Enabling RAID on primary drive

I've installed 2 1TB drives as a secondary storage array within my MacPro. Now, I'd like to turn on mirroring for the primary (boot) drive. So far, it seems like I will have to establish a Mirror between two drives and then clone my primary drive back to the mirror.
One would think that you could just plug in a second drive and tell the software to mirror the existing primary to it..... but I cannot find anywhere where things are that simple.
I hope I'm wrong and that I will not have to restore to a new mirror. Tho, if I can boot from an external drive, it may not be so bad as I could just clone back to the mirrored set once it is setup.
Lee

A startup volume cannot be included in a RAID because creating the RAID erases both volumes. You have to create a RAID, then install OS X on the resulting RAID.
I might add that it's not a good idea to use a RAID as your startup volume. For more information on RAIDs see the following:
RAID Basics
For basic definitions and discussion of what a RAID is and the different types of RAIDs see RAIDs. Additional discussions plus advantages and disadvantages of RAIDs and different RAID arrays see:
RAID Tutorial;
RAID Array and Server: Hardware and Service Comparison>.
Hardware or Software RAID?
RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
RAID is a method of combining multiple disk drives into a single entity in order to improve the overall performance and reliability of your system. The different options for combining the disks are referred to as RAID levels. There are several different levels of RAID available depending on the needs of your system. One of the options available to you is whether you should use a Hardware RAID solution or a Software RAID solution.
RAID Hardware is always a disk controller to which you can cable up the disk drives. RAID Software is a set of kernel modules coupled together with management utilities that implement RAID in Software and require no additional hardware.
Pros and cons
Software RAID is more flexible than Hardware RAID. Software RAID is also considerably less expensive. On the other hand, a Software RAID system requires more CPU cycles and power to run well than a comparable Hardware RAID System. Also, because Software RAID operates on a partition by partition basis where a number of individual disk partitions are grouped together as opposed to Hardware RAID systems which generally group together entire disk drives, Software RAID tends be slightly more complicated to run. This is because it has more available configurations and options. An added benefit to the slightly more expensive Hardware RAID solution is that many Hardware RAID systems incorporate features that are specialized for optimizing the performance of your system.
For more detailed information on the differences between Software RAID and Hardware RAID you may want to read: Hardware RAID vs. Software RAID: Which Implementation is Best for my Application?

Similar Messages

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

Full primary drive mac pro. what next?

I have just about filled my primary drive so purchased additional 1TB drives for the second and third bay as I understand I have to keep my primary drive less than 100% full to maintain efficiency.
The question is how and what do I transfer off the primary drive to the second bay and how do I do it?
On the about this mac dialogue box it just lists the drive as full with "other". Are there any preferential items to move off the primary drive. I already reference my aperture library to an external hard drive.
Is there a simple way of doing this?
Thanks a million.

I have not had an issue... going back to 10.2 which was really just beta OS X.
YMMV but it is simple to do now. People do it different? or they don't leave the /Users on the boot drive, or some screwed up program that doesn't follow the rules (never run into one myself).
Every application also lets you change where in preferences.
Some want to use symbolic links.
Dedicated boot drive works for most anyone. I used 15K SCSI, then 10K Raptors and WD VR as well as SSDs for boot drive. Home is often raid, some go with mirror, some stripe or just one drive.
There are as many different setup configurations as people.
Cost / Performance SSD $1.50 per GB while 10K VR $0.50 and the difference in MacPro is now very close and allows you to have a faster boot drive - I have tried and always found the WD Black in the past to not keep up with either of those. But they have gotten better but so has everything.
Even now 1TB Black goes for $125 for 1TB (last summer they went for $80).
The only rule is backups and bootable clone and know how so you can restore and manage.

Preferences - Color only sees my primary drive

Hello,
I've just started working with APTS book for Color and the first thing I wanted to do was to make my internal raid drive (internal bays 3 & 4 are striped RAID) my primary storage drive, but Color doesn't want to recognize any drive except for the primary system drive. It doesn't seem to see my firewire external, my usb external or any of the internal drive except the main system drive. How do I fix that?

What have you done as far as exploring how Color and the various browsers work?
In your User Preferences tab, there are the 3 default directories listed at the top of that window. There is a Browse... button next to the volume windows, click the Browse... button and a floating file diretory window will pop up. Navigate to the root level and scroll down to the Volumes folder, open that, it will see your various drives.
I would suggest cracking the manual open and searching for things like default directories, browsers, etc. if you're unsure on how to navigate them.

W700ds: Enable RAID using created recovery media

Hello!
I own a ThinkPad W700ds, though I'd imagine that my question would be just as well answered if it were a W700... Please, any help would be great!
I purchased a 'used' W700ds with Windows Vista Business (COA and recovery partition intact, but no media supplied). The laptop was advertised with RAID0 but I was always dubious that it was set up correctly. I spent some time investigating it this afternoon and noticed that the BIOS was not configured correctly - It was set to AHCI rather than RAID.
I did the following:
1) Created Recovery Media using the facility in ThinkVantage software.
2) Enabled RAID in the BIOS
3) Entered the RAID configuration (Ctrl+I) during boot up. I configured the drives as RAID0.
4) Reinstalled Windows Vista using the recovery media created in (1) above.
After completing the installation Windows Vista would did not manage to boot - Always BSOD'ing.
I repeated step 3 & 4 above, selecting RAID1 instead. Exactly the same issue.
I have since returned the BIOS setting to AHCI and reinstalled Windows Vista using the recovery media and I am back where I started (Windows installed but in a RAID array).
I have done some research and it would seem that in the RAID drivers are not included in the recovery media and this is the reason for the BSOD. I have included some of the numerous websites that I have read, both for your perusal and, in some way, to verify that I have really spent some time considering this issue before requesting help.
The recovery media that I have created is all that I have - Is there any 'self-contained' way for me to enable RAID? I'd prefer RAID1 (I would favour redundancy over speed) but would be happy with RAID0 if this is not possible. It seems a terrible shame that Lenovo (aware - and obviously not 'intended' as using alterative installation media is considered a 'work around') offer the opportunity of creating recovery media, which cannot be used to reinstall Windows using a valid configuration.
It seems that it is not possible to maintain RAID configuration through Lenovo R&R, which probably explains why the seller listing the ThinkPad as RAID but it did not come to me as such (the seller used the recovery partition to restore the laptop to factory state for me before completing our sale - makes sense!). Still, it seems a shame to have a laptop which offers RAID functionality and has the necessary hardware (RAID controller and two drives) and hitting a brick way over software restrictions. Can anybody give any advice how I may proceed to reinstall Windows with the drives in a RAID array, considering I've only the Lenovo recovery media?
Lenovo support are closed today due to the UK public holiday but I will try at the next opportunity - However, I fear my fate is in your hands already, as the ThinkPad is out of warranty.
Thank you!!
Links:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=SF08-D0154
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=SF08-D0109
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/W700-2757-Raid-Setup-Configrations/td-p/76134
http://support.lenovo.com/en_ID/research/hints-or-tips/detail.page?&LegacyDocID=SF08-D0112
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=69559
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=86428
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi LavaChild, welcome to the forum,
here's a thread missing from your list where I describe how I have done this in the past using recovery discs created from the system.
http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/How-to-enable-RAID-0-on-my-W700/m-p/82856#M2048
That said I remember a rather long thread where one member had difficulties going this route, the solution turned out to be that for whatever reason their optical drive didn't want to play ball. Unfortunately I haven't found it after a quick search. I'll give it another shot tomorrow.
Edit; found the thread, it was about creating a RAID1 on a W700ds, but the steps aren't really any different. Please note the solution.
http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Re-Can-t-Set-Up-Raid1-on-W700ds-with-Windows-7-...
Regards
Andy ______________________________________
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I have just installed a 2 tera drive in additional drive bay I would like to use it as my starup or primary drive. Help... I need to transfer data...

I have installed a 2 tera bit drive in second drive bay. The starup drive is small. How do I transfer data and make new drive the startup or primary drive.. Thanks. In addition I will be pulling the small drive and installing a new larger drive a s back up. Also I need to initalize the new drive.. Wow.. O.K. I know that you are out there and can guide me. Merry Christmas to you all.. Many Thanks Dennis

I suggest you download either CCC or SuperDuper.
Then clone the current system disk to the new system disk.
Reboot from the new disk after the clone is complete.
If everything is running correctly, you can then erase the old system disk.
Allan

G-Raid external hard drive won't mount -- have tried almost everything!

My iMac (Intel , OSX 10.4.11) has been happily working with my G-Raid external hard drive for over a year. But now, after the computer cord was disconnected yesterday, it refuses to mount the G-Raid or recognize it anywhere. Can't find it in the Disk Utilities or under "About this mac -- Firewire." Called Apple service and tried everything the agent recommended...PRAM diagnostic reboot, power surge, plugging, unplugging...nothing helped. The problem isn't with the G-Raid, which works fine plugged into my old Powerbook with the same firewire. Grateful for any help, as I really need the G-Raid -- it's got all my projects, music, photos....

Can you plug it in with a USB cable on your iMac? That might get you through your crisis and even resurrect your Firewire connection. Accidentally breaking the connection on my external Firewire drives happens too often as the connector doesn't make a snug fit compared to USB. It's not a problem unless there was something in your buffers at the time the connection was broken. You may need to Repair the drive using Disk Utility when it eventually reconnects or all may be well without more intervention.

How to make new Maxtor 500 GB the primary drive on my G5

I filled my 160 hd which came with my G5 1.8 Mhz with applications and Iphoto pics. Now that am shooting raw, even larger files. I would like to use Photoshop and Lightroom, new upgrades are available, but my Hd has only 14GB left. I use backup to external hd , but don't know how to retrieve lost IPhoto pics (library) nor my Photoshop pics which I had given batch names, and file information to.
I tried putting the utility disc in thinking after installing the HD it wouod be recognized and I could proceed to install Tiger, partition a bootable drive, etc. I need a good reference. My books are to vague. I wrote another post on this topic and cannot find it anywhere??? Please refer me to any good reference articles in the apple database or other posts with people upgrading their internal hard drives. I want to be able to use all my apps from the biggest drive. I have been putting photoshop images into external drive and deleting from my primary drive to make space and limp on with barely any memory in my startup disc. What do people do when using big hog programs and large images files?

Swapping and adding a hard drive is asked almost daily.
Downloaded and read the pdf guide to SuperDuper and then use it for backups.
Uou should never let a drive get down below 10% free space.
Installation options:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301270
Manuals has pdf guides for DIY/CIP articles.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/PMG5HDDIY.pdf
Backup Software
Books on OS X
http://www.apple.com/macosx/resources/
Be Your Own Mac OS X Troubleshooting Guru: The Basics
MacFixIt has published its first ever eBook, an introductory guide to the basics of troubleshooting Mac OS X. This 42-page guide is designed to introduce some techniques, routines and habits that have a pretty good track record for quashing the most common OS X problems available to MacFixIt subscribers.
Complete Backup FAQ
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Mac OS X FAQ
http://www.macmaps.com/Macosxspeed.html

Enable TRIM on fusion drive?

I have recently installed a 256GB Sandisk SSD into my Mac mini and set it up, in conjunction with the existing 1TB HDD, as a single volume fusion drive (see: https://discussions.apple.com/message/24609725#24609725).
I would like to know whether it is possible to enable TRIM for the SSD while it remains integrated with the HDD as a fusion drive. If so, how can this be done?
Incidentally, the new fusion drive set-up has been outstandingly effective and an absolute breeze to set-up (once the new drive had been installed). It has been the most cost-effective upgrade imaginable for the Mac mini.

Personally, I don't feel you need TRIM enable on a Fusion drive with 3rd party SSDs. I never did when I had an Intel SSD fused.
TRIM Enabler will work on a Fusion drive, though if you feel you need it. See the bottom of the provided link.

I want to have an SSD (Solid State Drive) as the primary drive and a 1TB drive for storage.

Which HP laptops support this kind of 2 drive configuration?

All the computers with more than one drive bay. What kind of computer do you have? Is it a laptop or desktop? My Pavilion DV7 1285dx laptop has two drive bays and I'm running a Corsair 128gb SSD as the primary drive and the laptop's spinner drive as the backup. It works great.

What happens when converting primary drive to logical ?

Hi
i buoght a dv6 laptop wth windows7 64 bit home primum , i have 4 primary drives and i want to download linux on my laptop without losing the recovery drive or the tools drive ,so i had an idea with converting the first primary drive that has about 460 GB from primary to logical to be able to partion this drive to another two drives so i can have the chance of downloading linux without losing the recovery drive neither the tools drive....so my question is if i did that what's the problems that i might face
and does my laptop will stay able to boot and to make recovery if needed or i will lose these options ?

See thia article
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Display-and-Video/How-to-repartition-HDD-of-HP-notebook-with-p...

Drives other than my primary drive slow to open in finder/photoshop

Hi, I have upgraded my Mac Pro to have all the bays filled up with drives. I set my primary drive (bay 1) for only applications. I set drive 2 to have documents/media and drive 3 as a scratch drive.
The other drives outside of my applications drive get the spinning beach ball for about 20 seconds +. It seems like the drives are "sleeping" and take a moment to wake. Is this true or is something else going on? And if so, is there a way to set them to not sleep?
Drives:
bay 1 640 GB WD drive
bay 2 1000 GB WD drive
bay 3 1000 GB WD drive
Thanks!

I have 4 internal drives and there were times when I would have to wait 5-10 seconds for my drives to spin up, which was very annoying when using software that uses a scratch disk. So in my case, I wanted to permanently turn off my drive's sleep mode.
There is a Power Management setting called Disk Sleep Timer that can be found under the Power item in System Profiler. The default setting for Leopard is 180 minutes, but your Mac's default setting may be different. You can access System Profiler under the Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Information.
This setting can be changed by typing the following command in Terminal:
sudo pmset disksleep ?
Replace the ? with the number of minutes you want to set and press <Return>, then when prompted, type in your password. If you use a setting of 0 (zero), the hard disks will never sleep, unless you checked "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" in the Energy Saver Control Pane.
To my knowledge, you cannot set the sleep mode for each individual drive, but this should help you.
Keith

Replacing Primary Drive on G4 Quicksilver

I fear that my original, primary, 80GB hard drive is about to expire, so I need help in how to move everything (system, apps, prefs, etc.) off of it onto a new drive that will eventually be the new primary drive. How do I do this??
Also, in purchasing a new drive I understand that my computer can only recognize 120GB drives or smaller without using a PCI card. If a 200GB drive is installed and partitioned into 2 100GB volumes, will the computer recognize both? Or do I need to get a 120GB or smaller drive for my primary drive?
Any help would be greatly appreciated---I'm lost without my MAC!

Look at the links Re: 128 GB. Depends on which model Quicksilver.
What Macs natively support large IDE drives? (over 128GB formatted)
How Big a Hard Drive Can I Put in My iMac, eMac, or Power Mac?
Partitioning will not work to meet the 128GB reqmt. Mike's suggestion using CCC (freeware) http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html is the best way to copy from old to new.
 Cheers, Tom

How to Clone Primary Drive prior to, or after, adding a second drive in Ultrabay

Alright, I have a T510 with a single internal drive. I wish to add a SSD drive and make it my primary drive. I have an Ultrabay and know about the drive adapter for it and plan to use it as the new drive location.
My question is how to perform the cloning of the primary drive. I can install the new SSD in the Ultrabay and use software, previously copied to the primary(or backup) drive since the Ultrabay is now used for the SSD so I can't run a CD. The issue is how to clone. I don't wish to buy another external drive just for the cloning software CD.
I have an external hard drive that I use for backups. Has anyone cloned a copy of a drive(A) to another drive(B) and then copied it to a new drive(C)? If this is a good idea, it is easy since the CD drive is still available using this method.
The end result would be to swap locations of the drives making the SSD the new primary internal drive and the old drive goes to the Ultrabay.
Just looking for input.
Thanks for taking the time,
Pete

Hi RePete,
Cloning Hard Drive
How to install Windows on the Solid State Drive
Hope this helps.
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Tranfering my 250GB primary drive image to a new 750GB drive

I purchased a new G5 with dual 3.0 and a 250 hard. I recently purchased an additional 750GB drive that i would like to make my primary drive. what is the easiest way to move all the data including operating system to the new drive and have it become the new master startup drive.

Hello! Install the new drive and format it then clone the old drive to the new using Disk Utility, CarbonCopyCloner, or SuperDuper and then change the startup disk in the system pref panel. I'd run the clone for a while to make sure it's working ok before erasing the original drive. You could leave the old drive as is and add another folder to it to backup your documents. Tom

Enabling RAID on primary drive

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