Hi I am just about to build my a home nas using Freenass, I understand how to setup the freenass, but i have what might be a silly query someone can help with.
I have built pcs in the past, that is not a problem and I have a running computer and two usb drives.
From trolling google i believe that once the nas is setup it can be run via the web on a separate computer. But initially it need setting up on the nas box, to configure the ip addresses etc, but as I understand it the drives need to be empty.
So how do you setup the lan, display and motherboard without setting up an o/s, or is this done first with say wins 10, and then removed on installing freenas? All the articles i have found seem to omit this step!
Puzzled Newbye
FreeNAS is an OS so I’m not sure I understand your question.
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You will need a video display and a keyboard to run the FreeNAS setup and get it onto your local network.
After that you can do most administrator work on a web interface.
If you configure the machine’s BIOS to not halt on errors you may even be able to pull out the GPU card and have it boot headless. That would only apply if you used something like a Ryzen 1700 without an integrated GPU.
I think I understand your question… How do you get freenas on to the server initially.
Ok so you need 2 blank usb sticks / thumb drives. Plug the first one into your windows laptop or PC and go to
To download the image file. You will need a drive image writer app to write this to the usb pen. I recommend
Once written plug this drive into your new server. Plug in a monitor, keyboard and mouse and plug in the second blank usb stick as well. Do not plug in hard drives yet.
Boot the machine and the freenas installer will start. You may need to select the boot device in the bios. Install freenas and it will then give you a message like “go to 192.168.0.22 to configure this system”. Write this number on a piece of paper.
At this point shut down the server and remove your first usb stick. You can unplug the monitor and mouse and keyboard now and put the server in its final location. Add the hard drives and power it up.
Now on your laptop / pc go to the web address you wrote down and you can configure from there.
It should just work but if you get stuck give us a shout.
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