Can I use a drive with existing data and not loose it.

[ferlin]

I am a very new user.
I got the latest freenas setup on a box with 3 HDD ,
1 300gig ata
1 500gig sata
1 2TB sata

I have about 1TB of backed up photos on the 2 tb drive, that I had been using via a usb connection from my windows pc.
I wanted to setup the freenas, so all my computers can access the 2TB drive without plugging it into each computer.

Freenas sees the drives, but I'm at the spot in the install were it wants me to select the drives and then use the UFS,ZFS...
But will this then erase the drives.

Can I set up the freenas and not loose data on the drives.?

 

[bollar]

No. FreeNAS will reformat the drive. You need to create the array with drives that you are willing to reformat and then transfer your data onto them.

You probably also have issues because of the different drive sizes. What type of array are you trying to create?

 

[Stephens]

Short answer, no.

Why are you using FreeNAS over the sharing facilities of Windows? You can connect all the drives to a Windows computer and share them without losing your data.

You need to do more reading about how FreeNAS works. At least read the documentation and the stickies in this forum.

 

[ferlin]

OK thanks so much for the fast replies...
My family have android, iphones and PS3 and a macbook pro and 3 windows laptops, I wanted to be able to access the files from all devices.

 

[Stephens]

I'd find it hard to believe those devices can't access a Windows share. I know my android phone can. Of course the 3 windows laptops can. I don't game, but I've seen people mention it for PS3. That leaves the macbook pro and iphone. I don't use either, and I know from reading here that it's AFP for Apple, but I still find it hard to believe they can't access a Windows share. A quick google shows me you can get Samba (SMB) on OSX.

Again, I'm not really seeing why FreeNAS is a better solution for this scenario. It's moving to something you know little about with the potential of creating all kinds of problems (including lost data), for no stated intended benefit over a solution based on what you already know.