FreeNAS – Writing files on NTFS/FAT32 file format

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I've recently installed FreeNAS and have been sing it successfully except one minor problem and that is I can't copy files to my FAT32/NTFS mounted hard disks. Is it not permissible in FreeNAS at all or I'll have to do some workaround to get that feature working?

Hope to see your expert advise soon. Thanks in advance.

Cheers.

Best Answer

FAT32/NTFS mounts are read only on FreeNAS. From the FreeNAS FAQ on the topic:

Q: Can I use an NTFS, FAT, or EXT formatted drive with FreeNAS?
A: Yes you can, but there are limits:

  • FAT, NTFS and EXT2/3 can be used to transfer bulk data to a UFS formatted drive ONLY.
  • FAT, NTFS and EXT2/3 should be used in read-only mode, not read/write.
  • Only EXT2/3 revision 0 with Inode size of 128 bytes supported. Revision 1 uses a inode size of 256 bytes which is not supported by FreeBSD. Creating ext2/3 partitions, using 128 bytes via ”-I 128” could solve this problem but the file system is permanently in “not clean” state.

UFS is the native FreeNAS file system, it is robust, stable and we recommend you use it. You can use other file systems in read/write mode, but this is not recommended.

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