Accessing a USB drive that's paired to TrueNAS CORE on Windows

[Vizal]

Hi,

I'm using an external USB drive for storage on my old laptop running TrueNAS Core.
When I plug in the external drive to my Windows machine, it can't be explored in any way.
Is there any way to do this? Say, my TrueNAS installation gets corrupted. Do I lose access to my files forever then?

Thank you for your advice.

 

[Ericloewe]

There are OSes beyond Windows, and OpenZFS is supported on a bunch of them (and even Windows is not out of reach, for the more adventurous).

there any way to do this? Say, my TrueNAS installation gets corrupted

The most obvious option is to reinstall TrueNAS. Beyond that, you could install your favorite Linux distro, FreeBSD, Illumos (with some limitations), Mac OS (Soon to be integrated into OpenZFS )...

 

[Vizal]

There are OSes beyond Windows, and OpenZFS is supported on a bunch of them (and even Windows is not out of reach, for the more adventurous).

The most obvious option is to reinstall TrueNAS. Beyond that, you could install your favorite Linux distro, FreeBSD, Illumos (with some limitations), Mac OS (Soon to be integrated into OpenZFS )...

Thank you for your insights. I noticed there is OpenZFS for Windows. Did you happen to try it?

 

[Davvo]

The installation is on the boot drive, the data is on the data drives.
If your installation gets corrupted, you just need to reinstall on the boot drive, import your data pool (data drives) and your config backup to have everything as before.

 

[Ericloewe]

Did you happen to try it?

No. As I said, it's for the more adventurous types at the moment.

 

[Etorix]

Namely, OpenZFSonWindows is a side project of OpenZFSonOSX, which is itself pretty much a one-man operation. So, in this instance, the level of support for Windows is well below that for ANY other OS.
If you're confortable with the command line, go ahead—but expect rough edges.