Mirrored RAID drive removal.

I have 3 drives in my Xserve G5. 1 is 80GB and running as the system drive. the other 2 are 500GB drives which are both mirrored. I want to sacrifice the data redundancy and gain the extra 500GB for storage. I do not have a location to store the 400+GB of data that is stored on the mirrored RAID while I delete the raid. Is there a way to delete the RAID and then recover the data from one of the 2 drives and then format one of them to be blank? So far from what I am reading deleting a RAID set will make me lose my data I think... I am running the raid through Disk Utility as a software RAID.

Chris
If you delete the RAID1 with disk utility you will lose the data, I can only think of one way to do this-
Pull one of the RAID drives and let the RAID become degraded, data will still be there on one drive
Insert the pulled drive and format with disk utility
Transfer all data from degraded RAID to freshly formatted single drive
Once transferred, delete degraded RAID and format drive to use as extra space
Now doing this without a backup would be very dangerous, and I would suggest that all data should be moved to another drive before doing any of this.
I use software RAID configs all the time and would not recommend that anyone run a server without some form of redundancy, they have saved mine and my client's bacon many times.
Regards
Ed

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XServe and Mirrored RAID drives

I wonder if anyone can help me. An XServe of ours went down. It looks like it is the Logicboard. I have taken the system drive out and put it into a G5 machine and the OS opens fine. I took one of the RAID drives which were mirrored and put it into the second slot in the G5. The problem is that the drive did not have any of the files for the last 6 months. Then I removed that drive and put in the other RAID mirrored drive, and this drive had all the files on. I am a bit confused. If the drives were mirrored shouldn't the drives both have the same content on? Also if I change any of the files on that RAID mirrored drive will that affect the way the RAID is set up when I put the drives back in the XServe when my logicboard gets replaced?

Does that mean that RAID mirrored drives don't necessarily have the same files on? What is the point of calling it mirrored then. Also this makes no sense. Because isn't the point that if the one drive fails, you have an exact mirror of the drive to recover your files. How does this help, if a drive fails, and the other mirrored drive is missing files from the last 4 months. Luckily we have external drives connected to the XServe which daily backup the RAID drives on the XServe. But imagine if you didnt have this, and one of the drives failed.
If I had to reformatt the drives and then reinstall the data, would this possibly correct the weird issue with the RAID drives not being exactly mirrored?

Spotlight hangs on mirrored RAID Drive

Spotlight is always hanging while trying to index. I've deleted the index file(by showing hidden files) on my 2TB RAID and determined that it is that RAID that has the prob. I've also verified that the RAID is in a proper state via disk utility. Any insight?

In addition to manually removing the spotlight index file, i've tried using the App "Spotless" to delete the index file and temporarily disable indexing. When I resume indexing or restart my computer spotlight begins to index normally giving readouts of 74 minutes left, 50 minutes left etc. However about 2/3 of the way through the process the status bar hangs and the amount of time remaining escalates to 92 hours, then 93 and finally hangs around 94 hours.
If I restart without having trashed the Spotlight index file Spotlight nearly always hangs in a permanent "Estimating Indexing time" with the horizontal barber shop bar.
I've tried to view any specific errors in console but it seems that nothing reads out regarding this issue.
Is there any other way to figure out if spotlight is hanging on a particular file. Anyway to improve the structure or status of my mirrored RAID array (even though disk utility lists its status as fine).
Thanks

Splitting Mirrored Raid Drives

Hello,
I have two external drives that are striped with one mirroring the other. I want to split or separate them without losing data. Can I just continue using the primary drive that comes up on the desktop (without plugging in the mirrored drive) without any problem? If I separate the mirrored drive, I presume I will need to erase it, and will not be able to access the media on it, correct? Is there any way to access the media on it and use it without erasing media?
I tried to access just the mirrored drive to see if it showed up in Disk Utility, which it did not. Then, after plugging in both drives, Disk Utility is now repairing raid slices...for another 8 hours. Did I damage my media?
If one can never access the data on a mirrored drive, then what is the benefit of it being a "backup"??
Thank you in advance,
Video Editor

Is the RAID striped or mirrored. You said they were "striped" with one "mirroring" the other, but this is incorrect terminology. Either the RAID is striped or mirrored. You can create a mirrored RAID from two identical striped RAIDs, but an individual array is either striped or mirrored.
If you truly had a mirrored RAID, then separating the drives would not affect the data as each drive simply has a copy of the other. However, if you truly had a striped array that you separated, then your data may be lost completely because each drive actually has one half of the data and the other drive has the other half. Each file is literally split between each drive. Lose a drive and you lose the data.

What's the best way to upgrade a mirrored RAID drive?

I have two 3TB Firewire 800 drives which are almost full which I'd like to upgrade. The drives are configured as striped drives using the Apple (OS-X) RAID utility in disk utility. Is it possible to configure three drives as RAID 5, or four drives as RAID 10, or am I better off just going for a couple of larger drives and staying with the striped configuration? The drive is mainly used for an iTunes library, iMovie content and Aperture vaults so speed isn't that critical.
Thanks in advance

You can convert to a striped RAID but not without erasing the drives. The only ways to make a larger mirrored RAID are:
Buy two more identical drives. Make two sets of Striped RAIDs which in turn can be configured into one mirrored RAID by mirroring the two striped RAIDs.
Buy two larger drives, configure as a mirrored RAID, copy the data from the old RAID to the new one, or have two mirrored RAIDs.
Regardless of what you do you may end up erasing the data from the present setup if it involves breaking the RAID. If you break a mirrored RAID the data on each drive will remain intact until you re-use the drives in some other manner such as converting the mirrored RAID to a striped RAID.

Mirror RAID on partitioned drive

Can you Mirror a partitioned drive (boot plus data)? thanks

thats no problem reformatting just wondered if I had a boot partition and a data partition how does a mirror work - automatically on both partitions or do you create two mirrors one for each partition<</div>
I know on my "hardware" mirrored RAID, it all automatic. Any information or partitioning written to the "primary" drive is instantly "mirrored" to the "secondary" drive. Mirrored RAID drives are configured to be "exactly" identical, that's why you need matching drive capacities as well as manufacturer.
As for "software" RAIDs, I'm sure they are setup the same way, except the computer takes over the process of making sure the information is the same on both drives. On my HW RAID, I don't even need it connected to a computer to do a HD restore.
HTH

Possible to convert a mirrored RAID boot drive to a single disc boot drive

hi ... i made the mistake of installing my Macpro with a RAID on the first two drive bays as a startup disc. Although this doesn't pose any problems per se i would like to have a single disc startup drive now but i do not have the time or courage to re-install and re-configure everything (installation&config with all software takes 3 days due to the huge number of software i have on this machine).
is it possible (and how) to get rid of the RAID and convert one of the discs to a normal startup volume so i can reformat the second disc and use it as a work drive ? Since the 'mirrored' drives both contaion a full startup drive this should be possible i think but could not find any info on this.
thx for any help with this ...

hey .. funny how expert opinions vary ... i have a handfull of IT and software RAID experts who disagree with you ... in my case, i'd rather get rid of it ... ( however i still have to find a solution to clone my boot drive that works flawlessly with all my software ... )
anyways ... how exactly do i go about splitting the RAID, to make sure i don't mess it up ....
1. restart from CD
2. Delete the mirrored RAID set
3. remove one of the HDs with the raid slice on it (i'll keep it as a backup 4 the moment just in case)
4. restart from the remaining slice disc
5. ... ?
do i need to do anything specific ... ? what about the name of the Volume .. for the moment my startup disk (the RAID) is called 'BootRAID' ... the slices are called 'RAID Slice (disk0s2)' and 'RAID Slice (disk1s2)' .. in order for everything to work properly, don't i have to rename the new startup disk ?
i'm scared ...
here's a screenshot of my setup: http://kinkajou.net/diskUtility_RAID.jpg
<Edited by Moderator>

How to recover data from failed drive that's part of mirrored raid

Hi Guys,
hope to get help from someone knowledgeable out there. I have a macpro and recently experienced a failed drive. I set up that failed drive as part of a mirrored raid, this set is not my primary drive and so my computer is stilling up and running but now am wondering how I access the data from the mirrored drive. Should the mirrored drive automatically mount on my desktop whereby I would be able to access the files? This is my first drive failure and I was under the impression having a mirror would duplicate my data and allow me to access it in situations like this. I'm a bit of novice in this area and not sure if the data is truly on the "mirror" or if there are things I need to do.
I launched disk utility and was able to see the mirrored drive and I selected "mount" drive but it would not mount; I then selected "verify" and got "unrecognizeable filesystem" Is this normal? Am I suppose do something to get access to the mirrored drive? Do I install a new drive in place of the failed drive and expect the raid to rebuild automatically whereby I then see the data?
Your help is much appreciated.

Even with a mirror, you still need a backup.
Along with Disk Utility, you still need 3rd party (TechTool Pro 5, Disk Warrior 4.1.1+).
And if you like to use RAID and esp mirror RAID, consider
http://www.softraid.com which is a step above (the pdf guide, manual you can download and they have a demo, so worth the read). SoftRAID can also import/convert an Apple RAID to its own format which has been known to recover drives and data.

How do I add a new drive to a degraded MIRRORED RAID set?

My mirrored raid said it was degraded because one of the drives had a failure.
Today I unplugged the faulty drive and inserted a new one.
So far so good.
I erased the new drive.
Then I went into disk utility and followed the instructions in the help about RAID but I cannot see how to add this new drive to the RAID.
I'm confused.
1) The data is all on the RAID (the good, original slice) so can I add a new slice?
2) how do I do it?
Many thanks

I don't recommend the Apple hardware RAID card, and it doesn't work with off the shelf drives. If you are using drives in RAID, first make sure they are RAID Edition or lacking that Enterprise. Same make/model/firmware.
If using Seagate, avoid anything prior to 7200.12 series. If WD the RE2/3 series.
Rebuilds are slow, and one reason why I recommend 3 drives, even if you lose one you are covered still.
Of course just having two backups per volume is more important and comes first; mirrors are great for live editing and recording (audio) but otherwise... I'd stick to stripe and redundant backups. Only if you need 24/7. Otherwise, forget mirror.

Creating a mirrored raid set with a hard drive that already has data on it.

I have a hard drive that I keep my photos on, and want to create a mirrored raid set that includes this drive, with its data, and another drive. How can I do this without erasing the drive with my photos on them? I am running 10.7.5 if that matters.
Thanks for any help.

Creating a Mirrored RAID reformats the drive and loads a substantial RAID driver and some tables onto it. When completed, the drive is inherently a member of a RAID set, and will continue to be so even if moved to another Mac.
because of this, you cannot create a RAID directly on a standard drive that contains data already in any reasonable, risk-free way.
To amplify what The Hatter has said above, Mirrored RAID is not Backup. Mirrored RAID only increases mean time to repair to keep a drive failure from becoming a Data Disaster. You still need a Backup. Mirrored RAID does not protect you from deletions from user error, crazy software, or "just because".
I run a mirrored RAID in my Home Server, which contains all the Users files for everyone in the Household. And I also recognize (after being burned by it) that Mirrored RAID is helpful, but not a sufficient Backup by itself. I back up the Users Drive automatically to an External drive using Time Machine. [So what I am advising is not just theoretical, I am living what I am advising.]
With WD Black 1TB and other very good drives in the under US$100 range, there is really no reason NOT to invest in several drives for such an undertaking.

Maximum drive size for mirrored RAID

I'm want to set up a mirrored RAID with two 4TB drives that I have. When I put the drives in the tower (Mac Pro, OS 10.8.5) and open Disk Utility, the RAID button at the top does not show up for these drives. I only see First Aid, Erase, and Restore. Is there a max size for a drive that I'm exceeding? Or is it something else?

Hi - from the research I have done, there is a BUG in the OS. A solution is to boot with an older version of OS X and format the drive with the version of disk utlity on the older OS, or yank out the drive and put it in one of those 'drive toaster' type devices and format it EXTERNALLY. The problem seems to be localized when it's formatted with the drive INSIDE the MacPro.
You would figure that this would be a high priority fix, but NO. I went nuts for a few days trying to figure out WHY I could not see the RAID tab.
There is also third party software that has a more robust RAID solution. I have NOT tried it yet, but you should check it out.
http://www.softraid.com/
Alfred
PS: If you've resolved this problem, do share your findings here too!

Mirrored Raid on Startup Drive?

Can I set up a Mirrored RAID with my Startup Drive without loosing the data?
I have a G5 Dual 1.8 running the latest OSX. I want to add a second internal HD, then setup a Mirrored RAID from my Startup Disk to my newly installed second internal drive. How do I set up this RAID without loosing anything on my startup drive? The new Drive will be the same size as my startup drive. I want the second drive as a backup startup drive.
Kevin Hawkins

Hi Kevin Hawkens;
What do you expact to gain by having a mirrored RAID?
Allan

Workaround to use drives with 4096b block for mirrored RAID?

I have 2 Hitachi 2TB Drives. One is a few months old and uses 512b blocks, the other is the same model, but newer and uses 4096b blocks.
When I try to set up the RAID Set I get the error: MediaKit reports block size error, usually caused by not being a multiple of 512.
From reading the message board, it looks like this a known bug when trying to encrypt drives with 4K block sizes or add them to a RAID Array.
Is there any way to set these up as a mirrored RAID array other than waiting for apple to fix the problem? Are there third party apps that can be used to fix this problem?
Thank you for your time.

I have the exact same problem, and until Apple solves this bug, I no longer have a hard drive large enoug for my Time Machine back-ups. I have submitted the bug, but I really need a solution. Please help!

Mirrored RAID degraded, upper slice shows "failed" but drive passes verify

Hello,
I have a mid 2010 Mac Mini running Mountain Lion and Server. The Mirrored RAID is showing degraded and that the upper slice has failed. However, doing a verify of the drive does not report any problems.
Is there a way to determine if this is just a RAID management issue? I've considered rebooting into single user mode and running fsck but not sure what else it will tell me?
Is it safe for me to click on the slice that is showing "failed" and hit rebuitd? (after verifying a good back up of course). I started down this path but didn't like the warning OS X provided; it was not crystal clear which physical drive it would erease the data from.
Thanks,
Tim

I meant to add that boot up reports:
AppleRAIDSet: addMember() detected expired sequenceNumber (1) for member _______big id_____
AppleRAID::restartSet - restarting set "Harddrive name" (______another big id_____)
CoreStorage: fsck_cs has finished for group " ______yet another big id________" with status 0x00
CoreStorageFamily::unlockVEKs) failed to unwrap the vek, status = e00002bc
- Tim

How to separate drives in a mirrored RAID without losing contents?

Perhaps senseless questions (non-issues), I'm not sure. Better to ask than to regret a stupid move ...
I have an external mirrored RAID array (running 10.4.11) which is generally my startup volume(s) for a G4 Mini. Obviously, I can also boot from the internal drive.
1. What happens if I disconnect them from each other (firewire cable) ? Is the drive that remains connected to the CPU still accessible?
2. If I (somehow?) "Undo" the mirrored RAID set, is data on either or both drives lost or do the contents remain intact and accessible?
3. If drive contents remain intact and accessible, then how does one "undo" a RAID set" ? Disk Utility "Help" and several forum searches have not been helpful (void of all pertinent content).
My apologies if these are "stupid" questions and thanks in advance for informed responses.

thanks - nice to know
However - when I open DU, select this raid set, choose the RAID tab, I see NO option of "delete" - only "erase" button. Perhaps I need to (re)start from a different drive.
IMO neither one of those terms is exactly intuitive for uncoupling a mirrored set. I do not want to delete or erase anything, just uncouple them so they are once again independent drives (without loss of content). BTW, since I typically boot (start) from the current set, I presume that either drive (once decoupled) will also be boot-able with preferences etc. persevered!

Mirrored RAID drive removal.

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