Help with Degraded RAID?

I have a RAID array established (mirrored aka RAID 1 across two external Firewire drives, and it's not being used as my system volume.) The array has been in place for quite some time, and I've recovered from several failures previously (note to self: don't buy any more firewire drives that don't come back on after a power failure.)
I've just recovered from another failure, where the RAID set refused to recognize the existing drive as previously belonging to the set. I re-added the drive to the array and the drive was successfully rebuilt.
So far, so good. So what's the problem? The array is listed as "degraded." I tried following the advice listed here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106987
Executing the command "diskutil checkRAID" reveals the results at the end of this message. What can I do about the duplicate node 2? All of the diskutil commands require the Device Node as a parameter, and they don't recognize "2" or "Unknown" as a valid value.
Help would be much appreciated ...
RAID SETS
Name: Backup
Unique ID: 59256911-7EF5-4FA4-B355-776D8187E8C7
Type: Mirror
Status: Degraded
Device Node: disk2
Apple RAID Version: 2
# Device Node UUID Status
1 disk1s10 536A7B2E-5F78-420E-AD36-98E4F21E01A5 Online
2 disk3s3 3E52C861-2ABF-4446-BAC6-C09DE2E95D86 Online
2 Unknown Missing/Damaged
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I still don't know what happened originally. Perhaps I recovered the array pre-10.4 and some state was unhappy when I upgraded to Tiger? I'd still like to know the cause, but here's what I did to cure it ...
I backed the whole array up using Disk Utility. Just to be safe.
I used "diskutil destroyRAID" for which the documentation is nothing short of terrifying. I pretty much expected all the volumes to be wiped and to have to restore the whole thing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the two volumes in the mirror were simply disconnected and both were intact duplicates of one another.
I unmounted one of the two copies, used "diskutil enableRAID mirror" to turn the other one into a single-set RAID and used Disk Utility to add the unmounted disk back into the array and started the rebuild.
All appears to be well again. This was under 10.4.6 so your mileage may vary. When in doubt, back EVERYTHING up first.

Similar Messages

  • Course for help with X Raid

    Hi All,
    My boss has given my the OK to go on courses for get up to scratch with X Serve so I'm going to go on the Mac OS X Server Essentials 10.5 4 day course but I also want to know X Raid setup. Is there anything else that go on to help with this?

    Hi
    If you are thinking the course covers the XServe then you might be mistaken. OSX Server is not the XServe, its any apple hardware that meets OSX Server's minimum requirements. It may well be mentioned on the course?
    The XServe is dedicated hardware built for Server use although you can install OSX Client on it if you wish. To that end and as far as I know there are no specific courses for hardware other than Apple Certified Technician. This used to be ACPT and ACDT before apple unified the hardware courses under one umbrella.
    As for the XServe RAID - apart from the fact that it is a discontinued product and has been for the last 2-3 months - I don't think there has ever been a specific course for it? Leastways not this side of the pond. There are plenty of manuals/user guides available for both products either on the Apple website or on the disks that come with both models.
    http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/xserve/
    http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/macosxserver/
    Tony

  • Help with software RAID on system disk

    I've been trying to get my OS system disk mirrored using diskutil's software RAID (my server has 2 internal 80GB drives). I did what homework I could and here's where I'm stuck. I'm running 10.4.3.
    n506:~ root# uname -a
    Darwin n506.local 8.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 8.3.0: Mon Oct 3 20:04:04 PDT 2005; root:xnu-792.6.22.obj~2/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc
    n506:~ root#
    According to my research, I needed to boot from an OS disk other than the one I want to mirror, so I installed a second instance of OS X on my second drive, booted on that and ran diskutil enableRAID against the system drive I want to protect. This appeared to work. A new disk device was added (the RAID device) with its only component being the disk I ran enable RAID on. Then I booted from that disk. Here's the problem.
    When I run diskutil addToRAID to add the second disk to the raid group, the command does partition the disk the same way the primary is partitioned (according to diskutil list), but the command always fails with this error:
    n506:~ root# diskutil addToRAID member disk0 disk2
    2006-05-27 23:49:50.012 DiskManagementTool[362] AppleRAIDUpdateSet failed to modify the set (null)
    There was an error adding the disk to the RAID (-9960)
    n506:~ root#
    The system log shows this:
    n506:~ root# tail -1 /var/log/system.log
    May 27 23:49:50 n506 kernel[0]: AppleRAIDMember::readRAIDHeader: failed, no header signature present on disk0s4.
    n506:~ root#
    [NOTE: I should add here that, for reasons unknown to me, my system created /dev/disk0 from the drive in the second bay, and /dev/disk1 from the drive in the first bay (the primary disk I'm trying to mirror). I have no idea why OS X set up the devices like that, but I haven't really worried about it]
    I've done what research I could and have found no information on this problem. I've tried zero-ing the second disk and rerunning the command (along with rebooting), but I always seem to get this error.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been at it for days now and I'm really frustrated.
    G5 server Mac OS X (10.4.3)

    If anyone out there is interested in this thread, I upgraded to 10.4.6 and tada:
    n506:~ root# diskutil addToRAID member disk0 disk2
    The disk has been added to the RAID
    n506:~ root# diskutil checkRAID
    RAID SETS
    Name: Disk1
    Unique ID: 1CC5982A-B353-438C-A69F-8D66924449C0
    Type: Mirror
    Status: Degraded
    Device Node: disk2
    Apple RAID Version: 2
    # Device Node UUID Status
    1 disk0s3 219611E9-F35F-48A4-BD4F-F56038094613 2% (Rebuilding)
    0 disk1s3 0EDD559B-FEE8-4F73-B94D-AF5590AD8BF2 Online
    n506:~ root#

  • Need help with my RAID Utility

    I got my battery replaced about two weeks ago and now I am getting this in my RAID Utility. Any ideas? I really don't want to have to carry this massive thing back to the apple store!!

    That problem is probably not related to the battery.
    It appears one of your drives suffered an error or was not responsive enough, and was declared unsuitable to continue. The RAID was changed to Degraded, and must now be rebuilt from the good drive(s) remaining.
    This can occur when a drive is flat-out dead, but it also occurs when a non-trivial data error occurs, that requires more than a few retries (which takes too long and the RAID Driver gets impatient and degrades the RAID).
    You can try erasing the errant drive, and re-adding it and allowing the RAID to rebuild (often all all-day process). Since new data will be supplied, any latent errors will be over-written and "fixed up".
    If this happens again, do not continue to fiddle with it. The drive should be replaced -- although that drive may be re-purposed for lighter-duty work such as Backups after being Zeroed.
    EDIT:
    In a production environment where lots of drives were on hand, this would be counted as a failure and the drive would be replaced. The failed drive would be completely wriiten with Zeroes, and if it passed, would be re-purposed for use somewhere else.
    Google did an enormous research study on their server farms, and concluded many drives that encountered errors would end up testing bad and being replaced within 6 months (of continuous use).

  • Help with non-RAID HDD setup for 975X

    I have built lots of computers of the years, but I have very limited experience with SATA. I am not wanting to use RAID, but I plan on having 2 computers hooked up to 2 of the 4 Intel ICH7 SATA connections and then on the ICH7 PATA controller I plan on having 1 HDD and 1 DVD+R.  I plan on going in to the BIOS and setting SATA mode to AHCI (or should it be IDE?) and then "On chip Serial ATA" to Enhanced so that I get the use of all four SATA and the single PATA.  Then I plan on disabling the Onboard JMB361.  If I do this, will I need to install any drivers to get the system to see the HDD or DVD+R?  When I boot up with a Norton Ghost floppy, will I need drivers on their to see the SATA and/or PATA drives? 
    If I ever decide to use the JMB361, I know there is a driver, but it seems that all instructions are to install it as you are installing windows (hitting F6).  How do you install it if your system is already up and running?  Is required for it to work properly, or is this just so that it can be seen when booting from CD-ROM or floppy?  The manual that came with this board isn't very clear.  It claims that the JMB361 can only have a master hooked up to the PATA connector, but all of the specifications I have seen elsewhere on the MSI website says that this board is capable of 4 total PATA devices (Master & Slave for the ICH7 and Master & Slave for the JMB361).  Thanks.

    Quote
    Iam not wanting to use RAID, but I plan on having 2 computers hooked up to 2 of the 4 Intel ICH7 SATA connections and then on the ICH7 PATA controller I plan on having 1 HDD and 1 DVD+R.  I plan on going in to the BIOS and setting SATA mode to AHCI (or should it be IDE?) and then "On chip Serial ATA" to Enhanced so that I get the use of all four SATA and the single PATA.
    That should not be a problem.  Set SATA mode to AHCI and enable "Force Gen.II" to enable full speed for your S-ATA drives.  These settings do not affect the P-ATA drive that is connected to the ICH7-IDE-Port.  In order to install Windows XP SP2 properly on one of your AHCI-enabled-SATA hard drives you need to point Windows to a disk that contains the ICH7-AHCI-SATA driver (F6). No additional drives will be needed to use the P-ATA drive that is connected to the ICH7-IDE-Port.
    AHCI mode is necessary in order to support performance features like NCQ.
    Quote
    Then I plan on disabling the Onboard JMB361.  If I do this, will I need to install any drivers to get the system to see the HDD or DVD+R?  When I boot up with a Norton Ghost floppy, will I need drivers on their to see the SATA and/or PATA drives?
    You can savely disable JMB361 as long as there are no drives connected to the IDE-Port or the S-ATA-Port that belongs to JMicron-Chipset.  JMicron drivers are only necessary, when JMB361 is enabled and drives are connected.
    Quote
    When I boot up with a Norton Ghost floppy, will I need drivers on their to see the SATA and/or PATA drives?
    I am not sure how Norton Ghost Floppy works, because I never used it.  If it boots into some kind of DOS-Mode or any OS-mode prior to Windows XP/2000 you might have a problem seeing the S-ATA drives if they run in AHCI-mode because there are no DOS-based ICH7-AHCI-drivers. 
    Quote
    If I ever decide to use the JMB361, I know there is a driver, but it seems that all instructions are to install it as you are installing windows (hitting F6).  How do you install it if your system is already up and running?  Is required for it to work properly, or is this just so that it can be seen when booting from CD-ROM or floppy?  The manual that came with this board isn't very clear.  It claims that the JMB361 can only have a master hooked up to the PATA connector, but all of the specifications I have seen elsewhere on the MSI website says that this board is capable of 4 total PATA devices (Master & Slave for the ICH7 and Master & Slave for the JMB361).  Thanks.
    You should be able to install the JMB361-driver after Windows-Installation.  It is required to assure the proper function of all drives connected to the JMicron-Chipset.
    The IDE-controller (IDE2) that belongs to JMicron chipsets only supports one Master Drive. Only 3 IDE-drives can be hooked up to the mainboard simultanously.

  • Help with starting raid on the k9a2 platnium

    ok well i just got a k9a2 platnium
    specs- amd 9950 BE edition
    4gb of 800mhz ddr2 cas 3
    2x 80 gb hard drives
    1x 640gb hard drive
    ati hd 4870
    k9a2 platnium
    750 watt corsair psu
    ok. i finished my computer. and i wanted to raid the two 80's. but for some reason it would never show up as a single drive when i install windows vista ultimate 64bit.
    so i installed my vista on the 640gb hd.
    how do i raid 0 my two 80 gb.
    What i did now-
    plugged in the two sata(the 80 gb's) into the red slots.
    installed the raid driver for windows vista
    booted computer. and press CTRL+F
    pressed 2. and put my two 80's in raid 0 mode. i dunno what to put for the other options such as striping and stuff.
    thats all i did for now.
    can someone help me

    I don't understand where you're at or what you're trying to acheive here ???
    You've formatted the 640gb disk, so now where is your OS?
    There was absolutely no need to do that, what myself and BOSSKILLER are trying to get you to do is to create a partition on your RAID array, so WIndows can use it, this is done by clicking on 'Drive Management' in your Computer Management screen. (right-click My Computer and select Manage)
    The RAID array will appear as one 'disk' in the disk list (lower right window), but will be empty, just right-click inside it, and select Create Partition, and then format it.
    [My screenshot below is from my computer, but I only have one hard disk, and no array, but your array will be shown in the lower right hand panel, will show as 160gb (2x 80gb)]
    If you still cannot get the grasp of this, I suggest you get someone who knows how to do this to help you.

  • Need Help with Internal RAID

    I'm working with 1080i HD footage (captured from a Canon HV30) and output through an Intensity Pro PCIe card to a 1080p display while working on Final Cut Studio 2. I have two separate monitors outputing 1920 x 1080.
    I'm working on a 2.8GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeo Mac Pro with 10GB of RAM and a 320GB Hard Drive. Quicktime stumbles over 1080 footage from FCP, skipping frames, so I need to stripe some drives, internally if possible (there's three slots available for drives).
    I already own an additional 1.5TB SATA hard drive, and am wondering...
    What size drives would be ideal to handle 1080 footage? Would 500GB drives be enough, 1TB, or 1.5TB? Should the drives all be the same size?
    Do I need a PCIe card to stripe these drives together or is the OSX Disk Utility sufficient?
    Will I need to stripe three drives, or is two sufficient? Should I stripe together the main drive too or stripe the drives separate from the main hard drive?
    Help on any one of these questions would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.

    Ok, now that you have freed up some space on your system HD, the next thing would be to do a little system maintenance.
    First, shut down your Mac and restart it. Don't just log out. Shut it down. Power it off. Then restart. In System Preferences, turn off Time Machine if you have it running. Also put your system HD in the Spotlight privacy list (aka System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy > Prevent Spotlight from Searching These Locations.)
    Then, if you don't already have one, download a utility like Cocktail, Onyx, MacJanitor, etc. and run it. (You have Leopard, so make sure you download the appropriate version of the utility.) Make sure there are NO other applications running when you run the utility. When you run it, accept all the default operations and also check the option to clear the system cache; you want to clear the system cache. Also set it to shut down your Mac after running. (If there is no such option, you should manually shut down your Mac after the utility runs - and I mean shut down, not just log off.) The first time you restart after running the utility & clearing the system cache, your Mac will take longer than normal to boot; don't worry, that only happens the first time, as your system will be rebuilding the system cache.
    Next, you should probably delete any render files that currently exist and re-render your video.
    Then try exporting your video again, and see what happens.

  • HT2559 Help with setting raid block size after the fact

    I screwed up and created my raid 1 with block size set at 32. I need 256....it won't let me change it? What do I do?  Do I delete and re-configure it?

    thanks for the reply.  I am editing huge photo files (HDR Pano's) off the drive.  Doesn't that mean I need 256?  Anyway, when I go to erase it, it says "Deleting a mirrored RAID set changes each of its slices into a partition that contains a complete copy of the data from the deleted RAID set".   Is that a problem?

  • Help with initial RAID config

    Hello there,
    I am setting up a law office to move from PCs to Macs. About 12 client workstations in two offices. There is a WAN VPN tunnel between the offices.
    I have two questions. The first concerns the setup of the headless Mac Pro Server, which came with 4 one TB drives. My initial instinct was to make a single RAID 5 set out of these drives with a 200 GB volume for system, 1 TB for user and service data and ~500 GB for time machine. I realize I will have to install a monitor to run the RAID utility to accomplish this. Any advise/wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
    My second question concerns the remote office. The office has about 50 Gig of current files for user work and I would like to implement full folder replication of this shared data between the two offices. I've looked into CCC/Bombich and he does not reccomend CCC for replication. Any ideas in that area?
    Sincerely,
    Barn

    Thank you for the response MAk.
    I very much appreciate your description of TM. It confirms some of the worries I had about it. This is my first server deployment, outside of a lab. I was thinking the users could backup the clients using TM, and that the suitcases could be managed and eventually moved to off-line media--perhaps I am mistaken.
    I intend to use CCC for the server itself, and manage and test those backups regularly. I have some familiarity with command-line UNIX stuff from previous lifetimes, and am willing to give rsync a try for folder replication. The office has a lot of data spread out in a fairly flat fashion so I wanted to do folder replication for performance reasons--for sharing documents between two offices--backup would be handled seperately. The remote office will have a 1 TB mini OSX server for this purpose and for a directory replica.
    Update: The setup went fine (with borrowed monitor). 2.61 TB RAID 5 set! I have a few test accounts logging in on directory, and am managing to keep acocunt names from matching (the local vs. directory account thing). I have some more testing to do but so far directory users, with a network home at //srvr/volumes/usr/Users works great, at least if I wait five minutes or so after hitting "Create Home Now".
    Add-on question: Is there a way to have network home folders sync with local/client home folders for performance reasons? MS does this with mapped folders and off-line synchronization. I may want to do this for some users that travel, and I will definitely need to do this for check-out MacBooks. This is something I have not seen covered in the Server Essentials nor in Support Essentials, or perhaps I skipped over it.
    Barn

  • Help with building RAID

    Hello. I have 2 new Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB SATA II drives connected internally to a Sonnet X4i in my G5 Dual 2.5. I will be using the RAID for HD video work, so I would like to have the fastest setup possible, but I need some advice first.
    1) I created a Striped RAID set, is this the best option?
    2) In the options, I selected a 256K RAID block size. Is this the best or should I reset it to the default 32K size?
    3) I also have an old Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB drive. Should I add it to the RAID? Would I get a speed increase by adding it?
    Thanks all
    BTW, running OS 10.4.7 if that makes a difference

    Use identical matched drives if you want to avoid problems, drives not mounting, and performance. Mixing drives of unlike specs really doesn't work, in spite of past PR. And I've tried it just to see while doing testing.
    There are tools out there, free/share and commercial, to test disk performance for general use, video, etc. so you can test and demonstrate what works in your setup. Barefeats, AMUG both use a number of utilities and have done some reviews and benchmarks worth pursuing. download link to AJA Test There are also Speedtools and Disktester, both commercial.)
    Apple has been improving RAID performance so that even default 32k is now better than it was for other forms of scratch, but audio and video should be set to 256k.
    Mac Pro 2GHz 4GB 10K Raptor 23" Cinema   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   WD RE RAID Aaxeon FW800 PCIe MDD-G4 APC RS1500 Vista
    Message was edited by: The hatter

  • Need help with RAID Card and degraded Raid-5 errors

    Dear all,
    I recently purchased a used Apple RAID card for my 2008 Mac Pro 8-Core. The installation went smooth, the card was immediately recognized and the battery reconditioned within one night.
    So I started setting up a Raid Set with the 4 identical drives which I already used before as a software Raid. But each time the Raid Level-5 Volume is created, somewhat later the status turns red and the Raid is listed as "degraded"!
    A closer look at log reveals:
    +19:42:54 Drive carrier 00:01 inserted+
    +19:42:27 Background task aborted: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1+
    +19:42:27 Degraded RAID set RS1 - No spare available for rebuild+
    +19:42:26 Degraded RAID set RS1+
    +19:42:22 Drive carrier 00:01 removed+
    +15:10:57 Created volume “R1V1” on RAID set “RS1”+
    So it seems that the drive from Bay 1 somehow gets lost (removed) a few hours after the volume is being created and anysoon later it's being "reinserted"...
    Of course, the drive is NOT removed, nobody touched the Mac Pro! Also I did the same procedure 3 times and the result was always the same.
    I also tried setting up JBOD and different RAID levels which do all work without a problem. Only when choosing RAID5 (what I intentionally bought the card for), the problem reappears
    Anyone any solution or hint for me concerning this problem? Many thanks in advance!

    One drive completely broke down later. Replaced that drive and since the problem's gone!

  • Need help with Raid 1 hard-drive replacement

    Hello All - I hope someone can help with this.
    I have a Raid 1 set-up using two 1Tb external drives (1 Seagate and 1 Lacie) which has been working perfectly - until yesterday that is. I received an error message saying the Raid 1 Set was degraded. On checking I got an error message against the Lacie HDD 'Disk failure'. Following instructions i found on Apple Support i tried to replace the failed drive with a new 1Tb drive - but then got an error message saying that the new drive was too small - on checking the original Seagate Drive reads as 999.86 Gb with the new Drive reading 999.83 Gb. I presume this is to do with formatting of the 2 drives, although one would assume (perhaps naively that as both drives are 1Tb they would be the same size when formatted!!
    In light of this I ran 'verify disk' on the Raid 1 Set and this was ok and I am now attempting to rebuild the failed Lacie drive - 10 hours still to go. However even if this works I would want to replace this disk as it is quite old now. The Raid 1 Set is backed up to Time Machine on a separate HDD.
    Can anyone suggest a way forward for me to swap out the old drive and replace it with the new drive that I have purchased - I can't see how exchanging this for another make would be any guarantee that the disk would be the same size? I understand that I can't replace the failed drive with a larger drive. The only other way I can see of proceeding is to buy a second new disk (same as I got today) and create a new Raid 1 set and copy everything across.
    Thanks in Advance

    For an external hard disk drive or other (different) system shared
    storage devices to work, they probably should be formatted in a
    format seen by both operating systems.
    If the WD unit is not seen by Windows computers on your network,
    the WD may have been formatted in HFS+ for the Macintosh. That
    is OK unless you need a Windows computer to access the same.
    The Macintosh can see and use a standard Windows disc format;
    so the external drive may need to be reformatted away from HFS+
    if that is really what is going on (and archive any data on the suspect
    drive elsewhere, since it will be lost to reformatting overwrites)
    and then both Mac OS X and Windows should see the files on there.
    And Macs set up to run Windows may also see the non-Mac format;
    without having to re-boot via BootCamp, if that option is in use.
    As to the other question(s) I really have no idea at this point in time.
    And since that may be the rub, hopefully someone will follow up here.
    Good luck & happy computing!

  • Working photographer needs help with hard drives and raid O decisions

    Hi new here and also new to Mac well almost new been 20 years since i had a mac. i have a Mac Pro Book and this led to ordering the MacPro since I am a working photographer i made a complete switch in platforms so i have some questions and such but I did place a order on Friday for a 2.66 4gbs of Ram , 2 500 gb hard drive and a 30 in monitor and of course the ATI 1900 XT card so yes i am waiting like many for that card.
    I put initial 4gb of ram since running CS2 will at least take a max of 3gb's in the memory cache . i plan on getting 2gbs more from OWC since that seems to be the only 3rd party ram at the moment that is working correctly from reading some of the threads here. Having 6gbs is a no brainer really given the amount of Raw processing that i do along with PS work plus having e-mail and other apps open at the same time. The ram to me is the easy part although expensive . My biggest issue is what to do with the 2 hard drive slots and Raid O or not but I will start a thread on that. But i will have 6gbs total for now and the bottom line is you can never have enough ram still holds true.
    Now on to my diliemma with hard drives. I did have a raid O scsi 10k rapture and and 10 k scratch on my Dell box and I am just not sure what to do here. i ordered the 2 500 gb hard drive and I may just put them on the storage side of things than get 2 WD 150gb 10 k Sata drives. Now i could Raid O them for 300 gb and get a performace boast that way or i could keep them seperate and put everything on 1 150 drive and ue the second for scratch only. What i don't know is what Mac perfers and what works better. Not worried so much about failure of drives, thats just life in the big city stuff and you just have backups. What i more worried about is performance versus a waste . seems to me that Raid O may not even be needed with these new Intel boxes with all the horsepower going on. Now the other think I notice is the WD 150gb 10 k drives are 1.5 and not 3.0 so is it really faster than the 7200 3.0 single hard drives. I read barefeats shoot out and it seems just getting the right drives in 7200 and Raid O them maybe the answer.
    Okay i am not the biggest geek on the planet but I do know my stuff but this is a area that i look for more knowledge on this. So if i can get some sound advice in this area. i know there are many photographers out there like me pushing hundreds of images that could use the same advice. Now let's leave the money end out , folks sometimes think more with there wallet than what works best not that I am opposed to saving money but after spending over 7 k already on this system it becomes a moot point. LOL
    www.guymancusophoto.com

    Ok your question is if you should RAID O the two 150GB Raptors or not.
    I think it was wise for you to get a couple of them for a boot drive with "Time Machine" coming in the next version of Mac OS X. The second drive would make a excellent bootable backup and eliminating downtime if a boot drive dies on you one morning.
    In fact any boot drive cloning software that is Mac Intel ready now would do you good.
    Now Barefeats has run some tests, and I can pretty much back up what they say from my own experience.
    Mac OS X and apps can be helped only so much by a faster boot drive, and a single 10,000 RPM Raptor is enough, RAID O a pair is overkill.
    If you install everything on the boot Raptor and keep your space hogging files (except iTunes) in new folders on another drive, even a 7,200 RPM 500GB, the two drives combined is faster as there is nearly no wait. Both drives can be accessed at the same time. Keeping the boot drive slim keeps the stylus (arm) moving as little as possible to get all the small reads/writes Mac OS X needs.
    I RAID O-ed my boot drives because 74GB was the largest they had at the time, so combining them gave me speed and larger storage. I hardly use the speed, it only comes in handy if by rare chance I duplicate a 20GB folder, then I can do it in half the time of a 7,200 RPM drive.
    Some of the drawbacks of a RAID O set, especially as a boot drive is that I have to auto-clone the whole set to a external drive regularly (I actually do a couple). Since the data path is separated with a RAID O, any drive failure results in total data loss.
    So if you RAID O those 150GB Raptors, your going to have to clone 300GB to a external drive (or another internal) regularly, like once a week. This will take considerable time and you can't use the machine while the cloning process is going on. Sure auto-cloning software like DeJaVu can be used at night/weekends, but why bother cloning more than you have to for no big speed increase?
    However if your messing with huge Photoshop files that spill over your CS2 3GB RAM limit (you need to have a "scratch" thats as fast as RAM), duplicating large files and other heavy duty drive work, then a boot RAID O will come in handy. Just remember your initial performance of 185 MB p/s will drop about 20-25% when those drives are 3/4 filled. Still 140 MB p/s is extremely good and a no worry situation.
    What is worrysome is anything below 80MB p/s (I'm talking uncached 4K write speeds under X-Bench) with a new boot drive and then as time elaspes that boot drive gets filled up and loses half or more of it's inital speed. 30 MB p/s is really slow. Beachball H&LL.
    http://www.barefeats.com/hard33b.html
    Do Erase W/Zero in Disk Utility all new drives before laying data on them. Drives get subjected to shock which causes bad sectors on the drive. Driver software uses your data as a guinea pig to test the sectors (which you might not be able to recover the file). Zeroing does this without your data, rewriting the bad sector map so your writes are much improved, OS is more stable. etc.

  • Please help with RAID driver update.

    I need a little help with updating my RAID drivers. I have P55-GD65 motherboard and some SATA2 hard drives connected in RAID arrays. I am running Win7 64bit.
    I already downloaded and installed:
    “Intel P55 AHCI / RAID Drivers Ver: 8.9.0.1023”
    from the MSI support web page. The setup file installed the “Matrix Storage Manager” and  the “Matrix Storage Console”
    On the same web page I see another download link:
    “Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver Ver: 9.5.0.1037”
    It looks like I already installed the manager with the previous driver. Do I need to install this one too? What is the difference between both?
    Also when I open the “Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver Ver: 9.5.0.1037” I see 2 executable files:
    “iata_cd.exe” and “iata_enu.exe”
    I read the “Readme.txt” provided, but I couldn't find information on what is the difference between the EXE files and which one I should use.

    Quote
    I read the “Readme.txt” provided, but I couldn't find information on what is the difference between the EXE files and which one I should use.
    Use either one.  It doesn't matter in a functional way.

  • Configuring my new Mac Pro with a RAID solution...  Help appreciated!

    Hi, I am about to purchase a new Mac Pro to have in my studio.
    One of my unresolved features is what to do with storage. Currently I am considering either: (a) the Apple internal RAID card with 4x500GB 7200 RPM drives; or an external G-Technology G-Speed eS also with 4x500GB 7200 RPM.
    In either of these cases I would have an additional external drive of 1.5TB (pretty much the available storage I should have from the RAID), to perform back-up and take off-site.
    Questions:
    (1) Anyone has experience with Apple's Raid Card? Better or worse than an external solution?
    (2) Any feedback on the storage from G-Tech? I have a few mini drives with great success.
    (3) Any suggestion on RAID vendors (beyond what I am considering)?
    Thanks so much!

    I'm also planning to upgrade to a new Mac Pro, and just waiting for newest Intel "Penryn" processors:
    http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
    Having eSATA ports for external eSATA drives would be great.
    I will go with a RAID, but haven't decided on the configuration - I'm thinking of having 3 or 4 drives in RAID 5; I perceive a benefit in going with the Apple RAID card rather than a cheaper third party card - it's designed to work well with the Mac Pro and with Apple Care you'd get warranty coverage. Can't decide if it's better to save money and buy drives from a third party (and maybe end up with them not covered by Apple Care), or to pay more and get the drives with the machine.
    I got burned many years ago by four failed IBM 75GXP hard drives, so I think choosing a reliable hard drive is very important; I'll probably go with a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 or Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000. Great info here:
    http://www.storagereview.com/1000.sr
    Good RAID tests results:
    http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/macpro/followup.html
    And I think this is required reading too:
    http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/RAIDUtility_UserGuide.pdf
    Ron

Maybe you are looking for