to the amount of overwriting.

So pc is consuming 13W, this is with one nvme + one SSD, pic at 30w for a few seconds at boot.

Curious, might have same machine but do consume a bit more, do you have one SSD + one nvme?

It is a beelink mini s12 pro https://www.bee-link.com/beelink-mini-s12-pro-n100-mini-pc-clone-1

Do also have a n100 processor running proxmox with 3 VM. Can’t try right now but can come back in a few days to let you know how much power it draws

If z2m, zwavejs,… Are installed from the adon store of HA, all you have to do is create a full backup of HA, and all your automations will be saved and restored automatically.

“do we straight up invade… like we did…” Do you know the mess that actually comes from there? And How much it had enforced extremist behaviour in other countries.

“What US needs to do?” Start by taking care of your own issues like guns, they will inevitably end up in dark market serving cartels and others, it would also stop massive killing happening in your own country at the same time… Priorities to education and healthcare, Stop invading countries (can’t remember last US invasion which was actually useful…), start supporting smart guys instead of bad/extremist guys so they don’t get more powerful (exemple: Masoud instead of Bin Laden in Afghanistan against Russia).

This might help you to choose https://github.com/meichthys/foss_photo_libraries