Basic advice needed on post-install

[RichOBrien]

So, I've read the forum rules and guidelines. I've searched the forum but imagine my lack of knowledge is leading me astray. So here's the scenario....

Installed FreeNAS on Windows XP 32Bit Dell with Dual Core Processor and 150GB HDD. When I say installed, it's on a thumbdrive, as per tutorial I followed. Everything went fine. After reboot it spat out an IP address which when accessed from laptop or PC gave me access to WebGUI. So far so good.

Now, prior to installing FreeNAS I didn't format the HDD so windows is still on it. Not sure if this should be formatted or not?

So, where I'm now stuck is, what to do next? All this real tech stuff is new to me but i'm willing to learn. Basically, I don't see any storage space. I create a volume ok and can see this in View All Storage but not on the System Info.

Don't ask me why I did this it just seemed the likely option

I understand you're rolling your eyes right now. Wandering what kinda numpty am I?

All, I'm hoping is someone can point me in a general direction to some links for idiots. Maybe even a 'FreeNAS 101' lesson. Just something that explains the barebones of getting Setup. I watched the FreeNASTeam videos plus other videos.

As you can see i'm more than just green to this, it's all new and exciting to me. So if you've time to advise it's wholly appreciated.

I'm not frustrated or annoyed, just lacking the fundamentals for now. If I've to start all over I will. If I'm advised to give up I won't but I'll lurk and troll :p

FreeNAS-8.0-RELEASE-i386.iso is what I used along with a 1GB thumbdrive.

 

[ClassicGOD]

When you use this drive to create a volume in FreeNAS it will format it for you.

 

[RichOBrien]

Thanks for replying. I did notice on Create a volume that it formats the drive. My problem seems to be this not showing up? The drive that is. Or maybe is just missing a vital piece of info.

I'm sure I'm still way over my head here and need a crash course on what exactly to do.

 

[RichOBrien]

Just a bit more info from reading other threads. I'm looking to setup the drive as UFS since I've not enough ram for ZFS. Some threads are suggesting sticking with v7 rather than v8.

There's a lifehacker tutorial that also suggested v7.

 

[ProtoSD]

RichOBrien -

Your a huge step ahead of a lot of other users here who don't seem to have read much or watched any of the videos, congratulations for your effort!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE FreeNAS 8.x, but it's not perfect (yet), and at this point I don't think it's ready for Noobs without a lot of tech experience. I can't offer any real advice since I haven't used FreeNAS .7, but based on some of the negative comments from people that have used .7 and switch to 8.x, it seems like it might be a better option for you. (The negative comments were about 8)

When you say you can't see your drive, how are you looking at it / trying to use it? From the GUI or trying to connect to it using some type of network sharing protocol like CIFS or NFS etc.?

 

[RichOBrien]

Hi Protosd,

Thnaks for the reply. I'm dl'ing v7 at the moment so I'll try that. But to answer your questions I can't see it on my network. I imagine this is because I missing that vital step after install and network config.

But if v7 installs and works I'll still post back to say where I encountered issues.

BTW, thanks for the kind comments!

 

[ProtoSD]

RichOBrien -

You're welcome :)

The reason you can't see your drive is because you need to setup 'sharing' and with Windows that means CIFS/Samba. On the left sidebar you'll see a category called Sharing, expand that, click CIFS, and Add CIFS Share. That's a nudge to where you can read some more. The official docs are here http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Main_Page
but you probably already know that. If you decide to use version .7, there is another forum for that version listed in the titlebar at the top of the page if you need to ask questions, these forums are only for version 8.

 

[RichOBrien]

SO, I reverted to FreeNAS 7 and everything went perfectly. I'll keep an eye on v8 to see how developement goes and hopefully migrate at some stage. Thanks again for your guidance it's appreciated.

Rich