[Strider_2001]

So far my experience with FreeNAS has been really good. It seems to be streaming everything really well and no issues so far.

The reason that I am thinking of switching to FlexRAID with Windows server 2011 is because I would actually like to set up folding on the server while I am not streaming data. I feel that the CPU is being wasted when I am not streaming things, so this will give the the chance to get more use out of it.

At any rate. My main question is that currently I have 3 1 TB HDD's set up in FreeNAS Raid 5. I have FreeNAS running on an old 40 gig HDD that I have. If I set up windows server 2011 and FlexRAID on that 40 gig HDD and raid my 3 1TB HDDs together in Raid 5 and the 40 gig HDD with Windows and FlexRAID fails, will I lose the data on my Raid 5 configuration?

Hope that all makes sense.
Thanks in advance for the help...

 

[reezin14]

First are you planning to keep the ZFS raid data intact? I don't know how well ZFS(raidz) & Flexraid would play together. I'd do some research first if that's the case. Second WHS11 recommendations are that the OS be installed on a 160GB HDD or greater,but there is a work around for it found here.

You will only lose the data on the disk that has gone bad.In which case it just like hardware raid,install a new disk and re-sync .With FR you can also take the disk out of the array and read the data on another computer with no problems.If you able I would just transfer the files to a different hdd (internal/external) and start from scratch then transfer the files to the FR array.Seem like it would be a lot easier than getting things running with UFS intact.

 

[Strider_2001]

If I end up making the change over, then I am probably going to toss everything on my external temporary and format the drives and start everything from scratch.