TrueNAS Data Recovery

• FreeNAS Recovery
• FreeNAS System - virtul machines
• FreeNAS - hard disks
• FreeNAS/TrueNAS Data Recovery

How to set physical disks for FreeNAS

From this page, you know how to set a FreeNAS system on the PC using hard drives. If you want to use virtual machine for your FreeNAS system, please check this page.

Note that all your PC hardware is going to be used in a FreeNAS device. It means it will turn into some kind of a NAS device. No PC functions will be available.

To create a FreeNAS system we need to have

• 64-bit operating system,
• minimum of 8 GB of RAM; it requires more if you’re going to use any plugins,
• a blank CD or a flash drive to create an installation device for the FreeNAS OS,
• an USB thumb drive, SSD or a hard drive which is used as a boot device for FreeNAS. First, I tried to install the FreeNAS OS onto a USB thumb drive but it didn’t work. So, based on my experience, I’d recommend to use an SSD or hard drives.
• at least one disk where we will store our files,
• an Ethernet cable,
• a monitor just to check the FreeNAS installation,
• another PC or a laptop with Internet browser to manage the FreenNAS system from the Web User Interface.

Once everything is prepared, we can proceed with creating a FreeNAS system.

1. Download a FreeNAS OS from the official site www.freenas.org/download
2. Connect an USB thumb drive which you prepared for the FreeNAS OS installation. I used a 14 GB USB flash drive. The official FreeNAS site states that 1 GB is a minimum size for this purpose. So let’s create the boot drive:
   • Use a software that writes images to removable drives. In my case I used Win32 Disk Imager (Windows).
   • Select the FreeNas image that you downloaded.
   • Then select the device that will be used as an installation device.
     
   • Click Write and then click Yes. It takes a few minutes to write the image to the drive.
     
     
     

Important note: Both installation drive and boot OS drive are inserted into the PC. I want to remind that the boot drive will be served for booting the FreeNAS system while the disk with Windows OS will boot the PC system. Meanwhile the installation drive will be used only ONCE.

3. Let's start the installation. Go to the BIOS Settings and open the Boot Configuration to set the Boot Order. It's necessary to select the installation you have created. Below is the example of the window. If you don’t know how to navigate in your BIOS version, search the Internet for the information how to get the Boot Order function.
   

4. Select the installation drive. The PC will reboot and you will see the FreeNAS install menu where you need to Select the first option.
   

5. In the setup menu window click Enter.
   

6. In the next window, you are offered to select the drive where the FreeNAS should be installed. The drive is used only for the FreeNAS OS. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the chosen drive.
   

7. In the next window you should press Yes and type in the password.
   
   
   

8. If your motherboard is old it is recommended to install the FreeNAS OS via BIOS, but if it's new then via the UEFI.
   

9. When the installation is completed, we can reboot the PC and remove the installation drive (in my case it is the flash drive). When rebooting, go to BIOS and set the boot order again. Move the boot drive at the top of the list.
   

10. If you set the boot order correctly and the booting goes from the boot device, you will see the FreeNAS starting window where you need to select the first option.
    

Be aware that the device is used only for the FreeNAS and it’s going to be used only for booting the boot drive. It is a launcher of the FreeNAS system and if you want to get user interface page of FreeNAS you need to use different device for this purpose.

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