[FreeNAS] Merging Directory Contents (mount_unionfs?)

I have just bought a new hard disk and I am trying to incorporate it into my FreeNAS (FreeBSD 7.3 based) media server's organisational structure.

I am looking to merge the contents of two directories on differen't drives, preferably in a third location (so the contents of /mnt/disk0/data/sorted and /mnt/disk1/data/sorted would be collectively shown under /mnt/merged/sorted).

I have tried using mount_unionfs to achieve this for many frustrating hours this weekend:

Code:
# mount_unionfs /mnt/disk0/data/sorted /mnt/merged/sorted 
# mount_unionfs /mnt/disk1/data/sorted /mnt/merged/sorted

Although when viewing /mnt/merged/sorted/ everything seemed exactly as I was after, trying to execute one of the files from the location resulted in the system locking up completely.

For example, /mnt/disk0/data/sorted/movies contains about 150 files in individual folders, /mnt/disk1/data/sorted/movies contains 1 folder/file. I try to open /mnt/merged/sorted/movie99/movie99.mkv (an 8GB file stored on disk0) - media player tries for about 10minutes to open the file, cant even ping my box while this is happening.

After things become responsive again I check /disk1 and the file I was trying to open is now also in /movies/ on there? Was it copying the file between hard drives when I tried to open it from the merged folder... This is obviously not what I am after.

Someone please point me in the right direction, this is driving me nuts.
 
From the bugs section of mount_unionfs(8)():
Code:
THIS FILE SYSTEM TYPE IS NOT YET FULLY SUPPORTED (READ: IT DOESN'T WORK)
AND USING IT MAY, IN FACT, DESTROY DATA ON YOUR SYSTEM.  USE AT YOUR OWN
RISK.  BEWARE OF DOG.  SLIPPERY WHEN WET.

This manpage hasn't changed for years, and to my knowledge unionfs was never operable in FreeBSD.
 
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