Wrong FreeNAS Server Capacity shown on Windows 7

[Ticod]

I have a problem and would like a solution for it. I am running Windows 7 Pro on my PC, and using FreeNAS as a network attached storage OS. It takes less than 64 MB if installed on PC and it supports CIFS, FTP and NFS. This is a network server to which I can store files on it by accessing it from any computer I want to. The problem is that when I view the server from my PC, it is showing less space than it is available originally. I want to backup my windows on the server but it is unable to back it up saying I don’t have enough disk space available. But I am sure that there is enough disk space present there. You have any ideas as to why this is happening? Any help will be appreciated. Thank You in advance.

[Zhankana_n]

FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD which is a UNIX-like OS. So, it uses either a UFS file-system or ZFS (Zettabyte File System). Since Windows 7 uses neither of the two you will have to use either SAMBA or CIFS to read the file-system. The cluster (the smallest unit a file can fit in Windows) size for Windows 7 is large. But it is not the case in Unix/Linux. The smallest unit called ‘inode’ varies according to file size in this. So, due to cluster size your files may not be fitting in the Windows. So, you must buy a larger NAS storage unit or backup only the important files of your system. What is the size of your NAS storage? Please tell me so that I can help.

[Where-TO]

Here my problem is a bit different. After formatting and RAID overhead I have a total of 902 GB on my FreeNAS server. The problem actually is that my computer showing the NAS capacity as only 306 MB. I have set my Windows Backup Utility to auto-backup to this server, but it sees my storage as only 306 MB and says it cannot backup due to low storage space. But in reality it is 900 GB and should easily backup my files. I also have CISF enabled on it. So that’s the problem I am facing, as I have enough storage space already I don’t need to purchase new storage. It may be a fault with my Windows or some mistake in configuration.

[teena_pansare]

Since you are using Windows for connecting to the server which is Linux based you are getting this problem. You have CISF enabled which is giving you the size difference. Since CISF converts a lot of inode to clusters it leads to tremendous wastage of memory. Maybe you can try changing the CISF format but that’s a lengthy process. The simple solution is not using a Windows based OS but an OS which supports ZFS, can read and write to it like Linux, Unix, FreeBSD, etc. This can solve your size problem. Also don’t use Windows backup, just select selected files like music, movies, images which you want to backup on the server. It will save your space and will solve your problems. Maybe you can try rsync for backup if you want.