Advice about a external RAID system for my iMac

OK, so I have a few questions and bare with me because while I'd say I'm rather tech-literate I know very little about RAID arrays.
I need to expand my external storage and right now I'm looking at getting a RAID enclosure and populating it with disks. The other alternative is a Drobo, but I'll get to that in a second.
Let's say I got a RAID enclosure which was filled with four 2TB HDDs. I've been looking into my options and for what I'm looking for it would be either RAID5 or RAID10. From what I gather, RAID10 is faster but RAID5 is higher capacity? Are there any other differences in terms of reliability that would make RAID10 better than RAID5?
I hear that RAID10 repairs faster than RAID5 but for my purposes that's not mission critical as long as the rest of my data isn't inaccessible while the repair is going on.
My real concern is what's the process of repairing and expanding RAID5 and RAID10 arrays? Let's say I had some extra money and wanted to add two 3TB HDDs to my array. Would it be more difficult with RAID5 or RAID10, or would there be no real practical difference?
Now, the other reason I ask all of this is because a Drobo requires no management at all for any of these tasks. I basically drop in the drives and let it do it's thing. Are RAIDs so much trouble that there's a real benefit to this or is that really only for people who are just that tech-illiterate?
I don't know, and that's why I'm asking. I'd really appreciate any advice you guys could give me at this time.
What I basically want is a drive I can use for file storage that's fast enough that I can pull HD content from it and have it run smooth as glass (which I imagine any FireWire system would be able to). I'm not using it for video editing, I'm probably not going to use it for backups unless you can partition a RAID array in such a way as I can section off 1TB of it just for backups (not necessary, I do have a drive for that).

I did some research and, from the sound of it, the way I'd increase a RAID5 array is to just swap out drives for higher-capacity drives and let it repair itself and once I had upgraded them all form 2TB to 3TB I'd have the increased space.
The problem is the RAID enclosure I was looking at didn't support the ability to do that, for some reason.
Still no idea about RAID10 but I think after researching it a bit more I'm going with a Drobo S. It'll cost me more (no surprise there) but the lack of any required management on my end really makes up for that. Plus, instead of having to buy four 3TB drives when I decide to increase capacity, I can just buy them one at a time.

Similar Messages

Looking for a Hard Drive RAID System for 17" MacBook Pro, any Suggestions?

I purchased my 17" MacBook Pro in Nov. 09 and it does have an ExpressCard/34 slot. What I am looking to do, is purchase a 4TB Caldigit VR External Hard Drive and put it on RAID 0. I Love the performance fact, but I don't feel too safe, because if that drives go down, there goes my data. So what I want to do is use Carbon Copy Cloner and find another External Hard Drive that will backup my Caldigit VR, since it will be RAID 0. Any Suggestions would help out very much! I am using this RAID System to store my HD Video using Final Cut Pro Studio. I know I can set up the Caldigit VR as a RAID 1, but I would rather set it up as a RAID 0 and have another hard drive back the data up. Let me know if you have set up a RAID System for your MacBook Pro and what you did. Also what express cards do you recommend?
Thank you,
Chad

There is a difference technically between this iStorage unit and the Cal Digit stuff. Cal Digit includes a hardware raid controller, and removable drives. The iStorage Pro unit relies on your computer's CPU to control the raid... so will tax things like render times... plus just to play a software raid can take as much as 30% of your CPU's cycles to do it...
That said, it may not matter if you're working in lower resolution files, or lower data rate stuff, either company makes great gear though. Both are intended for use with video systems. But ya do get something for the extra money on the CalDigit gear.
But if all you want to use it for is backup of data... anybody's drives would do this... doesn't have to be a raid either. Single FW drives will certainly hold the data as backup even if they won't play it without dropping frames.
OH, and Colorado... join the Denver FCP User Group... http://www.dfcpug.com We meet at the Colorado Film School in Denver on a monthly basis.
Jerry
Message was edited by: Jerry Hofmann

Can anyone recomend a good sound/speaker system for an iMac 24" computer.

Hello, Can anyone recomend a good sound/speaker system for an Imac 24"? And can an external speaker system be hooked up to this type of Imac? Thank you.

Unless it is for reasons of poor eyesight, it isn't necessary to write in all caps.
Depends how much you want to spend. This one is inexpensive and produces decent sound. But it won't necessarily be room filling (that is, depending on the size of your room.) You just hook it up to the headphone jack.
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/multimedia-speakers-z200

About using external bootable drive on an imac

Hi
I have made a bootable external hard drive for my imac. On that drive I am running 10.6 and on the internal imac drive 10.7.2. Now is it ok to use a usb drive rather than a FireWire?
Also is it necessary to make a portion on the external HDD? I have got some big film files on the drive but I just put them in the movie folder of the OS 10.6. I couldn't make a portion as I have no storage to put the film files on.
Another problem I had is that when I booted up in 10.6 there where no other drives mounted on the desk top. The time machine drive was mounted but the internal drive did not mount nor did the bootable 10.6 drive. They where in the window on the side but did not mount on the desk top, so I could still access the other drives. I don't know why this would happened does anyone know why?
Thanks for any help

...when I booted up in 10.6 there where no other drives mounted on the desk top.
Re the drive icons not appearing on the desktop - open Finder Preferences (Preferences in the Finder menu), go to the General tab in that window. In the "Show these items on the dekstop" section, checkmark the items for "Hard disks" and "External disks".
Also is it necessary to make a portion on the external HDD?
By "portion" I assume you mean "partition".
No, it is not necessary to partition the external drive, although doing so can be of advantage.
Now is it ok to use a usb drive rather than a FireWire?
You would do well to not consider using USB. Firewire is stabler and much faster than USB. Even USB 2.0 is usually too slow for a boot drive except in emergencies.

Question - What is the best external optical drive for an imac W8******5PE ?

Question - What is the best external optical drive for an imac W8****5PE ?
<Edited by Host>

Try http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
Allan

Wich is the best external bluray burner for an iMac

wich is the best external bluray burner for an iMac
i am using adobe premier pro and adobe encore.
any help?

Try http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
Allan

Advice about an external DVD drive

Hi there,
Pardon the basic questions, a computer genius I am not.
I have a rather elderly iMac G4 running 10.4.11 and it has never been able to even see DVDs. I am facing necessary software upgrades which come in a DVD format. Is an external DVD drive what I get? Will my poor iMac see a DVD coming from an external drive? I have always found it annoying that I have the DVD player software but I can't use it.
Note: if a solution contains advice about replacing my hard drive, please know that particular drama happened this summer when the original hard drive died. After much angst, my iMac is working well; I just need to be able to load software in a DVD format.
thank you!
suzy

Yes an external DVD optical drive will work. The cost needs to be considered, is it worth it.
You could opt to go the cheapest way possible; search Ebay on the PC side(since a high % are not as overall savvy as Mac users) look for the older Sony CDR burners, these were blue external enclosures which housed CDR burners. You can purchase modern DVDR player/burners cheaply now a days and install the optical drive into one of those Sony enclosures. The reason I suggest Sony is way back when they were expensive but well made and work to this day all the way to Leopard. You should be able to pick one up for $25.00 plus a good optical drive for less than $50.00
BTW "necessary software upgrades" if you don't mind what are the upgrades and why only on DVD media? There are other ways to skin this cat.

External raid, Formatted for VISTA and OSX?

I need an external raid for both platforms. Nothing fancy, do not need to boot from it, just a work horse.
So, #1 I need help buying a raid or advice on increasing through put.
2)I have decided it would be best for an external raid so I can share it with other artist for diff projects.
3)I have a macpro dual quad 2.8. 6gig sdram 2008 10.5.6…Bootcamp, Vista 64
4)I need faster through put for working with large file sizes,dpx, exr file sequences, playing back 1080p quicktimes in FCP. Compositing in after effects, nuke, some photoshop with 4k image sequences. As of now pulling this media off a local drive can be slow. I do not have specific data through put specs?
5)I do not need any back up. All this local media has already been backed up on a triple redundancy server over a network. I want speed not back up. I want to work local on a fast external raid, than wipe it clean.
6)I need a fast raid that I can format and work a job using Vista working in the PC world for a project. Than after that project I will format it to do a job on the mac. I need a raid that will allow me to use it for either platform. Very important to be able to use both platform.
What hardware do you recommend for my simple needs. I am overwhelmed with options. scsi, esata, JOBD, fiber optic, Raid 0, 5, 10. ahh
My projects have not exceeded 1 terabyte. That’s seems a sufficient size.
OK, I hope that covers the basics and my reasons are reasonable. I am saavy enough to build it myself to save cost. Something simple, efficient, cost effective and smart for my needs. My hang up is will it work with the PC than with the mac
Thanks so much. Advice is appreciated. You guys are the best!
Message was edited by: dupsta

Hi,
I would suggest the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM and the HighPoint RR 2314. This will allow you to install the PC driver on the PC and the Mac driver in OS X.
You could use different disks for PC or Mac and swap the disks in and out as needed. Or you could reformat as you suggested in your post. You could also erase the hard disks using the DOS format in Mac OS X Disk Utility and share the volume between the two OS types. The options are virtually unlimited with this external configuration.
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata5pm.html
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/highpoint/2314/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000NAXGIU
If 130MB/sec. performance is fast enough and you do not need RAID 5 you may want to consider the less expensive SeriTek/2SE2-E controller. This can be setup on the Macintosh or the PC and the card is less expensive.
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata5pm2se2.html
Have fun!

Best external RAID option for MacBook Pro

I have been searching for an external RAID enclosure/solution to use with my MacBook Pro (with Thunderbolt). I would like to use Thunderbolt, but if Firewire 800 provides a more reliable solution than any of the Thunderbolt solutions I will go with the more stable options.
I have looked at a variety of options, and it appears the following are the top runners for a solution, any thoughts on any of these options:
Get a Promise Pegasus Thunderbolt array
The reliability of this unit really worries me, and if it failed as frequently as some are indicating, it could be busy nearly all the time recovering if I had 6+GB of content on the thing when it failed
Advantage of this unit is I could get enough capacity in one chassis to hold me for a fair length of time
The big disadvantage, if this thing fails as frequently as some indicate, restoring 6+GB of content to the thing does not sound fun
Get one of the Thunderbolt, OS X Software RAID boxes, (the likes of G-Tech, and Western Digital)
The use of the OS to manage the RAID array worries me, how is performance, how easy is it to replace a faulty drive and have the OS detect the new drive and start the rebuild process?
How long will it take to rebuilt a failed disc in the 2 to 3TB range?
Use the Firewire 800 port on a CalDigit VR 2 two drive RAID 1 mirror set
This seems to have fairly decent reviews, although there is not a lot of end user reviews that I have found
It will take at least three of the largest unit CalDigit makes to handle my images and have room for new images
Clearly Firewise will not be as fast as the Thunderbird devices
Get the CalDigit VR 2 but try to use the USB3 connection
CalDigit has a USB 3 card that can fit in the 17" MacBook Pro, but I have no idea how well the USB 3 card works with the MacBook Pro?
USB 3 does not daisy chain, the CalDigit card has two ports, however, if you have more than two external arrays you are still in a mood of swapping external drives
Drobo is coming out with Thunderbolt solutions
The bare box is pricey, add four or five large drives and there is some serious money in the thing
There are lot's of reports of failures and inability to rebuild, etc., on the Drobo
The OWC Quad interface QX2
A fair number of reports of failures on this device
Little information on rebuild speed in event a drive needs to be replaced
I am not very interested in a NAS, even with GigaBit Ethernet the performance will not be as good as direct attached
I do have a 3 year old Mac Pro that is under utilized, I could add more storage and even a RAID controller card for an external enclosures, but again, trying to edit images and/or videos across the network may not be a viable option
Any other ideas, something KNOWN to be good, with minimal failures, and when it does fail it rebuilds quickly and safely
The last piece of the solution is ideally a solution that is fairly low noise.
Any suggestions, direct end user experience, etc., would be greatly appreciated

What a list
Well, take a look at CalDigit's HDPro2 8TB (supporting RAID 5 and 6)
http://www.CalDigit.com/store.asp#HDPro2
It's more expensive than others but works with your MacPro thorugh PCIe connection and very reliable comparing to others.
or a cheaper HDOne 8TB in RAID 5/6
http://www.CalDigit.com/store.asp#HDOne

Newbie needs tips on Mac RAID systems for DAM

Hi group wondering if anyone would mind sharing their knowledge, I am researching DAM for a client of mine I own a digital tech business (photography connected front and back end) I have been asked to provide DAM services off site for a photographer/video director. He has about 10 terabytes and would like me to have a T1 line, off site back up, and web access for himself and his clients to their respective files as well me having the adm. privileges if of a problem with any of his clients. He already told me I will be needing to hire an IT person so if any of you have experience in this arena and are near LAX in Ca. send an email to me at info at ladigitaltech.com If anyone has any tips other than the classes via apple or the two 10.4 books on listed on another post I'd love to hear from you. This might be a too daunting of task since I am not an IT person at all and I do not know Apache, or much web related code. I have already figured it will cost around 18k to get this going, but I would love to hear from you online or offline. Thank you to all who can reply best David

I can't address all your points but off the top of my head I would place the very base hardware price tag at a minimum of $30K plus infrastructure, back-up and T1 installation and costs. Since a fully loaded XRAID holds 7TB to support 10 TB you will need _at least_ 1 fully loaded XRAID and another half of one. And that point you might as well go with 2 fully loaded and do RAID 5 to get redundancy - but that doesn't leave you much expansion room. You will also an Xserve to run web, ftp and share the files - that's 2x 13K and 1x 4K (at least) so that's $30,000 without even trying and you're very close to the limitations of your storage. If he wants to add another 2TB of images you're committed to more hardware. And reliable back-up of these kinds of file sizes is not a simple matter or cheap either. You might be able to get away with a 7 tape loader Magnum or something but to do it right the 21 tape 221 LTO FC will require a fibre channel switch at 5K and is another $16K and $3K in tape costs just to get started.
I would place a spitball estimate of this project at a minimum raw cost of $60-65K and then you have service contracts, IT, programming and continuing tape costs - and in there somewhere I suspect you want to make some money too. I think the first thing you need to do is find a reliable IT guy to cost out a reliable estimate for you that includes both up front and continuing costs and then you would need to mark-up and pad that estimate until you feel confident you will make a profit on all this and pass that onto your client.
Tread carefully before committing to anything without taking this step.
Good luck,
=Tod

What are the best affordable external drive options for my iMac ?

Hello,
I am a fairly recent newcomer to Macintosh as my primary personal computing platform. I have recently installed Adobe CS4 Design Premium Student Edition on a late 2006 20in iMac and have several important questions about external hard drives. First of all, everyone knows that using any personal computer (whether you its a Macintosh, or a PC running Windows and/or Linux) without an acceptable way to backup critical data is no different than driving in your car without your seat belt fastened. I need advice for a good external hard disk solution for backup and several other important computing tasks given the following realities
1. Contrary to what I to originally thought, I do not have Firewire 800, but instead have access to dual firewire 400 ports in addition to USB 2.0. My concern over connection speed in regards to Adobe's recommendation to use RAID 0 arrays for scratch disks used by Photoshop CS4. Adobe also recommends that scratch disks for photoshop CS4 are assigned on a hard disk that is not your startup disk. Nontheless, Adobe has no objection to use your startup disk assuming it has plently of Free space (and mine does w/ 189.53 GB available)
2. Do really need RAID 0 to achieve the performance I would need? I had prior Mac based training with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign, in High school. I have not used this software in 4 years and am not only trying to refresh my skills but to learn the software. In other words I am still in the beginner stage With practice and patience, I will certainly learn the software and use it to the best of my creative energies. Given the situation if my work becomes complex enough over time how important is RAID 0 when I make purchase of an external hard disk? I known that the disk utility in Mac OS X allows the user to create a Raid array. This seems like the cheapest way to accomplish the job. However, the purchase of an external Hard Drive must be able to safely backup my system and also provide adequate performance.
3. Speaking of backup, I am one of those users who is still stubbornly clinging to Mac OS X Tiger. However, updating to a new OS has been required ritual for my previous two PCs. That said given that Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard will be out in mere months, I do not see the wisdom now in upgrading to Leopard. After all as a higher education student, money is tight and see Snow Leopard as far more compelling and future-proof upgrade. Snow Leopard is getting better plumbing and will also include Microsoft Exchange Server support (possibly the biggest selling point). I also have interest in using Boot Camp in 10.6 (or 10.5) for running windows software (that are useful for my academics) and games (particularly Half-Life 2 and other Steam games that can run well within my Mac's fairly limited gaming capabilities. If I decide to use Boot Camp I have to partition my internal hard disk. This further complicates finding a very reasonable, affordable, and reliable external disk solution given everything that I have mentioned. Any help is highly appreciated.
Thanks.

I don't think you should worry about the RAID stuff. The only way you could create a RAID is by using external drives, or one those external enclosures with two drives inside. Any speed advantage of such a RAID would be mostly negated by the FireWire 400 connection.
Use your internal drive space for speed critical functions. Use a FireWire 400 external drive for additional storage space, where speed is important but not critical, such as storing your existing media (including your things like your iTunes library files). Use a separate cheaper USB 2.0 external drive for your Time Machine (or whatever method) backup archive, where speed is not that important at all (some people even use a network connection for their Time Machine backup).
You can get a FireWire 800 drive and use an adapter to connect to FireWire 400. The connection won't be any faster on your iMac, but you can use the drive later with a Mac that does have FireWire 800. There are drives that have FireWire 400 and 800, and USB 2.0.
I like the drives sold by OWC
http://www.macsales.com/
I often buy the drive enclosure empty and find a good deal on the hard drive mechanism that I want. OWC sells most of their drives empty. My current Time Machine drive is actually one of these USB adapters
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NV2SPATA/
connected to a Western Digital 750GB SATA drive that I got for about $70. Found that deal through dealmac.com. Couldn't think of a cheaper way to add that large amount of backup space, and it works very well. The internal drive in my iMac is only 160GB, so most of my personal data is on an external FireWire 400 drive; both drives are backed up by Time Machine.

What's the best RAID solution for my iMac / MacBook?

I think it's time I invested in a larger backup hard drive, and for data security I'm looking at 2-drive RAID devices. Is the Lacie 2Big Network good for this purpose? http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=10953
What's the reliability and speed really like on such devices?
I have a 1Gbit switch that I could attach a network storage drive to, and the idea of having a public ftp area on it sounds quite cool and useful, anyone know just how secure it is?
What about replacing drives in these things - is it just a case of taking existing hard drive out of a caddy and putting a new one in? (same type, size and speed, presumably)
At work we have some dinosaur Dell servers that have big hardware RAID arrays in them, I've only just started using them myself but can see how versatile the concept is.. are there any drawbacks to having a small home hardware RAID setup?
Thanks!

If you are not limited to NAS, take a look at CalDigit for a great eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB RAID 1/0 external drive.
http://www.caldigit.com/CalDigit_VR/ , we will get one soon.
AFAIK, the CalDigitVR connects using either eSATA, FireWire 800, 400, and USB2.0. The RAID is configurable as performance (RAID 0), protected (RAID 1), or SPAN. The CalDigit's products are used by serious individuals, photographers, movie studios, etc. and are as bulletproof as you can get.
Everything is swappable (including the fan assembly) and can be daisy chained through FireWire port when out of capacity. If know you are using iMac, but if you have a MacPro, you can use their SATA kit to speed up to 200 MB/s !!!.
In the past, RAID protection doesn't come cheap but neither does true peace-of-mind. There are other solutions to be sure, but none offer the longevity and flexibility of the Caldigit products. And the best part is CalDigitVR 500GB starts at only $399.

External Hard Drive for 2 iMacs using Lightroom 3

Hi,
I'm going to try to make this as clear as posslbe.... please help!
I'm a professional photographer using Lightroom 3. I have two iMacs one is an i5, the other an i7, both running OSX Lion. I have a NAS (Synology DS410j) to store my images and I then link the catalog to the images on the NAS.
Camera Raw Cache is on an external USB and works great. I've even experimented with putting the catalog on the external USB and no speed issues.
Now that I have two iMacs I'd like to find a HDD or an enclosure that I can use to place catalogs on while working on them. I know VERY well that you can't use network storage to place the LR3 Catalog because Adobe won't allow it (various reasons I already know).
Question - Does anyone know of an External Hard Drive or an Enclosure with two Firewire 800 ports that does not act like a network attached device? I need it to act like a hard wire attached hard drive so I can put multiple LR3 Catalogs on it and access them from the i5 or the i7.
Note:
I do not plan to have two people work on the same catalog at the same time.
Users would only open a catalog (on the attached device) that is NOT currently being utilized.
I would however, have two computers accessing the device at the same time via Firewire 800.
Bottom Line:
I want to work on one wedding per catalog then import them into a Master Catalog when completed (I have my reasons). Because I have all of my images on a RAID NAS that catalog is easily opened by any computer on the network and the files can be easliy linked.
If I'm editing a wedding and then want to pause with that one and open another catalog someone else was just working on and then closed the catalog I don't want to copy/paste the catalog from the other iMac or move an external hard drive...
I just want to be able to open it on the HDD attached to both computers that house all of the catalogs.
I also want to ensure User 1 and User 2 can access any catalog on the attached device at any time (unless it's currently opened by the other user) and be working on catalogs simultaniously (once again, not the same catalog as the other user... a totally different catalog but on the same device).
Thanks so much and I'd love to know if anyone has ever done this!
I can't wait for a Thunderbolt Drive!

Three EHD's that I know of have 2 FW800 ports that are NOT network drives. They are:
OWC Mercury Elite Pro series
LaCie d2 Quadra series
G-Tech G-DRIVE series
Personally I use the Lacie (I have 4 total), my iMac has 3 daisy chained together via FW 800. However I recommend all three for build quality, feature sets and performance. How they would work with 2 different computers attached to the same drive and accessing the same library I can't say. I'd recommend contacting the manufacturers and asking that question.

External Firewire Drive for G5 imac

Need some storage for my 1.8 G5 iMac and I'm ignorant of most hardware knowledge.
I think this configuation of ...
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140
and Macally PHR-100AC 3.5" USB2.0 (type B) + IEEE1394 External Enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817146602
...works but I wanted to ask some folks who know this stuff if thisis a good way to go and is compatable.
Help an idiot out?
Thanks
Paul
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Those links do not work for me, so I will just have to wing it - LOL!
I am not a fan of most bargain enclosures for the simple reason that they "go cheap" on the enclosures. They often use the Prolific chipset or another off-brand chipset that is not as reliable as the Oxford 911 chipset.
I have used the Mercury Elite drives from OWC. It is extremely fast, very reliable and has never missed a beat.
They do also sell the enlosure itself and you can add your own drive. I bought a pre-configured drive from them, but recently updated the drive itself to a 500GB drive from Seagate with PRT and it was a breeze to do.

Use G5 iMac as external monitor/display for Intel iMac?

I have a 24" Intel iMac and a 20" G5 iMac (which is sort of mothballed now).I was wondering if it is possible to use the older iMac as an external monitor, mainly to save the expense of buying a "proper" external display when there seems to be a perfectly usable one sitting there in the G5 iMac.

translate.google.com.
Actually, it didn't translate very well. But the instructions are basically how to wire up an adapter cable. The G5 iMac appears to use standard DVI signals, so you just need to make a DVI cable to plug in to the internal connector. The table between pages 7 and 8 is what you want. If you've used a soldering iron around electronic devices before, that table is pretty much all you need. The picture of the backside on page 9 is neat. Using the ethernet connector hole to route the wiring. Almost looks like it came from the factory that way.

Advice about a external RAID system for my iMac

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