Turn Old Computer into a Network Attached Storage (NAS) with FreeNAS!

[@torogipro]

Drop Your comments!

[@mobiousenigma]

ive been using yumi from pendrive linux instead of rufus unless it requires dd i prefer the multiboot feature . freenas is basically a stripped down debian so whynot just install ubuntu and configure that as a nas? other than the support as you point out that many downloads anything that can go wrong probably has and been solved and posted so just needs searching for to have a solution thanks for the video

[@pavelow36]

@@mobiousenigma yes you can definitely go that path and go through all the hassle of installing needed stuff but thing is if you haven't used FreeNAS yet, I wonder how you would get its web interface and also support for many types of shares already built-in. yes you can definitely do it the hard way :) or just install FreeNAS specifically made for this job. unless you plan of using your debian box for other things aside from NAS then why....

[@mariembuenaventura1278]

Sakto po ito sir, But we are currently trying to implement this in the production.

[@timytimotius4679]

Hello. I have an unused laptop at my house. Can i install the FreeNAS OS and use it as a NAS server? Or is it has to be a PC? Thank you.

[@mobiousenigma]

@@timytimotius4679 as long as you can configure bios to boot from somthing other than its harddrive .as long as the hardware meets minimim specifications. any linux operating system can be installed. free nas is just a linux os where services are configured and packages installed to preform this task and almost no others whereas any linux os should be able to be configured to do the same thing as well as function in other capicities. to install any os 1 check minimum hardware specifications linux 1 ghz cpu 1gb ram and storage to install and run it from15gb minimum some will run on less. 2 configure bios to boot from install media whatever that is. 3 boot the install media and install the system. 4 remove install media reboot system and configure. thats the process the devil is in the details word of caution backup any data of value to a seperate storage device beforehand as any errors in partitioning will lead to data loss..the install process deletes everything on its partition during install so be correct in that process

[@Yolande26]

I have been researching DIY NAS for so long and finally I have found an easy to follow tutorial. Thank you.

[@vinay2641]

Love your hair colour💖

[@RetroGFX-uOS]

Freenas is the best..been using it for years..easy raid setup..tons of features..built in virtualization is also a great feature if your into that also..

[@rockyflores8413]

@@RetroGFX-uOS Hello i have a question. can i use ordinary HDD for this set up ?

[@RetroGFX-uOS]

@@rockyflores8413 you can for storage..i recommend installing the operating system on a flash drive

[@webgpu]

@@vinay2641 me too! She's like when my daughter spilled gallons of paint on her hair, she was crying but we told her it was ... "Beautiful" Hehe! Our hope is she will be an adult and laugh at those childhood moments!

[@vedeledev]

nice.. simple and straightforward.. no useless chatter.. it's a perfect guide for newbies..

[@TheStarbuck61]

I am replacing my 10 year old HP Zeon based workstation, and thought crossed my mind to set up a NAS. THANKS for making it clear how straight forward and easy this is to do!!!

[@EnisL]

did you do it how it went

[@robertotomas]

This is exactly what my father and I have done. He is retired, and no longer needs his old pc. Which isn’t bad for its time at all: ivy bridge i5, 16gb of ram...we’ve now got 5 discs in it 😀 and it acts as nas, and Plex server.

[@Spark_Plug17]

How much power draw the server has?

[@balajisubramanian6481]

@@Spark_Plug17 I ok o oo 99

[@balajisubramanian6481]

@@Spark_Plug17 999p

[@charlesgoepel8405]

Nice job! I have been storing my music collection of 1000 CDs (compact disc) on a Windows 10 laptop that was dedicated only for music. What a disappointment it was trying to access my music with Windows. If I didn't access the music computer regularly, I would have to wait and wait for system updates and antivirus, and advertisements, etc. You have given me a new tool to access my music again. Thanks so much!!

[@EnisL]

did you do it, how it went any problems?

[@kenlangendock2516]

I completed the creation of a TrueNAS server last night (FreeNAS has been replaced). I tried to install the application on a RAID1 boot drive (2x120gb drives) and it failed twice. It does not like a RAID1 boot drive, to bad because I really wanted the protection. I removed the raid and installed the application again. This time it worked. I then added a RAID1 8TB pool and shared it. This all works perfectly. The problem is I cannot add an existing drive, with data, to the machine to be able to copy the data to the new pool. I now have to pull the drives out and attached them to my desktop and transfer the data across (unless somebody knows a way around this). Overall a good video, very helpful.

[@slypig24]

Thanks for great information on Free NAS. Cheers from Australia 🇦🇺

[@nsb_tv5820]

there is only a word for this video : perfection

[@michaelphoto325]

excellent... I've been looking for an inexpensive but reliable system...but now I've found a use for my old box!

[@davechism7142]

Thank you. Have an 80 TB NAS but also several computers I'm not using. You have given me an idea.

[@gdeeable]

Excellent tutorial!. Planning to build NAS systems for my home and ministry. Your guide is really easy to follow. Thanks.

[@EnisL]

did you do it how it went?

[@gamepad3173]

now this is the OS I'm going to use for deploying 5 servers,all running a mix of Enterprise and consumer hardware (mostly due to LTT). though I'd be adding quite a lot of 16tb hard drives.

[@johnwang9914]

Groups are for resources not users. For example a group called modem used to be used to control which users where allowed to access the modem. Likewise, I used to have a group called software which were users allowed to install files into /use/local for other users to access. I actually went further and created accounts for each software package who were all members of the group software so that all files installed by that "package" could be easily identified by their userid. Using groups to group users instead of identifying resources is the most common mistake in Unix. administration.

[@treefellonya]

Thanks! Although it's not intuitive, I see what you mean. But say, Legal docs or say, household inventory would then each be considered a "group", is that correct? Then each group would have permissions for specific users? Am I right? Thanks! Also, I have noticed during Windows network set up that there is a choice to make a home network a group. I think its called "home Group". Not sure - but should the same rules apply to windows networks?

[@yvesgysel9834]

Good video Free Nas was built for sharing files over the network. The only disadvantage is of course that your NAS needs to be turned on at all times. With a cloud storage provider, you can also share files without being worried about the electricity bill. Here in Belgium Electricity is very expensive a the moment. 😔

[@Cavi587]

Thankfully though such NAS doesn't require a lot of power. You can make one with a small power supply and it shouldn't consume much when mostly idle.

[@ThisisnotTwitter]

@Cavi587 the size of power supply is not what determines power draw, it is the power rating of the components. For power supply you would just want it to be a reasonable standard of efficiency.

[@MikeDancy]

Dude.. Thanks. I have about 20 old machines so I'll dump FreeNAS onto my Dell T3500 as a network drive. Nice.

[@imperiumcommentingnetwork4677]

My old school: *Has 20 desktops laying around* Also school: *Proceeds to replace them all with chromebooks* Me: *Is glad I graduated a year later*

[@Dyl_Apple]

God ikr I think it’s cause chromebooks are passively cooled so they heat up faster causing it to slow down to prevent overheating

[@atabzoamvs]

@@EyesOnlyTeam86 what exactly do we mean by RAID2?

[@drabberfrog]

Honestly, I'd rather use a Chromebook than a school computer. Chrome OS is so light that it runs a lot better on really cheap hardware so you are probably gonna have a better experience on the Chromebook than the school computer running Windows.

[@imperiumcommentingnetwork4677]

@@drabberfrog They're quite limited and terrible. No photoshop, no specialty programs for different classes. Internet goes down? Then no computing for you. Just chrome. I'd rather carry a Raspberry Pi 400 and a cell phone battery around with the quaint 7" display. and the Pi mouse.

[@drabberfrog]

@@imperiumcommentingnetwork4677 but at my school at least, there's no way those windows laptops or all in one's could run Photoshop they take long enough to even boot and open Chrome. The only decent school computers in the entire school are in the computer classroom because they are used to run actual applications like Photoshop.

[@alanlea365]

Just brilliant ☺. I can't remember the last time I came across a more informative video. 😎

[@jackeyniraula]

If you are primarily using a windows machine and have one of these NAS devices set up on Linux-based OS like FreeNAS, Openmediavault, don't use it unless you want to waste your time. Once I had to remove a hard drive from NAS in order to transfer files locally to my machine but it took about 30 min worth of effort to do so, involved a hook up on Pi, a lot of command typing, mount unmount, etc. Had it been a file format easily recognized by windows, it would have been like a minute of a deal.

[@TheElevenBravo]

Thank you so much for putting together this awesome tutorial! Very simple and easy to follow! Your hard work will NOT be oversighted! Thank you! Thank you! Bless your heart! ♥️👍 p. s I love your Filipino accent. Maraming salamat sa iyong pagsusumikap! Pagpalain ka ng Diyos!.... Keep those videos coming. Ibinigay kong maging tagahanga at subscriber sa iyong channel! 🙏

[@mrfo0l68]

This is what I'm looking for! Clean and simple instruction Salamat po

[@adamtou]

This is good. Thanks for sharing. Atleast I can do something for my old PC haven't use for long time.

[@derkhedemann5606]

thank you for the explanation, this will help to make a DAS Storage System from an old pc. I still have a good old pc with 4 hard drives in it. I will only use this system in my home music studio. I am very grateful for the explanation

[@ioulios12]

This is the best tutorial for FreeNas!

[@adeyemiakanfe7641]

your video makes my day. beautifully explained with good graphics. Thanks for this.

[@saurabhbiswas9196]

I was thinking of built one for myself bqz i need a lot of storage thanks it helped a lot

[@saurabhbiswas9196]

@@EyesOnlyTeam86 i do follow them 👍

[@AmahBenedictLalrelkima]

This is a real deal... Subscribe right now.. Thank you for sharing this.

[@MTN1601]

*Congrat for 100K SUBSCRIBERS!!*

[@OOOoOoO-yc7dr]

Cool, but what if this one hard drive fails?

[@riezpirelliannetv2000]

big help for beginer like me, thanks for sharing this

[@MoviesInShort]

Please help me:: I am not running it at 24/7. And I don't have external Keybaord and Monitor to Put with the Server PC, so When I restart the Server Pc after shutting that down, How will I click the Option of FreeNas by Click 1 that says Boot Free Nas.. is there any way to bypass that message and directly boot ?

[@renatosales2949]

TY for the very short and informative introduction to FreeNAS. Can I access this over the internet when this was installed at home? can you give some tips or tutorial again on how to do that? TY very much in advance Torogi Pro.

[@cbic9806]

I found your explanation the best

[@donol4828]

A video on connecting to it remotely would be good

[@supersoccrstar]

Use openVPN to do that

[@vex2085]

Iv made a hub can have 8 usb sticks in, two sata slots, two nvme slots and a 3.5” hdd, power supply to the wall (custom) and all data connected to the same network cable to the router. Would this work??

[@markarca6360]

Actually, you can use the OS of your choice. Aside from FreeNAS, you can use NAS4Free (a fork of FreeNAS) or OpenMediaVault (a Debian-based NAS operating system). Fact: Seagate SV35 series HDDs are designed for CCTV DVRs or IP-CCTV NVRs (superseded by Seagate SkyHawk HDDs). Also it is better to have 2 NICs (1 dedicated to the management WebUI access) that have 2 different IPv4 addresses.

[@mishrasunny]

Mark, First, how do you set up 2 NICs (assuming you are using two NIC cards) using FreeNAS? The second question will be: Once you set up your NAS, let's say, you found some old drives with data that you want to add to your NAS server. Can you simply plug those drives into any available USB ports in that PC without reformating the drives and losing all old data?

[@kevingarand1426]

Great video, thanks for your help. Created a server and a share for my Mac.

[@7ETRNL]

Thank you for sharing this. It's straight to the point and well made. I subscribed to your channel for more contents.

[@neilanthonyseda9137]

Thanks for the information, I really wanted to create my own server atleast😅....This advise was so good and very easy to setup and understand. God Bless you bro..!

[@savashzaynal6502]

Clean, neither to much nor to less in presentation. Thank you.

[@energiazaragoza2965]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, awesome tutorial!

[@raveendranmadappattu5881]

Fantastic presentation. You rocked guiding how to set up a NAS from an old computer.

[@jeromemalazarte3372]

I use 2pcs 500 gb hdd with both 4% health use 1 as the o.s and 1 for storage and amd a4 6400 4gb ram it succeeded thanks a lot i will do this at home im at work now 😅

[@TrueNAS]

Great video! We've subscribed! Thank you for your support. Just a friendly reminder that FreeNAS will soon become TrueNAS CORE.

[@VR-cv4hd]

It's also access by mobile phone?

[@brandongamingnl9753]

Torogi Pro: This Will Take Around 5 To 10 Minutes. My Computer: 30 to 45 Minutes. Me: F*CK!

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

There are a couple of things to have second thoughts about in the video. The power supply being on all the time could mean it is worthwhile getting a better (at least bronze rated) PSU. Many a USB mass-storage-device NAND pen-drive (even good brands) have problems getting hot when plugged in for long periods of time when FreeNAS is on. There are at least two commonplace alternatives to this. Either use an external USB SSD (and install your nix distro the right way), or construct a usb device with a M2 device in a usb convertor whilst also using heatsinks on the NAND chips. It tends to be the SSD route people choose. There are sometimes other options though: Be mindful what "old PC" means depending on the user. Not all virtualisation instruction-set features will be desired by some people. It is perfectly possible to have a 16GB RAM hexacore PC with a 3.5inch floppy disk drive (and DVD) so as to run FreeNAS (or similar recompiled distro) booting from the optical drive and saving settings to the FDD. You can flash the BIOS on the DVD drive so as to slow down the speed on the DVD so that it remains quiet and cool. There are battery-backed-up RAM devices that (not the RAM in the PC) that have enough storage to load the (DVD) ISO and then those devices can plug into the USB or be converted so as to do that. Those are nifty but a bit messy for some people... and yes, you'd use a FDD too. The PC in the video is not exactly the most energy efficent (which frankly I think is fine for personal preference), and as such, using a PC that is not fully energy efficient (like the hexacore) can be forgiveable. You might, for example, have it run some graphics-cards tricks too, thereby making it all worthwhile.

[@mohamedtoufikbouchala5492]

Thanks for the tips

[@elauttin]

Love this video, it helped a lot. Though now 11.3 is out, it doesn't allow you to edit pool permissions right off the bat anymore. Got a little stuck, any workaround for those hitting the same wall?

[@darrenpaterson6792]

Great tutorial , had our business NAS setup in a few hours and everyone connected. Thank you 👌👌

[@mycdnprince]

Torogi Pro, I hope you still check in here now and then for I need help. I can't seem to get past making a bootable usb stick. After Rufas my ubs doesn't boot? Your tutorial here is awesome. I really want to get past this ubs business. My computer is gpt. I've tried both mbr and gpt but neither works. Any idea? They would be appreciated.

[@whitewolf6730]

Thanks! Good tutorial. Does free as support raid? Thinking about doing that to An old raid1 machine.

[@DarekGreenly]

7:06 CMOS fail, why did you skip over that? :D

[@axelus22]

Dead BIOS battery... But u can install and use an OS anyway. The problems come if u change some parameters on the bios and leave the machine without energy, that's results in a reset to defaults parameters bios. Anyway this is a extremely cheap problem to solve

[@marcel_max]

Thank you for this simple and clear video. My question is: Will FreeNAS be able to create a RAID if I put two identical hard disks in my computer?

[@jeremywong9947]

I am also waiting the answer

[@BigBadjohn0x0]

Why not google it easily answered.

[@SonnyParra]

You could set the raid setup in the bios for 2 hdd and more.

[@petermarco1]

Hi thanks for the great tutorial Is freenas now called truenas what are the specs on the computer you are using motherboard and processor

[@mosumartdesign]

Perfect! How to increase the storage? If this pc if OFF, possible to access?

[@Flo-fl1gd]

Are you able to set up RAIDs with FreeNAS? Good video !!

[@Iamianstein]

Thanks for this great video sir. I would like to ask, how would I be able to access it thru a mobile phone or tablet easily?

[@ninzjara7829]

Useful! Thanks for sharing,.I have one request, if you can do a video connected to this, on how to remotely access FreeNas over the internet? Is it possible to port forward? Or by DDNS?

[@wintermike7450]

Very clearly explained for beginners..Kudos👍🔥

[@SidewaySensation]

Random Question. Would this work on an android box of 2GB ram?

[@p.k.953]

Do we need a separate router to use it on a smartphone via wifi?

[@pragvanshsrivastava1664]

i can add more harddisk without formatting it or can't? please tell me.

[@sanmeetsingh8219]

hi sir i like your work i have 1 question that we need static ip to stay connected to the internet or we can control this with giving extra to our network provider

[@reggiecl]

Thanks...very informative contents. Keep it up.

[@alejandrocabrera6089]

@Torogi Pro Great video, but I have a question, is there a way to access a drive outside of your local network? Thanks!

[@Rishi7200]

Thank you for the video. How long can we leave the old PC/NAS powered on? Are the motherboards/power supply capable of handling continuous power supply for days?

[@KnightMirkoYo]

Thanks so much for a great tutorial. Let's give old tech new life!

[@billferner6741]

Nice instructions! However I am using windows on both or more computers, then I click on "attach network drive" - I have additional storage.

[@mobiousenigma]

map network drive network neighbourhood under options menu i believe microsoft keeps moving the important things lol

[@DDBAA24]

Just go into 'Turn Windows features on or off' , then expand 'Internet Information Services' and make sure the 'FTP Server' box is checked. On the client windows box do the same but instead go to the bottom of 'turn features on or off' and tick the TFTP Client box. Go to 'thisPC' (on client) in the file manager and right click , go to Add Network Location. In the text box enter, ftp://server-ip , last create a friendly name for the shortcut. Then you can either drag & drop to share in the GUI or access your files from CMD/Powershell/WSL with ftp terminal client . With linux this functionality is built into most file managers , food for thought.

[@mobiousenigma]

@@DDBAA24 sftp is wiser option i did say there were many ways to do this

[@KooYu]

Same here, tried freenas and nas4free, didn't do well as you have to know how to configure and troubleshoot a Linux system. Currently I'm working with Win7 pro with shares visible to specific IP range and it's golden 24/7.

[@mobiousenigma]

@@KooYu knowlege is power..take the time learn somthing configuring linux isnt impossible just requires access to google.. as for works 24/7 a microshaft os work.....define work i dont believe we expect the same things.. its pre backdoored on instilation..streaming government sponcered malware laden spying devicethat also expects you to generate them income with advertising ,,windows for directx gaming linux for anything else

[@kevinhewitt8043]

I can’t seem to edit permissions for my storage pool. It keeps saying root dataset permissions cannot be edited

[@marc2797]

Can you use the usb ports for external storage ? Or do you have the SATA connections on the board?

[@GlenroyCarty]

Thanks the video was very informative. I managed to create the NAS, as instructed. The issue is, when creating pools, I am prompted to erase the disk. I don't want to do this. These are data drives I moved from a recent PC and I need the data. How can I get around this? Thanks and keep doing a great job.

[@George-mk7lp]

Did u get around that problem?

[@GlenroyCarty]

@@George-mk7lp Did some reading. Yes, TrueNas will clean the drives before creating the pool, so I am the Noob here.

[@enermaxstephens1051]

Does this require a lot of ram? Wouldn't openmediavault be a better option for people who want to use a lower end computer for a file server?

[@laughingalien]

Thank you for this recommendation. The smaller system resources footprint works best for my requirements.

[@thomasstambaugh5181]

Interesting. It appears that the end result of this exercise is an NTSF-formatted directory accessible from the local area network. I can do this same by installing a vanilla-flavored Linux system and invoking a few simple shell commands. What do I gain with "freeNAS" (and all those dashboards and dialogs) that makes it better than simple Linux? I ask because I don't see any of the things I usually associate with NAS -- RAID configuration, backup, etc.

[@jonmelvin9319]

Fantastic! Just what I was looking for … except I have an old Dell that I have 2 1tb drives and a 500gb drive in. One of the 1tb drives has ALL of our music, pictures and videos on. Will I lose this converting it to a DNS? Thanks soooo much

[@GeilomatikoBonza4223]

I didnt get one thing, is this just for your own network, or can i have access from anywhere, over remotedesktop or something like that. Ofc without a VPN, need to know if i van use this with some friends across the world.

[@mmjksa]

Thank you, good work, What difference between FreeNAS and Synology NAS ?

[@MyNameIsBucket]

What the hell kind of "old computers" are running 8GB of RAM?? They need to knock those requirements down to 2 or 3.

[@Schizophrenicintrovert]

Yea i wanted to do this w my EEE pc but I have only 1 gb of ram...

[@DAYSHIVANSH]

Lol my old pc hqve 16 gb of ddr4 ram ur just too broke bro

[@drmkerala3214]

Yes. Jellyfin can run lower spec windows pcs

[@richardson2287]

nice video man!!!! i have a question, i want to put my media and my work as a graphic designer on it, but i have to leave it on all the time or i can turn it off?

[@fairycat]

Thanks for very easy perceived information.

[@SyazwanAminuddin]

once i installed the Freenas, can i join it to an exisiting domain? planning to use this as a storage for a scanner in my office. Is there any limit on number of session? Btw, your tutorial is crystal clear , appreciate it!

[@anthonysiow894]

May I know your file transfer speed for such setup. I followed your tutorial and it took 6min to move 1GB file from Mac via wifi (5G bandwidth) to the old PC-NAS that is connected via cable to the wifi router. NAS has 2 1TB set up as Strip 1. Black magic app said the read/write was 7-8 mb/s. USB stick via USB 3 connector transfer at least 22 mb/s. Speedtest shows Mac wifi to wifi router is 400mbps. Is there anyway to get faster transfer?

[@GrenPara]

Good video thanks for making it. I do have a question for you. How would a person add a sata card and its drivers for more storage?

[@vaibhavsalvi007]

Can you show the same video with synology nas OS

[@navikzc4738]

TrueNAS 13.0 the Pool permissions are greyed out, did I break it?😅

[@charlesizquierdo7431]

great, the entire explanation was very clear, thank you

[@MyOwntuahur]

Awesome.. how if we open in online or other network

[@carllychou]

Nice! Thanks! What's it the power consumption like?

[@zhaoweiyeoh8664]

Hi Torogi may I ask is there any system or software that support for the internal sharing storage without using internet?

[@PCHobbyist2448]

It's a lot of work setting it up but it's probably worth it if one needs it.

[@Lectron1294]

Can you do this without a nas HDD?

[@avril1556677]

You are good. Does it matter if clients have different operating systems. Like Linux and Windows files.

[@crisvalerio9976]

Thanks so much for the tutorial, man! Appreciated!

[@dark-matters]

Is there anyway of sharing file using a li k on freenas ? For example like you would see in Dropbox or gdrive. Great video 👌👌👌👌

[@forbirpayment389]

how about to watch some videos came from NAS and link on my smart tv? Do you have any tuts for that sir? thanks in advance

[@jimfreakindandy]

You should be able to access the nas through your source menu on your tv

[@bgcreations6995]

4:55 How much Ram do you need? Do you only need 4 GB? Thanks for the great information. I learned a lot.

[@tufgaming1257]

4GB is okay BUT is not RECOMMENDED. If you have more storage to install then you need more RAM because Freenas is using ZFS to setup the various RAIDs and it is really need some RAM to run smoothly. (also the CPU in order to operate between the CPU and RAM).

[@bgcreations6995]

@airscrew1 Thanks for all your information.

[@raymanbacchus]

I did all this, but Edit Permissions is greyed out and I cannot select when creating a pool - did I do something wrong?

[@zagatoinks]

me too.. somebody help.. =:)

[@jbreathe]

thanks, explained so simply

[@harkisingh]

Do I have to leave my computer running all the time? Also can I disconnect the monitor ?

[@torogipro]

You can disconect the monitor and keep the nas running

[@harkisingh]

Torogi Pro Thanks for the reply. I'm going to give it a go.

[@abhishek271288]

If there is a power cut or the internet stops and resumes after some time, will the server be automatically up and running or will I have to do something again to get it started. Reason being we have frequent power outage here and the internet also drops sometimes. Also, can I use different capacity HDD in this server, for eg, can I use a 1tb drive plus a 2tb drive in 1 pool only

[@harkisingh]

Abhishek Bhattacharya If you have a power cut or your internet drops then the server will go down. I highly advise,you get a uninterrupted power supply (UPS) because if you have a power cut your server will still be active for a certain period of time.Yes you can use different HDD's I have a 4TB and a 2TB.

[@SolgerLemp]

What's the power consumption on your NAS device ?

[@mfr706]

thanks for the tutorial very very help and how to make nas can access via online?

[@itdepartment1764]

Thanks for sharing this video ... Your tutorial was simple, clear, good organized and really helpful ... I'll give you a BIG LIKE.