Ok so I'm new to this FreeBSD stuff, this is my first venture into it. I'm not sure what info is needed so I'll just post what I know.

I built a FreeNAS box and its booting FreeNAS from a USB thumb drive. It has 2 500Gb SataII drives that were originally inside of a Vista box and were full of data. I did not format them when I set up FreeNAS, I set them up to keep the original data and mounted them as they were.

The box is up and running fine, and I have both drives mounted and it appears I can view all the files. However when I look at the error logs in FreeNAS it says:

ntfs-3g[913]: Skipping unrepresentable filename (inode 393): Illegal byte sequence

So I have poked around and I have a basic understanding of what is going on. I am assuming I have a file named with a character that ntfs-3G doesn't recognize? But I am unsure how to locate the file and correct it. Do I need to take out the HDD's and put them back into the Vista box to see what file I am missing in the FreeNAS box? I only see this error message once, so I am assuming it only 1 file.

Am I headed in the right direction here?

OK, now, I have cleared all the logs, and rebooted but I no longer see any errors in the log. I am unsure if I even should be seeing an error now if there is one. I thought that ntfs-3G loads at boot, so shouldn't I see an error message by now if there is one? I did delete the old hidden $recycle bin$ files from when the drives were in the Vista box, perhaps those were the problem? Do I need to unmount and remount to get the errors?

Sorry my post is so long winded, I don't know a whole lot about this stuff yet.

Alright, well the error still logs, at random times, propably whenever freenas tries to update a file list automatically because it happens during times I am sleeping or not at the computer. I am worried that the file is not being shown on the drives, and I have no idea what file it is because the drives have a LOT of files on them. Anyone have any ideas here? I am on the right track with my assumptions?

Please see this: http://ntfs-3g.org/support.html#locale3 though I'm not sure if it also works on FreeBSD.

You could find the file like

If it's shown then your problem is solved.

If you have ntfsprogs installed then you can also run

to see the file name.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Hmmm, alright, makes sense. I read the article, but I don't think it applies to my problem simply because its only one file. (inode 393)

I could be wrong, I don't know jack about this OS.

Now when you are telling me to enter those commands, where am I supposed to enter them? There is a command function in FreeNAS, but when I try the commands it does nothing, I don't get a message of any type.

It always applies for that error message.

Try to add the locale= option to the relevant line in /etc/fstab then umount/mount the volume. Remount is not supported.

First off thanks for helping me.

I am able to browse thru FreeNAS and I can see the /etc/fstab file you mention. If I open it for editing I see:

/dev/da0a /cf ufs ro 1 1

What exactly should I be changing it to?

By the way this is my logs timestamps...

Nov 3 17:03:14 ntfs-3g[8422]: Skipping unrepresentable filename (inode 393): Illegal byte sequence
Nov 3 20:36:28 ntfs-3g[8422]: Skipping unrepresentable filename (inode 393): Illegal byte sequence
Nov 5 04:30:28 ntfs-3g[8422]: Skipping unrepresentable filename (inode 393): Illegal byte sequence

NTFS-3G should have soon built-in support for national filenames. That should solve your problem on FreeBSD too, if FreeBSD doesn't support 'locale'.

It may support it, I just don't know much about it.

When you are telling me to edit the /etc/fstab file, what exactly should I be editing?

My fstab looks like this now:

/dev/da0a /cf ufs ro 1 1

This setup has been running for about a week now, and I haven't changed any settings. I was getting the Skipping unrepresentable filename (inode XXX): Illegal byte sequence error every day.

Now suddenly it has stopped producing this error and I see this in the log file every time I reboot:

Nov 5 23:35:47 nmbd[26053]: [2008/11/05 23:35:47, 0] nmbd/nmbd_become_lmb.c:become_local_master_stage2(396)
Nov 5 23:35:47 nmbd[26053]: *****
Nov 5 23:35:47 nmbd[26053]:
Nov 5 23:35:47 nmbd[26053]: Samba name server FREENAS is now a local master browser for workgroup WORKGROUP on subnet 192.168.XXX.XXX
Nov 5 23:35:47 nmbd[26053]:
Nov 5 23:35:47 nmbd[26053]: *****

What does this mean? Does it mean that since FreeNAS is a LMB that the file I was getting the Skipping unrepresentable filename (inode XXX): Illegal byte sequence error from could be on any computer in my workgroup? I am lost here now...