jamesd3rd Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Just got turned on to Hak5 a few weeks ago and really like a lot of the content. My question has to do with setting up a FreeNas box. We have a lot of Dell systems that aren't being used. The Dimension 2400s are small and look like they could be used as a NAS but I'm wondering if they can boot from a flash drive. I know the BIOS has a USB option but I have learned that when it comes to Dell that doesn't really mean anything. Booting from USB doesn't necessarily mean boot from USB flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimaj Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 There is an app by Lexar called BootIT (BootIt download) that allows you to flip the 'Removable Bit' on the USB stick. Basically that stick will be treated by a computer as a fixed drive as opposed to removable drive. Give that a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 The 2400 series are kind of old, and only relatively modern computers support booting from memory sticks. All I can suggest to determine this really is to get a memory stick and try and install Ubuntu or similar from it. That's not to say you couldn't install freenas on the computer, though you would have to find an alternate storage medium. As an IDEa you use a CF to IDE device (for example) and install freenas on a CF card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IOSys Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 ..or you could buy a IDE Disk-on-Module and pop it in to a IDE-slot .. http://www.memorydepot.com/ssd_diskonmodule.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesd3rd Posted July 8, 2010 Author Share Posted July 8, 2010 I learned that it is indeed bootable from a flash drive after making some tweaks in the BIOS. I have to turn off Fast Boot and set USB as the first Boot Device Option instead of Bios Boot Devices. After that I used PhysDiskWrite to write FreeNAS to the flash drive and I was off and running. The Dimension 2400 has a funky drive bay set up but since we have a couple of them I can pull a tray from one of the others so I can drop two drives in. Now it's just a matter of getting a couple large IDEs to set up my RAID. I just wonder how much electricity the thing will use since it will be running 24/7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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