My understanding is that RAID 1 is a mirrored pair of drives, so when you write files to it, the files are on both drives simultaneously. If one drive craps out, you still have all your files on the other drive. Is this correct? I've never set up a RAID before, but from what I've heard it takes a matter of seconds via OS X disk utility. Anyone using RAID 1? Any disadvantages that you've found? How easy is to to re-build the RAID if one of your drives fails and you replace it?

I just got my new 8 core mac pro, 10 gigs of RAM and two extra 750GB Hitachi drives that I'm about to install. I want to set those two drives up as a RAID for all of my client files, images, lightroom libraries etc. Just wanted to make sure RAID1 was the right way to go before I start loading files onto the drives.

Thanks guys :-)

Yes, a RAID 1 is having two drives mirrored. It's super easy to setup in OS X on a Mac Pro. In fact, that's exactly what I have setup in my Mac Pro, two 750GB drives mirrored. That mirror is where I store my Aperture libraries and is my primary repository for images.

The OS X mirroring capabilities are simple to use and easy to manage should you have a drive go down on you. It's easy to rebuild the set. Having said that though, do NOT rely on a mirror as your backup plan. A RAID array is not a backup, it's added redundancy and gives you added protection against a failed hard drive. It does not prevent you from data corruption, writing over important data by mistake or any other issue that may occur through drive neglect or mis use. I suggest burning to 50GB BluRay discs as your offline backup strategy and at the least, purchase a single 1TB drive for the fourth bay in your Mac Pro and use it as a TimeMachine drive. Have TimeMachine backup both your system disk and your mirrored 750GB volume there.

If you'd like more help setting this all up, feel free to email me.

Best,

Jeff LaPlante

Not sure it is the right way to go, but it is a great solution.

I just went through this and purchased a Drobo with four drives that handles stripping across all four drives (like RAID 5). Why? First, you get a higher percentage of usable space than in a pure mirrored setup (RAID 1). Four 250 gb drives in a Drobo provides 750gb of usable storage because the data from each drive is spread across the other three drives, so the storage loss is 25% versus 50%.

Second you get plug and play capacity upgrade capability - take out a 250 and plug in a 500, once it rebuilds itself, replace the next 250 with a 500 and so forth or you cna run mixed capacity drives. The downside to mixed capacity drives is that they will decrease the amount of unusable storage since it is based on the capacity of the larest drive in the array.

Downside is speed available in USB only or as a networked storage device.


Frank

Jeff, thanks so much for the input. I currently do burn all images to DVD before any software touches them, to protect against data corruption. Once apple comes out with Blu-Ray drives for the Mac Pro, I'll replace one of my superdrives with one.

I like the idea of having a 1TB drive for backup, as I currently will only be backing up my system drive via time machine to an external 500gb mybook. I certainly will, as the funds become available, buy a 1TB hitachi (which newegg actually has a sale on today, if you want another one!) and use that to back up my system and file volumes.

I am going to throw my 750gb drives in the mac pro now and setup the RAID 1. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again and I'll certainly e-mail you if I have any questions!

Other World Computing is selling a Panasonic BluRay burner that will work in your MacPro right this very instant. It's awesome! I'd get one.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Panasonic/SW5582BK/

Imagine, burning 1 disc per wedding instead of spanning it across 10 DVDs? It's a beautiful thing.

Have fun setting up your new system!

Best,

Jeff

Crap.... haha you're making me wish I had left that second superdrive bay open... i wonder if I can put one of these dual layer superdrives in my G5.... :-)

how much are blu-ray discs? i've honestly never seen them before, i assume they're becoming more readily available now though...

We all know that Mac users are Right-Brained and usually very very left.... (it's primary day here in Austin)

LOL


Oh, and jeff, if you're going to be online a while, i'm logged into AIM and yahoo if you want to chat. i may just end up buying this 1GB hitachi from newegg right now...

That's awesome! I want one... I wonder how long it takes to burn a 50GB disc?

I know it's already been said that a RAID isn't a backup solution.... Be sure to back up to something that's not plugged in all the time and subject to power spikes, brownouts and powersupply issues.... and hopefully out of the building as well.

Why not stripe those drives and get a 1.5TB super fast drive? as long as you're burning DVDs and using time machine with the external, I don't see the point of the RAID 1?

~Bill

Sorry dude! :)Yes, I left my second drive option empty until I came across the BluRay drive from OWC. Yes, you can put that second Superdrive in your G5. That'll work out fine. 50GB BluRay discs are coming down but right now the average price is about $45 per disc. Boy, it sucks to make a coaster when burning BluRay discs! Luckily, I've only lost one disc so far. You can get the discs from B&H, OWC and lots of other online stores. I have yet to see them at any of the local big box retailers like Best Buy, etc.Sure thing. I'll be online for a bit, planning my bridal shoot in Paris for this weekend. Woo Hoo!I just signed on to my iChat, jeffleelaplante. Go ahead and ping me.Hey Bill!Striping is great but also MUCH less reliable and for something like your primary repository for images, I frankly NEVER want to have to mess with going to the backup to rebuild a broken stripe. At least with a mirror, you have RAID redundancy and if the mirror breaks, the other half is still usable until you replace the failed drive. It's not IF a hard drive dies, it's WHEN.Mostly, it's paranoia and being ultra conservative. I'm like that with my backup plans. Spend the extra money and be sure you're not going to be hating life later when a drive hits the wall on you.BluRay 50GB discs take about 90 minutes to burn and another 90 or so to verify. It's not exactly blazing fast but it's a lot faster or at least more productive to burn one BluRay disc than it is to burn multiple DVDs for the same set of images.

That was so ridiculously easy. haha. Yesss

I posted a little gallery through iPhoto and "blogged" the hardware update process on the new computer from my iPhone. You can check out my nerdy pictures if you want at http://gallery.mac.com/meeksdigital#100015...k&view=grid

Way to go Trevor!

I got some 1TB drives cheap when I put my Mac pro together so I made a RAID 1 outta them too. Works great.

Like the others said, it is not a backup solution, just a system to help in the event of a HD failure. I still keep 2 Mybook drives as my backup and I do NOT raid them. I copy to each of them the exact same thing but I make sure to copy each file manually to each drive so any errors or corruption is not duplicated like it would on a raid drive.

Mac Pros rock! It's good to hear when others join us!


As you can see from my Avatar.. Maxtors suck and keep me entertained at work when I get to pull them apart. Had one running windows XP with no cover on for about 24 minutes before it finally crapped out..

This is a good discussion!

There is some good talk about backing up and raids using Mac towers, and I think Paul alluded to some back-up strategies when using Mac laptops. What are some “best practices” when using a Macbook or Macbook Pro—when you are using external drives as a raid or back up?

For that last 2 years I've been using WD Mybook drives. I buy 2 at a time and make sure they are the same size. On each drive I create my folder system of year/month/bridesname&groomsname

Works for Laptops, desktops, whatever ya got. Copy to one drive, unplug, then copy to the other drive. Now you have a redundant backup of each job without duplicating any copying or corruption errors like you would on a raid. If you're super paranoid use 3 drives and keep one off site. By paranoid I mean.. smrt (you can sing it too)

On my desktop I have a RAID 1 drive for my work in progress. Once that is completed I move the final edits over to the externals I described above.

What I do is similar to Paul. I buy drives in pairs, but I buy bare drives and always get two different models, in case there is a manufacturing defect in a batch of drives, I don't want them to match exactly.

I number them so I can keep track and since drives do fail eventually I try to limit the liability by only planning to use them for a year or two at the most (likely much less) before they're full and archived. Once they're archived I keep one set here and one set offsite. A complete DVD set is always offsite.

So my current production drives are never more than a year old and they always have a clone that's the same size but a different brand (I mainly buy WD and Seagate). Works for me...

Thanks guys! If you are only using a laptop and external drives at this time, is there a way to establishing a Raid 1? Can it be established with external drives the same way it is done with internal drives?

Bryce you can get one of those fatter Mybook drives and use it in a RAID 1 but honestly I see no reason to do so. You get a far greater benefit from the system we described above by copying to two identical drives.

Plus you never want to have the nightmare of trying to rebuild a RAID setup that has failed. I've seen one drive go, put a new one in and the 1st one die as it was rebuilding the new one. I've also heard the horror stories of people cloning the wrong drive and losing everything that way.

The only reason I put a RAID in my Mac Pro was because it was cheap and they only thing I would lose if it dies is the recent edits. My RAW files are all still backed up and if/and/or when it does go. I'd just split it and move my data off the surviving drive to a new setup.

Hi Bryce,

You certainly could establish a RAID either with the type of drive Paul mentioned, the WB Mybook Pro 1TB has 2 500GB drives inside and can set up as either a striped or redundant RAID via it's own settings, or you could just hook up two (or more) external drives of the same size and create a RAID in apple's disc utility (like Trevor did with his 750GB internal drives).

But I think if redundancy is your goal then it's better to copy everything twice. I use SuperDuper for drive cloning and you can set it to back up automatically at night if you want, even to both drives if you like, so it's not extra work and the reliability is slightly higher than using it as a RAID.

Thanks for the info Bill--it is a big help!