External hard drives

[BlazeStar]

Using FreeNAS 9.3

I've got a bunch of external hard drives lying around.

I would like to plug them in my FreeNAS box, format them in ZFS and use them (main intended use would be to mirror my internal drives, or if not possible, use them for "local" replication)

When I search around for that, I only get posts about mounting an external HD to FreeNAS, which is not what I want.

Can I do that?

Any thoughts, recommendations?

 

[mjws00]

No one seems to be touching this one.

There are a few issues:

1. Are you going to connect with USB 2.0? Welcome to slow hell. Maybe you have a board USB 3.0 works on... cool.
2. ZFS is crippled on single devices. It can not fix errors as intended and that can be problematic if the wrong data corrupts.
3. FreeNas doesn't handle dropped drives and pools that elegantly. Swap gets stuck. There are gotchas.
4. There is no reason why you can't create an external pool to replicate to. Or mirror / split. But it likely won't be as slick or useful as you thought.

Bottom line is this isn't well supported in the system or GUI. Not impossible. But kinda meh.

 

[marbus90]

1. If you would be using eSATA without a port multiplier, that would be kind of acceptable.
2. still it can detect errors where other FS are running into a wall of lost sectors.
3. well, reboot seems to fix C2x50D4I's Marvell issues.

 

[BlazeStar]

ah well... screw that... I just won't use them then... I wonder if I crack them open if there's an actual HDD inside with a SATA port? I have two WD "MyBook"

Thanks for the heads up :)

 

[DrKK]

ah well... screw that... I just won't use them then... I wonder if I crack them open if there's an actual HDD inside with a SATA port? I have two WD "MyBook"

Thanks for the heads up :)

Harvesting drives from pre-fab consumer external USB drives is do'able. most of the time, it yields a usable drive. However, there are cases where the interface is special/proprietary, and is not compatible with the standard SATA ports. If I were you, I'd look for forum posts elsewhere from people who have (or have not) successfully harvested drives from the models in question.

 

[Ericloewe]

Harvesting drives from pre-fab consumer external USB drives is do'able. most of the time, it yields a usable drive. However, there are cases where the interface is special/proprietary, and is not compatible with the standard SATA ports. If I were you, I'd look for forum posts elsewhere from people who have (or have not) successfully harvested drives from the models in question.

The most I've seen in recent years are USB/SATA bridges that implement transparent encryption, rendering existing data on the drive unreadable.

 

[DrKK]

The most I've seen in recent years are USB/SATA bridges that implement transparent encryption, rendering existing data on the drive unreadable.

Newegg has 5TB Seagate externals for $120 today with promo. If those could be harvested....and weren't Seagate.....that might be something ;)

 

[marbus90]

Newegg has 5TB Seagate externals for $120 today with promo. If those could be harvested....and weren't Seagate.....that might be something ;)

Methinks that lesson didn't stuck with you?