Removing FreeNAS HDD, Useing It In Windows XP - Is It Possible?

[godbrother]

Hi,

If I where to remove a HDD that was part of a FreeNAS set up (non-raid, FreeNAS installed elsewhere) can I use it as an external medium for a windows XP machine? Or is it only FreeNAS compatible?

i.e - 100 movies stored on a 500GB HDD, I no longer require a server, and take out that HDD and pop it into my normal desktop as a secondary HDD, will it be compatible/load normally?

(I guess the HDD will be non-NTFS as FreeNAS is set to something else as default.)

 

[chunkymonster]

i.e - 100 movies stored on a 500GB HDD, I no longer require a server, and take out that HDD and pop it into my normal desktop as a secondary HDD, will it be compatible/load normally?

FreeNAS native file system is UFS. No, you can not just take a UFS formatted drive and have it be windows compatible/load normally. However, there are utilities available that allow windows to read UFS partitions.

Check out FFS File System Driver

 

[godbrother]

Thanks for the reply.

Where would I need to install the driver? Onto my normal C drive or onto the UFS partition? I want it to be as easy as possible to switch HDD's around when needed.

Also, lets say I used the HDD in my windows PC, and added some files to it. Would it still work with the FreeNAS PC if I where to put it back in? Or would I need to reformat the whole drive?

I did ask this before some time ago, but its good to get a second opinion. I have a 80GB HDD, full of my info, I would guess I formated it useing NTFS. Can I plug and play this into the FreeNAS? If not, do I HAVE to format the drive? Or can I someone use a utility to make the FreeNAS read the drive?

Thanks!

 

[est1984]

is there a way of added the freenas formatted hard drive's to a windows 7 computer... i need to remove the motherboard that the machine is currently running on and swap it with another one.