Different newbie; more dumb questions.

[Cicer0]

Dear thread readers,

I am trying to create my own little patch of Plex paradise using TrueNAS. I have an old HP Compaq Pro 4300. The specs are as follows:

Proc: i5-3470S
RAM: 8Gb
HDD: 500Gb
Graphics: NVIDIA NVS 300 (512 MB)

this machine has been running windows and Ubuntu. Windows and Ubuntu are out of scope for what I require. I just need a stable plex server for my family. Anyway, I have downloaded the latest TrueNAS image and copied it via Rufus to an 8 Gb thumb drive. I am not able to get the thumb drive to boot.

I have done some research into the issue and I have tried the suggestions in other threads regarding burning to a different thumb drive with Etcher. Same result. I am unable to boot into the image and do the install.

I have looked at using diskpart to try and clean the drive, however, in diskpart, it presents as a volume rather than a disk. One cannot clean a volume.

The frustration level is rapidly climbing to 11.

I am hoping that many wiser and calmer heads might have some insight into this issue that I can leverage so that I can get this software working.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this missive.

 

[NugentS]

diskpart/select disk/clean should completely wipe a disk - irrespective of what is on there.
RAM is right on the edge
Are you planning on transcoding or just direct play - that's a low gen CPU - so not so hot with the transcode and Passthrough on Core is a bit hit and miss (The GPU I don't think will transcode anyway)
You only have one disk - you need at least 2, 1 for boot and 1 for data - of course there is no resiliency there

 

[jgreco]

re: title: Different newbie; more dumb questions.

They're mainly dumb when they aren't asked and you go on to create a larger problem that then requires lots more forum interactions. Much better to ask up front, and it isn't dumb not to know all the answers.

patch of Plex paradise

RAM: 8Gb

This is unlikely to be a Plex paradise with so little RAM... perhaps with a very small Plex library, but really 8GB is just on the bleeding edge of FreeNAS working as it is, and Plex is kinda big and piggy on top of that.

You only have one disk - you need at least 2, 1 for boot and 1 for data - of course there is no resiliency there

As @NugentS mentions, you really do need a boot device AND a pool device. If you have something like a small SSD available to use, you could use that as your boot device, and you can even do the install on a different machine to the SSD, and move it over to your Compaq. I find USB thumb drives to be very twitchy and fickle. The tools do not reliably make good images on them, and then also various PC's do not boot correctly from certain types of images, so you're always fighting a multidimensional PITA.

I actually like to install from CDROM, but I realize CDROM's aren't as prevalent as they once were.

 

[Cicer0]

Hi guy's,

Thanks for the replies. I realise that the system is very light on for power. Storage isn't an issue. I have 3x1Tb drive that I will use as a storage pool. I didn't include that information initially as it was not germane to the issue that I was trying to describe.

In the near future (approx 6 months) I would like to build a larger and more powerful system. I am using this junk rig as a test bed so that I can see how best to utilise TrueNAS and plex for my environment.

I actually like to install from CDROM, but I realize CDROM's aren't as prevalent as they once were.

Tell me about it! I wish that I still had access to a DVD burner.

 

[Evertb1]

I wish that I still had access to a DVD burner.

I know what you mean. I am glad I have still acces to one and also own an USB DVD burner (slow but reliable).