Simple questions, really. I found this answer with a similar setup, but not sure it answers my question. If it does, I'm curious why since the answer seems a bit unsure: ZFS Hard Drive Configuration in FreeNAS I'm building a server which will be used primarily for backup, plus some media streaming, possibly with Plex. I seem to understand most everything I need, but I'm still a bit confused on how pools work, and how to configure them for my scenario. I will have 2x 2TB WD Red drives, which I plan on using in a mirrored set up (RAID1). This would be for backup, and I'd also like to do offsite backup to my CrashPlan account from this array. I also have a few other drives: 1.5TB, 320GB, 250GB. I'm not sure exactly what to do with them yet, but looking for options. FreeNAS OS will be running from a 16GB USB Flash drive. Would it be wise to use the 1.5TB as a backup-backup, essentially as a mirror or perhaps for snapshots of the 2TB RAID1? I'm still learning about snapshots. Should the 2TB mirrored drives be in their own pool? Should the other drives be set up in their own pools as well, or should they be JBOD in a single pool? They may or may not get much use since the 2TB array is plenty for me. Does a dataset basically mimic the idea of a partition or a network share? In other words, I would map \SERVER\Share to X: on my laptop? Let's say I wanted to use the 250GB drive as an encrypted drive to store all of my cat pictures. Would it have to be in its own pool? If I use jails apps, should they go in the backup RAID1, or in another place? Thank you!