Using FreeNAS volume on another computer

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Hi everyone! I am brand new to this wonderful world of FreeNAS and I have some questions:

Suppose I have a USB device used as a media storage for my FreeNAS. But now I have decide to take it out of my FreeNAS server and plug it on another computer (a normal desktop computer, not running FreeNAS) so I can access my content.

1 - Will the new computer recognize the hard drive? Or is the hard drive formatted in a way that only FreeNAS operating systems would recognize it?

2 - Whenever I add a new USB to be used as storage on my NAS, I've noticed that the operating system completely erases/formats it so that it can be used as a fresh storage disk. But what if the USB comes from a previous NAS server, and I would like to still have access to the files? How do I add the USB to the new NAS without wiping out the data?

3 - How does encryption play a role in this? Will I be prompted for a password as soon as the device is recognized by the operating system?


Thanks for your help,
Vitor
 

Ericloewe

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not running FreeNAS
What OS? There's no chance in hell of mounting ZFS on Windows, but Linux and FreeBSD should work fine.
2 - Whenever I add a new USB to be used as storage on my NAS, I've noticed that the operating system completely erases/formats it so that it can be used as a fresh storage disk. But what if the USB comes from a previous NAS server, and I would like to still have access to the files? How do I add the USB to the new NAS without wiping out the data?
You can't use non-ZFS storage with FreeNAS, other than to import data to an existing ZFS pool.
3 - How does encryption play a role in this? Will I be prompted for a password as soon as the device is recognized by the operating system?
That's quite a can of worms.

It sounds like you haven't read Cyberjock's guide, which you are strongly encouraged to do. Link is in my sig.
 

Stux

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Arwen

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Probably okay for backing up your FreeNAS data tho
Yes, attaching a USB drive for backups is likely going to work okay.
But, not permanently attached. And for me, I'd use ZFS on the external
drive just so that I can check for errors.
 
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