Newbuild, initial setup, keeping old NTFS data

[REI]

I may be over my head here, in trying to set up a freeNAS system...
I have installed freeNAS successfully, using a 128GB SSD system disk. In addition, the system have two identical 6TB drives, both formatted in NTFS.
Here's my problem: One of the two disks have about 2 TB of precious data, the other is unused (no data). Is there a way to set this up in a RAID 1 configuration, keeping the data on the first disk?
What I have seen so far is that the disks will be formatted in ZFS, and since this is a destructive process all will be lost.
Perhaps a way forward will be, if possible:
1. Format the empty disk in ZFS
2. Copy (somehow) the data from the NTFS disk over to the ZFS disk.
3. Then formatting the first disk

And then?
A stumbling block for me is also that I can't find a way to see which is which of the two disks, I haven't found a "Disk Usage" or similar functionality.

I'd appreciate some advice on this, I so really want to have my freeNAS system up & running, but these initial hurdles have made be doubt the whole project!

Brgds,
Rolf

 

[Chris Moore]

This is a possible thing, but it is not a simple thing. I don't have the time to try and talk you through it now, perhaps someone else can.

It isn't how FreeNAS is supposed to work.

 

[danb35]

What I have seen so far is that the disks will be formatted in ZFS, and since this is a destructive process all will be lost.

Correct.

2. Copy (somehow) the data from the NTFS disk over to the ZFS disk.

https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/storage.html#importing-a-disk

Is there a way to set this up in a RAID 1 configuration, keeping the data on the first disk?

This, unfortunately, is the tricky part. Despite the feature request being outstanding for over five years (and the devs saying publicly that it would be less than a day's worth of work), iX still hasn't managed to put this feature into the web GUI, so you'd be stuck needing to do it from the CLI. This post seems to have the appropriate steps.

 

[pschatz100]

If the data is that precious, I would back it up to another drive, then set up FreeNAS and copy the data to the NAS. You should have a backup, anyway.

 

[sretalla]

If you really don't want to handle this by installing windows first, look up UBCD4Win and install that to a stick.

Boot from it and figure out the drive with the data (perhaps you could just copy it so both disks have it, then you don't care which one you start with), then boot FreeNAS and build a pool on the other one and use the import disk option under storage to migrate your data in.

You could then mirror the Pool after wiping the NTFS once your data is imported.

 

[REI]

Thanks for your advice on how to proceed. I chickened out and did as follows:
The data on the 6TB I wanted to conserve was in reality built with data from several other disks. I just thought it would be a good ide to have it all there from the beginning... When that didn't work out, as seen above, I decided to build the system no matter that the data on the one disk would be lost. I then did a rudimentary configuration following one of many tutorials on Youtube, and was up & running fairly easy. I then fired up a W10 machine, attaching the various source data disks one by one and copying the data over the network. I guess this is a more proper way of doing it, as it is how the NAS is intended to be used.
The lesson learned is anyway that it is always pays off "to read the manual first" - and not, as a lot of people do (me incuding), when everything else has failed...
Thanks for your pointers, and I am looking forward to many interesting hours reading and learning in these forums.
Cheers from Norway!