G-Raid "Click"

I have a G-Raid 500 and every now and then the hard drives will click, or clunk (sounds like both do it) like the drives are resetting (but not spinning down and back up.
Performance is not affected, and most times it happens while the system is idle.
Is this normal for these drives? I know in past hard drive experiences that that noise is not good, but this is external, not internal.
System is connected via FW800.

That happens to me too. Has been for a while. The sound is the one they make when they spin down. I spoke to a G-Raid rep and he said that it was normal. The drive heads moving and resetting.
Nothing to worry about.
Shane

Similar Messages

Re: Unable to rebuild in mirrored RAID after hard drive failure BOOTCAMP

CHRIIIIIIIS!!!
Problem!
first off, you're a genius. thanks for helping everyone around here.
Second.
I just installed Mavericks on my MacBook Pro 2012, and it broke Bootcamp.
I have a 750GB hard drive and it has 2 partitions, on for Mac and one for BootCamp, nice and simple.
When I open Disk Utility I get this....
It really broke the partition, it used to be named "BOOTCAMP"
Any help would be appreciated and yes i know how to use terminal, if that helps you.
Frank

Awesome, this just saved my sanity, thank you!
I was about to go totally insane when I couldn't find the option to add a new drive to the existing RAID mirror and then rebuild the whole thing.
In the Apple help, it just says "go to RAID" "click rebuild" - but this is absolutely not how it works!
Adding the new, empty drive by drag and drop wasn't mentioned anywhere - in addition to that I have never seen a program that has certain functions which can only be accessed by drag and drop.
Also the hard disk utility doesn't look like drag and drop GUI at all.
It was really easy as soon as I read this thread, so thanks again, this totally saved my day!

Unable to rebuild in mirrored RAID after hard drive failure

I plan on getting a mirrored raid setup for my backups of all my work that I have done. I am currently testing out how the built in software RAID works in OSX.
I have setup a mirrored RAID with two flash drives and it works fine, i then tried to simulate if one of the disks were to fail by reformatting it, and then i tried to plug it back in to rebuild it, but it does not allow me to do so the rebuild button is greyed out. Could it be because i had the RAID setup as automatically rebuild? If someone could walk me through the process of rebuilding the raid setup that would be great, i would like to figure this out before purchasing the harddrives.

Awesome, this just saved my sanity, thank you!
I was about to go totally insane when I couldn't find the option to add a new drive to the existing RAID mirror and then rebuild the whole thing.
In the Apple help, it just says "go to RAID" "click rebuild" - but this is absolutely not how it works!
Adding the new, empty drive by drag and drop wasn't mentioned anywhere - in addition to that I have never seen a program that has certain functions which can only be accessed by drag and drop.
Also the hard disk utility doesn't look like drag and drop GUI at all.
It was really easy as soon as I read this thread, so thanks again, this totally saved my day!

This is messed up...

I took my uncles hard drive out of his machine and put it into my own so I could remove files from it before formatting it and reinstalling Windows. So I plug it into the IDE cable, alongside my two SATA drives. Nothing happens when I turn the machine off. I figure I may not have enough power to keep everything running, so I unplug some stuff and try different combinations. Anyway, I got to a point where I had to reset the motherboard. It got things to start showing again, but I couldn't alter anything in the BIOS setup - I'd set up the SATA RAID, click on save changes, and the screen would go dark. The computer did not reboot, it just stopped responding. So I turned it off. On restart, a warning message appeared stating that there was a CMOS checksum error and that default setup had been loaded. This means my RAID configuration is not sticking, and I am unable to load into Windows any more. So I took the IDE drive out, and nothing changed.
Now, when I go into BIOS setup, the system clock seems to be incrementing every value at the same time - year, month, day, hour, minute and second. If I try and change one using Page Up and Page Down, it cycles through seemingly random until it settles on something. Now this can't be normal.
Any ideas on what I should do about this?

Well, like I said, I tried unplugging stuff and all sorts of combinations, SATA drives included. I unplugged all the drives at one point, but no change.
Anyway, I took the battery out and checked it - seems to be more or less dead. I'll try and get a hold of a new one and see if that is what I need.

Loosing everything on a RAID, is it possible in two clicks?

Okay, I TOTALLY screwed up! I hope, beyond hope, someone on here has some magical solution to a total lapse of good judgement on my part. Man, I did the stupidest thing I could manage, I think.
I thought I'd run an erase of my free space on my boot drive, for whatever reason. I have a boot drive, and then four drives connected in a basic striped Raid set (four slices) as my media drive.
I after while I decided to stop the erase operation, as it was taking a long time and the temp file was not letting me carry on with my normal work as it had of course filled my boot drive by this time. I selected cancel (or whatever it says) to stop it, and got the little spinning beach ball. Several minutes later, the ball was still spinning, and so out of impatience I decided to 'Force Quit" the Disk Utility. I think I've tried to do this erase function before and got just as impatient and either force quit it, or the same result occurred maybe my normally let it shut down early.
What happened was it didn't get rid of the temp file and it still showed I had zero space on my boot drive. Having something similar happen, in some fashion, before, I was trying to think how I could now get rid of this temp file. I tried searching for it, but couldn't really find it or know where to look. So I was thinking I'd try to start the erase function again in case it recognized the old temp file as I started the operated and hopefully would delete it.
Here is where I screwed up, totally. Because my drive names are somewhat similar, and because I was a little mentally tired at the time, I inadvertently selected one of my raid slices instead of my boot drive. And in two clicks erased it. I didn't erase the free space, I erased the drive. Or I guess I just reset the table information at the beginning of the drive (I'm hoping this may give me some sort of way out of this mess).
So, in summery, I have three of the four RAID slice images like they were, and the (virtual) raid image is still there (not mountable now), but I have one slice that I erased, or reset as a normal Mac Extended Journaled drive/image.
My problem is that I am a pro photographer (and do some video work) and I had a bunch of things I haven't backed up yet on the media drive and can't replace. I was actually planning on backing them up soon, but what help is planning at this point. I can't tell you how dumb I feel, or i guess numb is a better word.
I noticed a recover file in the trash called "EFTFile1.sparseimage" I'm not sure if that is related, or related to the process of the first erasing process. It is 201.74 GB used. My RAID is made up of 4 X 279.3 drives which was about 1 TB. It was nearly full, so you can imagine how much stuff I had on there. I wanted to back it up, but since I don't have a drive of that size elsewhere I was going to have to be selective about that, which is why I hadn't done it yet. I was trying to pare it down first. My boot drive is 465 GB, and still reads zero space available.
What do you all suggest? Did I just loose tons, and tons of work, some of which I can't recreate again in two clicks? Should I start drinking?
Any help would be VERY APPRECIATED.
Thanks, Craig

Ok, I understand you. Using the show and hide method to dispatch events on the [Component 2], but how can I "reset" for example a comcoBox dataprovider already loaded with data?
Puting on another way:
I have a [products_grid_component] and a [product_details_component]...to go from de grid to the details I wanna use an effect like I explain on my 1st post. I have a comboBox located in the [product_details_compoent] with several options fot that product_id that i'm showing the details.
What happen is, for example, the comboBox's dataprovider is loaded with [Value1][Value2][Value3] and [Value 4] for the product_id=22 (example), when i call the [products_details_component] for the 1st time, I open the comboBox and all the data is displayed correctely with 4 options ([Value1][Value2][Value3] and [Value 4]). Then i go back to [products_grig_component] (both components slides right showing the [products_grid_component] and hidding the [product_details_component]) when i go to [product_details_component] to view the product_id=30, the comboBox behaves like this: imaging that the dataprovides contains [Value 15][Value 16][Value 17][Value 18] and [value 19]...now is the funny part...the comboBox index 0 is [Value 15] but when i open it i can see a space for 4 optnios, a scroolBar and it is still loaded with [Value1][Value2][Value3] and [Value 4] but if i select [Value2] what is going to be displayed is [Value16] and i after i had selected an option, the comboBox shows the optnios correctly..It looks like the comboBox dataprovider is not refreshed.
I already tryed to refresh() the dataprovider, empty the dataPRovider and loaded again with data, etc....but is def something i'm not doing right.
How can i turn around this??

Double-clicking on a file on Xserve RAID opens different file...

Hi,
This may or may not be the correct place to post this message. I am working with an Xserve RAID connected to an Xserve running OS X Server 10.4.10. I have experienced being in a directory and double-clicking on an Indesign file type and the content from a completely diferrent file (jpg) opens in it's place as the Indesign file. The corresponding jpg, which is from the same directory, seems unaffected. The data from the Indesign file is lost and replaced with the content from the jpg. Very strange. I saw this a couple of months ago and running Disk Warrior on the RAID, rebuilding the directory, seemed to have worked. I would like to know more about why this is happening and to know if there is a solution once and for all.
I did run DiskWarrior again today, so I will probably not be able to re-produce this for a while (hopefully never )
Any advice or suggestions welcome...
Thank you,
Sean

This might be related to 10.4.10.
We experience similar behaviour on 10.4.10 (and on some rare 10.3.9 systems)
So you could consider downgrading to 10.4.9 or wait for 10.4.11

Can't mount LUKS on RAID with single click

Hello
I use KDE and I want to create encrypted volume on software raid 1, which I could mount from time to time as simple as just with one click in dolphin + entering the password.
I tried with single drive, and It works. I mean I click on drive then I'm asked about password and I can see another unencrypted volume.
When it comes to RAID ... I'm asked about password, but unencrypted volume doesn't appear (can't see any error on bottom bar because of window refresh). Mapper device is created under /dev/mapper/luks_crypto_.... which I can mount manually.
Anybody have experience with such configuration ? Any ideas what's wrong ? Where to start ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards,
osazon

Viper_Scull wrote:
In Thunar Preferences -Advanced. Do you have enable volume management checked?
If so, configure it, and mark the two first options in Removable storage.
Didn't work. I still get Not Authorized message. Also I logged out and in.
And here is the everything.log about USB drive connecting:
Jul 21 09:23:33 lynx kernel: [ 2239.496516] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device number 6 using ehci_hcd
Jul 21 09:23:33 lynx mtp-probe: checking bus 2, device 6: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-1"
Jul 21 09:23:33 lynx kernel: [ 2239.624659] scsi8 : usb-storage 2-1:1.0
Jul 21 09:23:33 lynx mtp-probe: bus: 2, device: 6 was not an MTP device
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.054851] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access takeMS Mem-drive EasyII 1100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.055144] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.057409] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] 8028160 512-byte logical blocks: (4.11 GB/3.82 GiB)
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.058419] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.058423] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.058425] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.061294] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.062306] sdb: sdb1
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.063904] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jul 21 09:23:34 lynx kernel: [ 2241.063909] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
Last edited by freyr (2011-07-21 07:28:57)

P35 Neo2 - OS died, need help restoring RAID after re-install of XP

I have a P35 Neo2 with on-board Intel RAID. I need a bit of help getting a two drive RAID going again after reinstalling XP.
Here's my situation:
Same hardware, MB, etc. I originally set up the system with a 20gb IDE and two 320gb SATA drives. I put the OS on the 20gb, and set the two 320's up as a RAID. I partitioned the 320's into 200gb + 120gb sections on each drive. The 200gb partitions were mirrored between the two drives, and the remaining 120gb on each drive was used as non-RAID storage space.
I picked up a nasty virus-spyware a month or two ago that I was struggling to find a fix for when the OS began to BSOD. I put the 20gb IDE to the side, and put a 40gb IDE in it's place. I re-installed XP on it last night, and now need to get the RAID up and running again.
I went into Disk Management and it showed three dynamic drives with a yellow triangle icon and labeled 'foreign'. I right clicked and found an option to 'import'. I clicked on import and a window popped up showing all of the partitions and logical drives I had previously created on the two drive RAID. I figured I was in business, so I clicked OK.
Disk Management now shows one dynamic disk as 'Online', but still shows two as 'Foreign'. If I right click on them, and chose import, I get the same window showing my partitions and logical drives, but if I click OK, I get a warning message that: "Some of the volumes you are importing will lose data because you have not moved all of your disks to the system."
I'm in over my head at this point, so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
GeoD

A 200gb partition is restored, but the 120gb is not, which is confusing. ALso, when I look at the logical drives in the partition, I'm beginning to think I had the 200gb mirror /120 gb storage backwards. The data restored is not something I would be concerned with losing. It's installed applications, and multimedia files that I could lose without worry.
There is also 70gb dynamic drive labeled Missing. I know I left a small portion of all three of the drives unallocated as a reserve, so that must be what this is. It's like the RAID info is incomplete which leads me to the next piece of info.
Something I didn't initially mention for the sake of brevity, was when I right-clicked on 'Import Disk' the applet noted the disk was 3/3. I assumed that meant disk 3 of 3 disks. I've since begun to wonder if I imported the disks in the wrong order. ie) I should have imported disk 1/3 first.
Do you know how to clear out Disk Mgt's info, so I can start over?
I also noticed only one of the 320 SATA's shows up in Device Mgr, (DM). What I found both confused me and encouraged me.
When I created the array, I named the the drives RAID0 and RAID1. They both show up in DM. But only one of them shows up as the drive model: WDC WD3201ABYS-01B9A0. There should be two of them.
The OS knows there should be a RAID, but for some reason only one of the drives show up as hardware. I rebooted and checked the data and power supply cables, (connected), the BIOS, (both drives show up) and both drives show up in Disk Mgt. Just not in DM.
Does that mean the HD has died?
Part of my difficulty is I had a brain injury in 2001, followed by another in 2003. The 2nd injury caused 6 months of what the docs call it a walking coma - I walked and talked, but have no memory of the time.
When I 'woke up' in the Fall of 2003, I found I had lost considerable cognitive function and other problems. These problem have ended up disabling me, (I'm now on SS Disability).
Until then I had been a 'System Admin' for micro-businesses, (max - 15 computers). I built systems and servers, installed networks, maintained them and did all the support. Basically I was these company's Sys Admin on an as-needed basis.
One thing I lost was the ability to troubleshoot and repair hardware. Combined with other cognitive problems, I was forced into closing my business. At the time, I was maintaining close to fifty offices; ~20 had Peer-to-Peer networks & ~20 had servers I had built.
What's doubly frustrating is I was just getting ready to sign up with an online backup service when I got hit with a nasty malware/virus that's so new there's no info on the 'net about it. I got entangled in trying to fix it and spaced out the online back up. Now I find myself in a situation where I desperately need to restore the data on these RAID drives. Because of the memory problems I now have, I completely depend on my computer as an auxiliary 'brain' - I have stuff on these drives that I have to have.
I didn't do much with RAID when I was still in the biz, and this is the first time I've had problems with a RAID of my own, so I'm struggling to figure this stuff out.
Should I be able to install one of these drives by itself so I can get the data from it? The way I understand the theory of RAID is that if one drive dies, you can put another in and the mirrored portion will re-create itself on the new drive. Couldn't that be a way to get the important data off the drive or drives if they don't want to go back together as a RAID?
I could back each up to the online service and then just rebuild them. Not my first choice, but it would reduce my stress level if I thought I could do it.
Sorry to go on, but now you can see why I'm both struggling & worried.
Thanks for any info or help.
Later,
GeoD

Cannot install Windows XP on MS-6330 w/RAID

Hardware:
MSI-6330 K7T Turbo Limited Edition w/RAID (latest BIOS - 3.6)
256MB Kingston (2 sticks of 133mhz 128mb, the recommended memory)
AMD Athlon XP 1800
Hercules 3D Prophet 4000XT (kyro chipset)
3COM 3C905B NIC
Standard CDROM and Floppy
x2 Maxtor 30gb Diamondmax Plus 8 HDD's
Before I begin, all parts (CPU, mem, etc.) is tested good in another system. Tested in system with a MSI-6330 K7T Turbo 2, tests pass, and XP installs without ANY hitch. I have also been a PC tech by trade for the last 8 years, not tooting my own horn, just letting you know I have tried everything I know. I have also tried searching the net, and this forum, and have'nt been able to come up with anything concrete.
So, Windows XP Pro will not install for anything. I have set the array, deleted array, tried drives on just the standard IDE channel. Tried just one HDD on array, then standard. Booted with fail-safe BIOS settings, etc etc. Tried everything.
Windows starts the install, feed it the drivers from MSI's site for the RAID (PDC20265R). From there, I get a variety of errors. Sometimes it will start and finish the format of the drive, sometimes it will error and say that the disk is corrupt (it's not). Sometimes it will finish formatting, copy some files, then say it can't copy. Sometimes it will just blue screen and give a "stop" error. The stop error has always been random, no particular one.
I sent this board back to the dealer and they said it is fine. But they had a drive with XP already installed, they didn't try a clean install. I did try putting one of the drives into my other system with the K7T Turbo 2, install XP, and installed the inf for the RAID on this board in question. Didn't think it would work, and it didn't.
ANYONE have a solution? Any ideas? I am at a brick wall. And really don't want to junk this board just to get another one and a PCI RAID card.

I am having very similar issues with the K7T Turbo-r limited edition(w/ raid) board. I tried to upgrade to bios v3.6 and the raid funtion failed to load and then would lock on the Windows XP screen. Did safe mode boot and locked up on gernuwa.sys. Went all the way back to bios v2.6 and worked my up to v3.1, where the problems started over again. v3.0 seems to work just fine. In v3.1 they changed the promise raid in the bios. I have downloaded the latest drivers for the raid on that board, but have not installed yet. To install these drivers, do I just right click on .inf file and install from there, or should I use the liveUpdate program to do it? I am hoping that these new drivers will fix the raid issues and allow me to upgrade to a newer bios.

MSI KT3 Ultra ARU, HD on RAID or not?

I'm rebuilding my computer with WinXP Pro. I have a single HD, CD-ROM, CD-RW, and Zip 100 drives along with a FDD.
When the machine was Win98SE I had the single HD connected to the on-board RAID controller and all worked fine.
I blew away all the partitions so I could use NTFS - but encountered an error during XP's setup. It got to the point of formatting the C: partition - but after reaching 100% it gave an error that it couldn't complete the format.
Talked to a friend of mine and he suggested I move the HD to one of the non-RAID IDE controllers. He thought that would play nicer with XP Pro's setup.
Is there any performance advantage/disadvantage to putting the HD on the RAID controller? Will I encounter any problems if I move one of the CD drives and/or the Zip drive from the non-RAID IDE controllers to the RAID controller?
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

I read the information above - but after following the instructions and trying to start XP Pro I get a BSOD after the WinXP splash screen.
So...thought I'd try to update the BIOS, etc. and then try again. Downloaded the latest BIOS from MSI's site - but cannot get the BIOS flashed. Followed the instructions below - but after I boot with a Win98 Boot disk the C: drive is not accessible. When I boot from a DOS boot disk made from WinXP the C: drive is not available either.
Grrr.....!
AMI Flash BIOS Procedure
Check your BIOS for BIOS FLASH Protection & DISABLE it, some boards have this function.
For Example:
K7T266 Pro (MS-6380) -BIOS setup/chipset setup/BIOS protection/disabled
Know Your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like "A6380MS v1.7 122101" This means the board is MS-6380 with BIOS version 1.7
Hint : Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, you can either press "PAUSE" or disable the "Quick Boot" in the BIOS setup.
Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number). BIOS can be found according to the CPU type of your board like if your CPU is Intel P4 478 type then look here
if you cannot find the BIOS that matches your board, try here
Extract the BIOS-archive that you have downloaded by double clicking to c:\test
Boot your system from a Win98 or WinME boot-floppy.
How to make boot floppy in case your don't have it ready:
For Win9X, You can type [C:\ format a:/s] from the DOS prompt.
For WinMe, You can make a boot floppy from control panel--> add/remove program-->make boot floppy. Remove autoexec.bat & config.sys file if there's any.
For Win2000, there's no way to make boot floppy, so you have to either use Win9X or WinME boot floppy.
For WinXP, you can make a DOS boot disk. Go to Your Computer, right click drive A:, select Format, select copy system files.
When you get the A:\ prompt, type the following sequence:
C:
cd\test
C:\test> amifl827 a6380vms.330
(a6380vms.330 refers to BIOS file, this will depend on the board model)
(to save or not to save old BIOS is the user's decision)

Windows XP 64 bit pro clean install with RAID

Can anyone help out???
I recently purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad W700 with the raid system (raid1) it had Vista Business pre installed but I wasn't impressed so I've cleared VB out and tried to install XP 64 pro I have followed the guide I found on this site http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=188992
which was very informative but didnt seem to include any details on a raid installation. If I change my BIOS Serial ata (sata) to compatibility I can install win xp and get it running but no raid!! if I try to install the Intel chipset driver it reports it cannot install!! If I set the Bios Serial ATA to RAID the setup goes so far through then I get the BSOD
I seems to me I need some raid drivers but have no way of installing them during setup (I dont have the drivers anyway!!)
Sooooo...........can anyone out there point me in the right direction for a clean xp pro install with raid?? theres a couple of beers in it!!
Lenovo thinkpad W700, Q9000 2.00GHz Quad Core 2x 160gb hdd raid1, 4gb ram, 1gb nvidia graphics FX3700m Fingerprint reader, Graphics tablet (digitiser?)
Windows 7 Professional 64bit RAID 1

I believe you need to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver for Windows XP, Vista (32bit) - ThinkPad. Installation instructions are on the same site. If you don't have a floppy you can streamline them onto an install disk.
Other drivers can be found here.
Andy ______________________________________
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I have some questions regarding setting up a software RAID 0 on a Mac Pro

I have some questions regarding setting up a software RAID 0 on a Mac pro (early 2009).
These questions might seem stupid to many of you, but, as my last, in fact my one and only, computer before the Mac Pro was a IICX/4/80 running System 7.5, I am a complete novice regarding this particular matter.
A few days ago I installed a WD3000HLFS VelociRaptor 300GB in bay 1, and moved the original 640GB HD to bay 2. I now have 2 bootable internal drives, and currently I am using the VR300 as my startup disk. Instead of cloning from the original drive, I have reinstalled the Mac OS, and all my applications & software onto the VR300. Everything is backed up onto a WD SE II 2TB external drive, using Time Machine. The original 640GB has an eDrive partition, which was created some time ago using TechTool Pro 5.
The system will be used primarily for photo editing, digital imaging, and to produce colour prints up to A2 size. Some of the image files, from scanned imports of film negatives & transparencies, will be 40MB or larger. Next year I hope to buy a high resolution full frame digital SLR, which will also generate large files.
Currently I am using Apple's bundled iPhoto, Aperture 2, Photoshop Elements 8, Silverfast Ai, ColorMunki Photo, EZcolor and other applications/software. I will also be using Photoshop CS5, when it becomes available, and I will probably change over to Lightroom 3, which is currently in Beta, because I have had problems with Aperture, which, until recent upgrades (HD, RAM & graphics card) to my system, would not even load images for print. All I had was a blank preview page, and a constant, frozen "loading" message - the symbol underneath remained static, instead of revolving!
It is now possible to print images from within Aperture 2, but I am not happy with the colour fidelity, whereas it is possible to produce excellent, natural colour prints using its "minnow" sibling, iPhoto!
My intention is to buy another 3 VR300s to form a 4 drive Raid 0 array for optimum performance, and to store the original 640GB drive as an emergency bootable back-up. I would have ordered the additional VR300s already, but for the fact that there appears to have been a run on them, and currently they are out of stock at all, but the more expensive, UK resellers.
I should be most grateful to receive advice regarding the following questions:
QUESTION 1:
I have had a look at the RAID setting up facility in Disk Utility and it states: "To create a RAID set, drag disks or partitions into the list below".
If I install another 3 VR300s, can I drag all 4 of them into the "list below" box, without any risk of losing everything I have already installed on the existing VR300?
Or would I have to reinstall the OS, applications and software again?
I mention this, because one of the applications, Personal accountz, has a label on its CD wallet stating that the Licence Key can only be used once, and I have already used it when I installed it on the existing VR300.
QUESTION 2:
I understand that the failure of just one drive will result in all the data in a Raid 0 array being lost.
Does this mean that I would not be able to boot up from the 4 drive array in that scenario?
Even so, it would be worth the risk to gain the optimum performance provide by Raid 0 over the other RAID setup options, and, in addition to the SE II, I will probably back up all my image files onto a portable drive as an additional precaution.
QUESTION 3:
Is it possible to create an eDrive partition, using TechTool Pro 5, on the VR300 in bay !?
Or would this not be of any use anyway, in the event of a single drive failure?
QUESTION 4:
Would there be a significant increase in performance using a 4 x VR300 drive RAID 0 array, compared to only 2 or 3 drives?
QUESTION 5:
If I used a 3 x VR300 RAID 0 array, and installed either a cloned VR300 or the original 640GB HD in bay 4, and I left the Startup Disk in System Preferences unlocked, would the system boot up automatically from the 4th. drive in the event of a single drive failure in the 3 drive RAID 0 array which had been selected for startup?
Apologies if these seem stupid questions, but I am trying to determine the best option without foregoing optimum performance.

Well said.
Steps to set up RAID
Setting up a RAID array in Mac OS X is part of the installation process. This procedure assumes that you have already installed Mac OS 10.1 and the hard drive subsystem (two hard drives and a PCI controller card, for example) that RAID will be implemented on. Follow these steps:
1. Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities).
2. When the disks appear in the pane on the left, select the disks you wish to be in the array and drag them to the disk panel.
3. Choose Stripe or Mirror from the RAID Scheme pop-up menu.
4. Name the RAID set.
5. Choose a volume format. The size of the array will be automatically determined based on what you selected.
6. Click Create.
Recovering from a hard drive failure on a mirrored array
1. Open Disk Utility in (/Applications/Utilities).
2. Click the RAID tab. If an issue has occurred, a dialog box will appear that describes it.
3. If an issue with the disk is indicated, click Rebuild.
4. If Rebuild does not work, shut down the computer and replace the damaged hard disk.
5. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
6. Drag the icon of the new disk on top of that of the removed disk.
7. Click Rebuild.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2559
Drive A + B = VOLUME ONE
Drive C + D = VOLUME TWO
What you put on those volumes is of course up to you and easy to do.
A system really only needs to be backed up "as needed" like before you add or update or install anything.
/Users can be backed up hourly, daily, weekly schedule
Media files as needed.
Things that hurt performance:
Page outs
Spotlight - disable this for boot drive and 'scratch'
SCRATCH: Temporary space; erased between projects and steps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StandardRAIDlevels
(normally I'd link to Wikipedia but I can't load right now)
Disk drives are the slowest component, so tackling that has always made sense. Easy way to make a difference. More RAM only if it will be of value and used. Same with more/faster processors, or graphic card.
To help understand and configure your 2009 Nehalem Mac Pro:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/04/266ghz-8-core-mac-pro-review.ars/1
http://macperformanceguide.com/
http://www.macgurus.com/guides/storageaccelguide.php
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/index.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/OptimizingPhotoshop-Configuration.html
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404440.html

RAID on Mac mini Server (2011 i7)

I just purchased a new Mac mini Server today (the base configuration 2011 Quad Core i7 with 4GB RAM and 2x 500GB 7200RPM magnetic hard disks) and wanted to share what I've learned about setting up RAID on the system.
First, as you may have heard, the Mac mini Server does not include any installation/reinstallation media (I was hoping for a USB reinstall key, but it seems that the new systems don't include these or optical discs; last year's Mac mini Server included handy reinstall DVDs even though the system didn't have an optical drive). Out of the box, the new Mac mini Server has Mac OS X Lion, the iLife suite, and the Mac OS X Lion Server tools pre-installed on one of the two 500GB internal drives; the other disk is formatted as a separate, second drive.
If this is the configuration you're looking for, you're good to go right out of the box. As an aside, this shipping configuration is ideal for using the second disk as a Time Machine drive. I would argue that Time Machine would be a better use of the second volume than a RAID 1 configuration, as Time Machine provides versioned backups and you don't incur the write performance penalty RAID 1 requires every time data is saved to the disk. I would further caution that, while an internal Time Machine disk is a convenient safety measure, any critical data should be backed up outside of the system as well.
Now for those like me who were intrigued by the opportunity to mate the Quad Core i7 with a RAID 0/striped configuration for a performance boost (or if you want to use RAID 1), a RAID configuration is possible, but it there are a few caveats.
First, Apple has two recovery options for the new Macs: a small hidden recovery partition on the boot drive and their Internet Recovery system. While it's possible to boot other systems from a Lion installation DVD extracted from the App Store Lion installer, such bootable optical discs will not boot the Mac mini Server at this time (this may change if Apple modifies the App Store Lion installer). Therefore, as of right now, the recovery partition or the Internet Recovery system are the best options for installing/reinstalling on a RAID set.
Second, if you boot the system using Command+R to access the recovery partition, you can wipe the two drives and create a RAID set, but this process will remove the recovery partition and is incompatible with FileVault encryption (a warning to this effect comes up when you try to start an install/reinstalll on a RAID set, but at that point, you've likely already erased the recovery partition in Disk Utility). If the system boots after the recovery partition is deleted, the only install/reinstall option is Apple's Internet Recovery.
Third, as might be expected depending upon your internet bandwidth, the Internet Recovery system can take a while to boot the recovery tools (10-15 minutes to boot on a standard cable modem connection) and to reinstall the OS (50+ minutes on a standard cable modem connection). Internet Recovery currently reinstalls only Mac OS X Lion and the Server tools on the mini Server; there's no option to install iLife during the OS install (Apple could always change this by updating their servers, and there is a Customize button on the installer, but it is greyed out and cannot be clicked at the present).
Fourth, once the OS is reinstalled, it's possible to reinstall the iLife applications by launching the App Store from within Mac OS and selecting Purchased. The store will indicate that the system is eligible to download the iLife apps and you can do so by agreeing to upload system-identifying information to Apple and signing in with your Apple ID.
I hope all this helps. Here's a more concise step-by-step of how to set up the system with RAID:
THINGS YOU NEED
A fast Internet connection for the mini
Patience
Hold Command+R on the keyboard at start up to boot from the system's recovery partition (if the recovery partition has been deleted, the system should start from Apple's Internet Recovery system; you may need to connect to WiFi if wired ethernet isn't available)
Once you get into the recovery utility, select Disk Utility and for each of the two hard drives:
highlight the drive
select the Partition tab
select 1 Partition from the Partition Layout pulldown menu
select Free Space from the Format pulldown menu
click Apply
After you've wiped both of the drives, highlight one of the disks and click the RAID tab, then create a RAID set (striped or mirrored, as you prefer)
Quit Disk Utility and from the main recovery utility menu select Reinstall Lion (from this point on, if you have any trouble, you can restart the mini from the Internet Recovery system and return to this point, but the recovery partition will be gone as long as you keep the RAID set)
After you install and configure Mac OS X Lion Server (which can take well over an hour to download and install), you should be able to reinstall the iLife applications by launching the App Store App and selecting Purchased, then logging in with your Apple ID and agreeing to send your system info to Apple to download the iLife Applications
If you're using the mini as a production server, I highly suggest setting up some local, external recovery tool, as you don't want to have system downtime protracted by having to wait for an Internet Recovery boot/reinstall. I would also beg Apple to consider this sort of scenario and to provide more supported methods for recovering and reinstalling from local media.
Best of luck to you all.

I found the basic principle on another forum thanks to a guy called 'e-whizz' and this what I did to make RAID 1 work on a mac mini server with LION server.
You can easily configure the second drive on a mac mini server for a Mirrored RAID 1 set with Lion Server without either reinstalling or erasing your existing setup.
The initial setup process takes about 30 minutes, though the rebuilding of the mirror disk will take several hours, depending on the amount of data you have on the drive. It took around 3 hours on a new mac mini server with lion server installed, nothing else configured.
Before you start, please ensure you have a current backup of the server. Getting the following commands wrong can render you server unusable.
What you need to use is the command line version of Disk Utility, diskutil.
Before you start, clone the hard drive. You can use SuperDuper (or similar, I have used SuperDuper) with copying all files onto a USB memory stick. If Lion is freshly installed, 8Gb will do. SuperDuper will create a bootable copy on the USB.
Boot the mac mini from the external USB. To do that, reboot and hold down the option key while restarting. You will see a window, select the USB drive to boot from.
Launch the terminal and type the following command:
diskutil list
This gives you a list of all the drives and partitions your system knows about.
You need to find the Server HD partition (the first disk) and the HD2 partitions (the second disk). These are the two main ~500GB drives. You will be using the disk IDENTIFIERs when issuing the diskutil commands. For a stock standard Mac Mini Server, the commands below are correct, but if you have previously changed the volume names, or repartitioned at any stage the disk identifiers and volume names may differ.
First enable RAID mirroring on existing Server HD volume. This will create a single disk, unpaired mirror, without affecting your data.
Using this syntax:
diskutil appleRAID enable mirror disktomirror
where disktomirror is your disk identifier for Server HD
On my mac mini server, Server HD was disk0s2, so I used this command:
diskutil appleRAID enable mirror disk0s2
You now need to run diskutil list again to see the disk identifier for the new RAID volume. The new RAID volume will be listed as disk# on its own at the bottom of the list.
On my mac mini server this was disk3 (disk 2 was the USB I booted from, disk 0 the first disk and disk 1 the second disk)
Next add the disk HD2 to the Server HD raid mirror volume (on my mac, as I said before, this is disk3) as a new member.
This step will erase disk HD2 and begin an auto repair of the Server HD.
Using this syntax:
diskutil appleRAID add member newdisk raidvolume
replacing newdisk and raidvolume with your particular disk identifiers
On my server this was:
diskutil appleRAID add member disk1s2 disk3
To follow the progress of rebuilding the mirror set, type
diskutil list
It will show you the progress in % of the rebuilding under status
Once finished, reboot and your RAID 1 is up and running and you have also a working backup on your USB (coz' that's where you booted from ;-)
After reboot you can check the status of your RAID with
diskutil appleRAID list
Both drives should show ONLINE under status, interestingly, the device node for the RAID changed on my mac mini server from disk3 to disk2
That's it

General HELP for RAID and HOME NETWORK... I'm a bit lost :(

First off, I'm sorry about the long post but I just wanted to ask everything at once since I don't know what effects what?
Over the past years I've had a MBP and have always added Western Digital Mybook drives whenever I needed storage. One of clicked and died this past year and I lost some data since I was "MANUALLY" backing up. Since then I've tried to read about RAID, NAS, and DROBO type devices.
I recently bought a Mac Pro 2008 edition because I needed more speed. I mainly edit wedding photos in Lightroom but also come from a heavy motion graphics background and do some After Effects projects from time to time.
Here's a list of my current setup and what I'm hoping to achieve but I'm in over my head of what to do???
1 Mac Pro (2008 edition) - I'm considering setting up 4 1TB harddrives inside that are mirrored. I was looking at the Caviar Black or Hitachi drives...
2. I have two Airport Extreme Base Stations for my home network. (One is plugged into my Mac Pro and the other is near my Vizio LCD and Xbox 360. I've been toying around with sharing iPhoto slideshows (which I really like the idea of) The problem is that it seems really slow for video and hiccups on the stills sometimes. It doesn't seem to make a difference if it's pulling it from the Mac Pro or from a USB drive attached directly to my Airport Extreme. How do I speed this up? Is it always going to be faster to stream from the Mac Pro over ethernet cable than a harddrive plugged in through USB?
3. A few RAID and NAS solutions I've been looking at are the following but I don't really understand what I get with an external device vs an internal? I also don't know which is BETTER? for easy reliable backup.
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata5pm2se2.html
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=667
http://www.qnap.com/prodetail_feature.asp?pid=110
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-.../RAID/Desktop/
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/CS407/index.php
4. I've been reading mixed reviews about the Drobo but don't quite understand if it's a better solution then setting up a mirror INSIDE my Mac Pro. I DO NOT want to buy a $900 raid card for the Mac Pro though. Do most people choose the Drobo because they only have laptops? Should I only consider building something inside my Mac Pro?
5. I was considering Chonosync for backing up 3rd level backups
6. I just bought a Blu-Ray drive for 4th level backups that I can send off site.
7. I have all these other Mybooks. Two of them are mirrored but only one is a 1TBx2 Sata drive. The rest are IDE. I guess I'll just use these for misc things? Maybe just plug one into the Xbox for watching movies?
8. My neighbor down the hall has a similar setup and is using a Mac Mini to stream things (through Front Row) like Hulu and videos another room to his TV. Mine doesn't seem to stream fast enough. Since I have the MBP that I will use rarely since I got my desktop I was considering using that instead of Apple TV or a Mac Mini but it's too slow? Maybe I set it up wrong?
PLEASE HELP? I don't know what I'm doing.

A few RAID and NAS solutions I've been looking at are the following but I don't really understand what I get with an external device vs an internal? I also don't know which is BETTER? for easy reliable backup.
Hi,
For backup, video work, photography and expanding the Mac Pro storage capability the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM would be my choice. The bundle that you pointed to will work if 130MB/sec. is fastest enogh for your needs. The card is only $70 in the bundle which makes it a nice deal.
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata5pm2se2.html
If you want 200MB/sec, performance I would go with the Sonnet Tempo E4P or the HighPoint RR 2314 if you desire RAID 5 redundancy.
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/sonnet/mac-pro/
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/highpoint/2314/
Trying to use NAS via the network will be 3-7x slower than the SeriTek/5PM. The SeriTek/5PM is a much better choice for backup, video and photography. NAS is good for low energy, always on, low use server needs. However, you can simply turn Mac OS X file sharing on and the Mac Pro will provide performance faster than any NAS.
Drobo - Why do people even consider this option?
The performance is USB speed even with a FW800 connection.
Users have reported losing data with firmware updates.
And the unit is one of the most expensive, slow performing options available. I cannot image ever wanting a Drobo
Backup Software:
I like SuperDuper. I also like using the "Restore" tab in Disk Utility to clone one disk to another. The key to good backup is to keep it simple and regular.
MyBook - NOT
If your storage needs exceed more than a single FireWire backup disk you really need to go with eSATA. The SeriTek/5PM and the Mac Pro combination provides virtually unlimited storage capabilities as the tray system allows new hard disk sets to be easily loaded or dismounted.
Have fun!

My Time Machine won't back up and files won't open when double clicked.

I'm not sure if these are related, but recently my MacBook Pro has been acting much more sluggish than usual.
To start, I have a 13in MacBook Pro Mid 2012 model with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory. I've got it new in the summer of 2012, and haven't had any real problems until now. I have a 1TB Hitachi external hard drive with over 600GB left of storage. I'm running Yosemite.
Lately, as in the past few weeks but more noticeably the past few days, I can't open files if I just double click on them from my desktop or from searching them outside of the application. For instance, if I click on a word document on my desktop, it will cause the work icon to bounce for a while, pretending to open, but it never does. If the application is already running, the file just won't open. If I search from the "open" selection within the application, it works fine. This is true for all of my Microsoft Office apps, Photoshop, Preview, iTunes, and everything in between, all of which I had never had a problem with before.
Next, anytime I try to backup my system using Time Machine, it simply shows the "Preparing Backup" status and never starts. I've had the hard drive and used it as a Time Machine since I got the computer, and have had zero problems at all.
I've tried CleanMyMac2, Memory Clean, and I've always kept my Mac very clean and organized, as in no duplicate files, moving my biggest files onto my hard drive, and deleting any of my unnecessary files. I know I don't have a ton of RAM left, but I'm honestly not completely sure what to do about that, as this model apparently doesn't have RAM updates available.
Think you all can help?
Thanks so much.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your documents or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this behavior; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Please take this step regardless of the results of Step 1.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of Steps 1 and 2.

G-Raid "Click"

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