Ubuntu FreeNAS WindowsXp XBMC

[jocatoth]

i have a FreeNAS server (four IDE drives) running on an AMD XP mobo box. i use it to supply external storage for several computers (ubuntu, xppro, xp home, XBMC) and media files for the same.

the set up works quite well and i have used it for a couple of years. i can not get the hang of how to turn it off such that i do not have to run fsck on four drives all at once which would seem to take years to do. should the power dip what i have been doing is to reset the headless FreeNAS server to factory specs and re-mount the drives one at a time running fsck (or the equivalent in BSD) one at a time through the GUI. the shut down option on the GUI does not keep me from having to run this improvised do over ad hock proceedure. neither does unmounting the drives before shutting down.

i am wondering if having these drives shared on one of several computer (one is almost always on) contributes to them not being properly unmounted.

thanks for any help or insight some of you might have on this puzzle.

i would be happy to provide any additional details.

[JohnT]

In my personal opinion, I think your selection of using Ubuntu to control this system is not the best that could be found. I have used Slackware in the past to run a similar setup and never had the problem of mounting or unmounting drives. I'm using version 13.0 with the ext4 fs and Slackware auto-run fsck about every 25 mounts/unmounts, or so.....only on startup. Slackware has always had the reputation of a server distro. Giving excellent control to the user.

[jocatoth]

thanks johnt for the reply. i have toyed with moving to a *nix server instead of FreeNAS. Being a long time noob (probably too long) i like the gui from FreeNAS and am used to it. I was hoping that some configuration type setting on one or more of the OS's involved would resolve the mounting or lack thereof problem i seem to be having.

thanks again.