Reinstall to Internal FreeNAS mini USB

[BeMan]

Hello everyone,

I inherited a freenas mini box which has some issues with booting and corruption. I don't need any of the data on it, and was looking for reinstall the latest freenas on the internal USB.

However I haven't managed to pull it off and I was let known on freenode to give posting here a try since there weren't too many ideas there.

What I am trying to achieve is, to use a USB drive (since the mini has no optical) to install FreeNAS onto the INTERNAL USB. The documentation and everywhere else describes installing to a USB stick, but not using it to install onto another. I've unsuccessfully tried imaging the USB drive using the iso, but the 5-6 applications i tried all gave errors in using the iso. I've put the .img on the usb drive but none of this does what i need it to do, and that is install freenas onto the internal usb.

I'm sure there are some linux commands to mount the USB drive that holds the image, then copy it over to the internal USB. I'm not very experienced with unix so i don't know the commands.

I would really appreciate your help because I need this done right away.

Thanks in advance

 

[cyberjock]

Linux commands aren't going to be useful since this isn't linux. ;)

Welcome to FreeBSD, which is closer to unix.

Do you have the old mini with the i5 processor or the new mini?

To be honest, if you are trying to install to the internal USB stick you're either going to have to:

1. Use a CD-ROM drive to install to the internal USB stick(if your mini has IPMI you may be able to do this remotely)
2. Pull the internal stick out of the machine and put it in another machine so you can write the image to it.
3. Pull the internal stick out of the machine and put it in another machine so you can install from the CD-ROM.
4. Make a custom CD image that is purpose-built solely for your exact scenario.

Personally, #4 is out of the question since you don't have the requisite experience to do this.

#2 or 3 is the "easiest" unless you have IPMI. If you have IPMI #1 is the easiest by far(which is how I've reinstalled FreeNAS on my Mini).

 

[BeMan]

Thanks for the reply cyberjock. I have the mini with the i3-2120T, i suppose that is the old.
The internal drive isn't USB but I believe a USB header, so taking it out for #2 or #3 doesn't seem to be an option.
Don't have IPMI either.

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah.. you're going to need a CD ROM of some kind or to get a cable like http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?sku=70244237&gclid=CL7LgvbH0b4CFcU-MgodwTEAGQ and hook it up to your laptop for image writing. :(