FreeNAS 11.2 clean installation. Data Lost

[voloner]

Hi, I'm new to FreeNas. I decided to give FreeNAS a shot after trying samba on ubuntu server that has really slow read/write speed. Unfortunately, after doing a clean installation of FreeNAS version 11.2 and followed a video tutorial on how to create a pool and a share, I found out that all the data on my 4TB hard drive is gone.

I installed FreeNAS on a 60GB SSD and should not interfere with the hard drive. Looking at the forum, it seems that it's a common issue for people that upgrade their version to 11.2. But I have not seen anyone that did a clean installation and lost their data yet. Is there any way to recover my data? and how do I Install FreeNAS without having to wipe my data first?

Any help is really appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Chris Moore]

and followed a video tutorial on how to create a pool and a share,

It was likely the instructions in the video that did not take into account you already having data on the drive. If you already have a ZFS pool, you import the existing pool, there is no need to create a pool. Two different processes there. Creating a pool wipes the disks. Importing a pool brings the disks in with the data intact.
Do you have a backup?

 

[sretalla]

your mileage may vary depending on the original filesystem and what you did after creating the pool, but testdisk may help.

 

[danb35]

Looking at the forum, it seems that it's a common issue for people that upgrade their version to 11.2.

It's not a "common" issue, but it has been reported before--but that's a completely different issue from what you're seeing. You created a pool. As the pool creation dialog tells you, this will erase the data on your disk:

Once you checked Confirm and clicked Create Pool, your disk was erased, exactly as FreeNAS told you it would be.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Looking at the forum, it seems that it's a common issue for people that upgrade their version to 11.2

Absolutely not common for the system to delete data. And like danb35 said that is not your problem. You checked a warning box and also clicked confirm to delete your data. I don't think you will have any luck getting your data back.

 

[voloner]

Thank you all for your replies, I appreciate the help. I'm a bit confused with the concept of pools. Are they the same with disk partitions?

Unfortunately, I don't have my backup for the data on that drive. I know there is some data recovery software on windows. Should I try booting to windows and recover it? I was using NTFS for the hard drive file system.

It's my fault, I totally missed that prompt when creating a pool.

 

[danb35]

I'm a bit confused with the concept of pools. Are they the same with disk partitions?

No, a pool is a storage volume. It's called a pool because it will typically contain multiple disks.

It's unlikely that any of your data will be recoverable. I've heard recommendations for photorec as software that might help, though.

 

[Chris Moore]

Thank you all for your replies, I appreciate the help. I'm a bit confused with the concept of pools. Are they the same with disk partitions?

Here are links to some guides that will help answer your questions about ZFS and how it works:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/