- Joined
- May 28, 2011
- Messages
- 10,994
The OS resides in the system RAM and just to make it work it needs 8GB RAM (actually 6GB typically works but if you have shared video memory, well that steals away from the RAM you need). The ZFS file system requires a significant amount of RAM in order to work. The real problem with troubleshooting your problem is we would never know for certain it wasn't a RAM induced issue and I hope that is the case. If you upgrade the RAM, on the next posting if the hard drive does not appear to be recognized again then include the same debug information you attached previously. Also, specify exactly what ports your hard drives are plugged into and any other details that you can include. Trying to help out without the system in front of me can be difficult and if it were in front of me the problem might be a 15 minute fix. On the next go around, in the message state the motherboard info, amount of RAM (also realize we push ECC RAM which your system does not support but so long as you know the risks which are huge if you value your data), any add-on cards you have installed. Also, is the BIOS updated to the most current for your motherboard.
Anything which references building a FreeNAS from an old computer is for FreeNAS .7 and earlier which is now called NAS4Free. You still can download that older version and run a good and fast home NAS but support for it will be spotty. FreeNAS 8.0 was the next version created by iXsystems and the RAM was increased to 4GB and once we hit Version 9.0 it jumped to 8GB because the product matured significantly. FreeNAS 10 will be coming out hopefully near the end of this year (just my hopes, I have no idea when it will really be ready) and although I don't believe the RAM requirements will go up for normal NAS operations, with the new optional capabilities being added, I'd say 16GB for a home system sounds like a good starting place.
Today's FreeNAS is more about a much more cost effective high quality NAS system with a lot of extra features. If you compare a commercial NAS unit with the same bandwidth/speed and reliability of a home made server to a commercial equivalent (no hard drives in these figures) you will find that the home made system is significantly less than the commercial system.
I hope you are able to take advantage of FreeNAS but please read up on the product a little more, ensure it's what you want and can afford to build up.
Anything which references building a FreeNAS from an old computer is for FreeNAS .7 and earlier which is now called NAS4Free. You still can download that older version and run a good and fast home NAS but support for it will be spotty. FreeNAS 8.0 was the next version created by iXsystems and the RAM was increased to 4GB and once we hit Version 9.0 it jumped to 8GB because the product matured significantly. FreeNAS 10 will be coming out hopefully near the end of this year (just my hopes, I have no idea when it will really be ready) and although I don't believe the RAM requirements will go up for normal NAS operations, with the new optional capabilities being added, I'd say 16GB for a home system sounds like a good starting place.
Today's FreeNAS is more about a much more cost effective high quality NAS system with a lot of extra features. If you compare a commercial NAS unit with the same bandwidth/speed and reliability of a home made server to a commercial equivalent (no hard drives in these figures) you will find that the home made system is significantly less than the commercial system.
I hope you are able to take advantage of FreeNAS but please read up on the product a little more, ensure it's what you want and can afford to build up.
