# Reusing ZFS pools/disks



## steveydevey (Nov 12, 2012)

I have been using NAS4Free for a while on a small system I built, but I decided to wipe the system disk and install vanilla FreeBSD 9.1 on it instead.

I'm not faced with the problem of mounting my ZFS formatted disks from before, which I've never done. I'm sure it's quite easy, but I'm afraid of a mis-step wiping a drive, so I'd like some advice on the matter. 

There are a few disks, each their own "pool", I believe. I didn't build any of them into any RAID-Z arrays because they were dissimilar sizes, so that should uncomplicate things.

Where should I start? I feel stupid for asking, and for having used the guided method in NAS4Free without knowing how to do it by hand, but now I'm stuck without being able to get to my precious data!


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## usdmatt (Nov 12, 2012)

As long one or more of your ZFS disks are connected to the system, run the following:


```
# zpool import
```

This will scan all connected disks for ZFS pools (that aren't already imported) and show you a list. Hopefully you'll see the pools on the connected disks at this point and can 'import' them into the system as follows:


```
# zpool import poolname
```


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## steveydevey (Nov 13, 2012)

usdmatt said:
			
		

> As long one or more of your ZFS disks are connected to the system, run the following:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



That was absolutely correct, and absolutely easy! Thanks a million!


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