Erm Help :) Installing, setting up how to do it?

[Jaymie1989]

Hi,

Totally new to this.

Ill start from the beginning thats always a good place to start.

I have a old PC that I want to use as storage for the other PC's in my household. Setting up a home file server is something I have wanted to do for a long time so im doing it now.

I have FreeNAS burnt to a disk and the PC is all setup. Am I right in saying that if I installed windows on that PC I need to have FreeNAS on a USB or something for the PC to run it from there rather than install FreeNAS to the HDD?

I think this is where i need to start my questions first.

Thanks,

Jaymie. :)

 

[survive]

Hi Jaymie1989,

Give this a quick read:

http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Quick_Start_Guide

You will want to install FreeNAS to a 4GB USB drive. Keep in mind (and forgive me if this comes out wrong, but your wording above has me concerned) that FreeNAS isn't something you run alongside Windows....it's a stand-alone OS.

-Will

 

[Jaymie1989]

I had saw that it was an OS of its own but I also saw other users mention that they wanted to run it inside Windows.

At the moment in time I have installed FreeNAS on a 500GB HDD I can see the user interface from the IP it gave me but cannot create a volume.

So do I in fact need to install FreeNAS to a USB or memory stick of some kind and use the HDD for the storage so they have to be kept separate from each other?
If so I have seen people saying they need to have a USB Stick of 4GB, Why is this?

 

[William Grzybowski]

Yes, you need a media exclusive for the OS, this is by software design.
You cannot use extra space of the installed media (yet)

 

[Jaymie1989]

Perfect, Ill try that. Thanks.

 

[survive]

Hi Jaymie1989,

The docs call for a 2GB USB key, but in my experience (all my) 2GB keys wind up being ~1.9GB in size, so they are just a wee-bit to small for a successful FreeNAS install. The installer will install & it will look like it completed successfully but weird things will happen when you boot it or it won't boot at all.

-Will