iSCSI Backing store

[Steve Burton]

Hi,

I'm trying to familiarize myself with the iSCSI implementation in 
FreeBSD 10 REL.
I have made a target containing two LUNs which are backed by two files 
on my test server (redundant PC). This all worked well though it took 
ages to make the files using dd.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/targets/target0-0 bs=512 count=31250000

and /etc/ctld.conf is:

portal-group pg0 {
         discovery-auth-group no-authentication
         listen 0.0.0.0
         listen [::]
}

target iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 {
         auth-group no-authentication
         portal-group pg0

         lun 0 {
                 path /targets/target0-0
         }
         lun 1 {
                 path /targets/target0-1
         }
}

My first question is, is there a better and quicker way to make the 
backing store files?

My second question relates to making iSCSI LUNs using a disk volume.
I have a second (empty) hard drive. Is it possible to just use the disk 
as backing store for iSCSI?

Any and all advice appreciated.

Steve.