Mac Pro RAID

I'm thinking of purchasing a Mac Pro RAID card, install 4 x 3TB disks in my Mac Pro and use it as a file server.
I want to configure these 4 as a RAID 5.
Is this possible to do? Can this be done in the setup process of OS X server?

The Apple Pro RAID card is the problem.
There is excellent software RAID for Mac OS; there are 3rd party external hardware RAID controllers.
You asked about RAID card.
the rest, there are any number of ways to go about it.
Guide Which Mac Pro
Mac Performance Guide Reviews

Similar Messages

Mac Pro RAID 5 disk goes offline frequently in a random way. What can be causing this odd behavior?

Hi dudes,
I installed recently two Mac Pro RAID cards inside their corresponding Mac Pro systems. Four 2 TB Hitachi SATA disks are contained inside each system, and configured as RAID 5. Yes, the operating system is installed on this RAID 5 volume in order to get the highest performance of the array, taking advantage of the RAID 5 protection (Autodesk Smoke runs in each system; this application works only with uncompressed video in real time). I already had tested both systems keeping separated the boot disk just for the operating system, and making the RAID 5 volume just with three 2 TB disks, but the performance was slow on both systems.
The performance is now very good, but unfortunately, in both systems happens that sometimes one of the disks goes offline with no apparent reason. The RAID Utility immediately reports the failure and it is mandatory to declare as spare the disk that went offline. Then the rebuild process begins, but in the meantime, the performance goes down in a noticeable way. Sometimes it is even worse, because the disk disappears completely. Then, it is mandatory to turn off the system, and boot it up again, in order to see in the RAID Utility the missing disk, which needs to be declared as spare in order to be reintegrated into the RAID 5 volume in a slow rebuilding process.
Some important remarks: this very new Mac Pro systems do not have the iPass cable (at least apparently; I already disassembled completely one of these systems). This cable is mentioned in one Mac RAID card manual that I found over the internet. The diagrams do not match exactly with the Mac Pro nor the Mac Pro RAID board. I did not find a proper iPass connector in any of the Mac Pro RAID cards (?!). So, my guess is that currently the communication between the system and its Mac Pro RAID card is just by means of the internal bus. I think that if the iPass connection were mandatory, the RAID Utility would report it with a noticeable error message. Please advise.
I think that these Mac Pro RAID cards need a firmware upgrade, in order to be able to work fine with big SATA drives. Again, please advise.
Thanks in advance from Mexico.
Sincerely,
Martin Ponce de Leon

Hi Grant,
Thank you for your prompt response. The manual is a PDF document issued by Apple and it seems OK, but no updated to the latest Mac Pro system and Mac Pro RAID. I do not find the link where I found this manual. The systems belong to one of our customers. As far as I remember, in the printed manual included with the boards, it is not mentioned anything about the iPass cable, just about the battery cable. Do you know where can I get a PDF manual of the latest Mac Pro RAID card and the latest Mac Pro system? This client is far from our offices. So, I would prefer a PDF copy of this manual.
The drives that have gone offline, once they are back, are reported in a good status in the RAID Utility. Besides that, I have tested them in another system in our facilites, and all of them work fine. So, my guess is that the high capacity drives are not yet supported by the Mac Pro RAID card, or it requires a firmware update.
They do need to have in the same volume OS and video storage because three disks do no provide a good performance (they need also RAID 5), but four disks work fine... excepting when one disk is missing. Please advise. Thank you.
Best Regards,
Martin

Sleep or Shut Down with Mac Pro RAID Card?

I'll be gone for a four-day weekend trip, which is longer than the 72 hours claimed for the Mac Pro RAID Card battery. If I shut down and come back four days later, the battery will presumably be discharged. What will happen when I restart?
Asked another way ... is 72 hours the maximum amount of time that the computer should be shut down or do I simply restart and wait for the battery to recharge and the write caches to be re-enabled?
The FAQ for the Mac Pro RAID Card http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346 talks around this issue, but doesn't say whether it is a good or bad idea to allow the battery to discharge for "... any length of time." Please review the appended excerpt from the FAQ and advise on whether I should sleep or shut down.
Regards,
iPhoton
Question: Why does RAID Utility show a yellow light and report the status "Write cache disabled"?
Answer: The write cache is disabled automatically so data cannot be written to RAID volumes when the battery charge is not sufficient to back up cached data for 72 hours. This message is normally encountered when a RAID Card is used for the first time, when the battery enters a conditioning cycle once every three months, or when a computer with a RAID Card installed is shut down for any length of time.
If your RAID card's firmware is M-2.0.3.3 or later, or E-1.2.2.4 or later, you can use RAID Utility to force-enable the write cache while the battery conditions itself. Warning: If you enable the write caches before the battery is fully charged, you might lose some data if the power to your computer is interrupted.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my message. I did a proper backup and normal shut down on Wednesday night and restarted on Monday morning. That was over 100 hours later and certainly more than the battery is specified (72 hours).
When I restarted on Monday morning I noticed ... no change! The battery was fully charged according to the RAID Utility, I received no warning messages, there were no new events in the RAID Utility log ... it's as if the extended shutdown never occurred.
So, an extended shutdown appears not to be a problem and I won't worry about it again, not even on my next extended shutdown for three weeks at the end of the year.
Regards,
iPhoton

Mac Pro RAID 0 setup with bootcamp

I'm about to take the plunge and buy a Mac Pro as soon as I get the money (or credit) to. There have been things here and there that have turned me off but I found ways around some concerns, but this one I haven't been able to find.
I am a musician and want to utilize raw power that Mac does so well with. But unfortunately my DAW of choice doesn't support OS X. I hate Vista, I never upgraded, I stayed with XP but have been willing to change to OS X with XP as well, to get the best of both worlds. Then i find my DAW doesn't support XP 64 bit so i am going to have to use Vista 64-bit (bummer).
What I haven't been able to figure out is if it is possible to run a RAID 0 of the windows OS and all its data. The Mac Pro RAID card doesn't support any Windows OS so i am wondering if there is anyway possible to get the Windows OS in RAID, any good hardware or software that will accomplish this. Like if i get the Mac Pro RAID cad, is there a good software or hardware RAID that will allow me to install windows in a RAID 0 configuration?
If its possible I would have no reasons to not move over, but I really need to have my RAID setup in windows since I am using latency sensitive disk streaming programs that need to stream files in the GBs
Also could I just opt out for the Mac Pro Card and get a generic RAID card that supports both Windows and OS X? And if so any recommendations?
Message was edited by: jmoss211

I'm glad you are in the planning stages!
The question I didn't know to ask is always the one that bites the worst.
One of the best options might be the RR 4320
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=50&viewtype=details
http://www.barefeats.com/hard109.html
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Highpoint%20Technologies/RRAID4320/
One of the first Mac Pro RAID and Boot Camp work?
Games, hence the whole gaming graphics area, has and is not high on the list of features, which had been a large reason for people installing Windows on Mac.
I didn't want to see you invest in SAS and not get performance level you want.
StorageReview Performance SCSI/SAS vs VelociRaptor
Here is the card Barefeats felt was the card that Apple has to beat, and points to some of the limitations of SAS on the Mac Pro. http://www.barefeats.com/hard104.html
MacWorld SanFran in a couple weeks is when Apple traditionally would use to announce some of the new products for the next year (Snow, Mac Pro '09, new iMac, etc).
Apple is not very upgradeable. It would cost me more to upgrade the cpu than buy new (though can get a good $$ on my system - in part because it runs the prior version of OS X 10.4 "Tiger". New systems will only run the current/latest OS, you won't be able to run Leopard if a system comes with Snow. The graphic choices and upgrades can be lame. It is almost a closed box.)
I've talked to people that were into audio that used Fibre Channel in part due to low latency, increased queue depth (which is one area SATA has never implemented, 32 vs 256 I/O per sec).
+Forget trying to use the Apple search to find threads, it is 'busted' if I can't find the thread mbean and I had with someone only last week on RAID5/6. I turned to Google to find this thread +
Multi-core compiler optimization is big on Santa Intel's wish list to get into the hands of developers and vendors.
*3 GHz Nehalem outperforms the latest Opteron by a margin as high as 80% and more.*
Intel has apparently allowed HP and Fujitsu-Siemens to break the NDA on the Xeon 5570 processor for PR reasons as both companies have published SAP numbers on a Dual Xeon 5570. The Xeon 5570 is based on the same architecture as the Core i7. It is a 2.93 GHz quad-core CPU with 4 times a 256 KB L2-cache and one huge shared 8 MB L3.
http://anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=532
And AMD just gave Intel a new run for the money.
AnandTech’s Johan de Gelas has taken a look at AMD and Intel quad-socket servers. The quad-socket six-core Intel Xeon X7460 at 2.66 GHz is compared to the quad-socket four-core Shanghai-based Opteron 8384 at 2.7 GHz. And what were the results of a test using VMware’s ESX Server 3.5?
Shanghai’s 16 cores outperformed Dunnington’s 24 cores (or 48 if Hyper-Threading was used) by 6.5% or 8.8% depending on whether or not IBM or Dell’s chipset was used. But if we normalize that out per core, Shanghai outperforms by 59.8% (per core) or 63.2%. That is unbelievable!
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/amd-cleans-up-in-high-end-server-virtualizati on-20081223/

Mac Pro RAID Rechargeable Lithium Battery

I am trying to purchase a replacement Apple Mac Pro RAID Rechargeable Lithium Battery for a Mac Pro tower. It is an oblong battery about 3"x2"x0.25" (8.0 cms x 5 cms x 0.5 cms).
Mine no longer accepts a charge so the cache won't back up. The Mac Pro is less than 18 months old.
I have tried the Apple online store, the Apple Store in Covent Garden, Albion (an Apple Premium Reseller on the Strand in London) and even CTS (an Apple Premium Reseller in Paris while there this weekend).
No-one seems to know of it let alone stock it.
Can anyone tell me where I can find it?
I have to say Apple's support on this is useless.
All help appreciated.
Mike

Is there an "official" policy regarding the way one should treat a machine with a raid card. Some say never to switch off the machine, others say this is nonsense, as even if the MacPro is switched off, the battery should still be able to maintain it's charge. I have heard various Apple representatives say different things, but as far as I recall, I have never seen something in writing. Besides, my Raid Card lasted exactly one week before it needed replacement. I have now been sent a battery replacement after 4 months, and it failed (again) while keeping the machine on...so I am really confused.
Thanks in advance.

Is the Apple Mac Pro RAID card (v 2.0) compatible with the Mac Pro (v. 1.1)?

Hello,
Just wondering if any of you experts know if the Apple Mac Pro RAID card (v 2.0) is functional with the Mac Pro (v 1.1)?
I have an original Mac Pro and a new (black) Mac Pro RAID card. I would like to know if I can get any functionality.
I initially thought that the only difference was that the later RAID card did not have the same limitations on the HDs. I am aware that my original Mac Pro has a SATA II bus rather than a SATA III bus- but I am hoping this will not present any issues other than speed.
I am currently using Disk Utility for a striped software RAID (0) but would like to move to a parity hardware RAID (5); hence the purchase. If this isn't possible I'm not overly concerned as I managed to get hold of the RAID card for next to nothing so thought I would take the chance.
Any feedback would be appreciated as everything I've dug up online over the past few days has been a little inconclusive.
Julius.

The black-substrate card requires a 2009 or later model, and works only in slot 4, which has a special connector for it there.
The blue-substrate card requires the ipass cable and connector feature in the 2008 and older models.
These cards are both showing their age, and limit drive size to 2.2TB each. Their data-backup batteries have been extremely troublesome. You should probably look at other alternatives as well.
Mac Pro RAID Card: Identification and compatibility

Mac Pro RAID Card and Western Digital drives

I'm having huge troubles with these items.
I first installed four WD7500AYYS (Raid Edition) to build a RAID 5 and install Leopard on it. At this point, one of the drives was probably DOA and didn't show up in the bay. I then reinstalled the Seagate that shipped with the machine, then proceeded to create another enhanced JBOD raid with one of the WD drives. After a couple of seconds, RAID utility reported an error (disk about to fail and such). I then tried with another one. The process ended with a kernel panic after two hours, while RAID utility was still marking the drive for enhanced JBOD. That disk never show up again, in any bay.
At this point, I'm left with two WD drives. I can't get past the creation of a RAID set with them, no matter what. Either RAID utility reports an error, or it says the disk has been ejected, or it keeps create the RAID for hours... The later usually ends with a "force quit", or a force shutdown. During these attemps, the RAID card went missing once, then it appeared again on the following reboot. The RAID battery, which was fully charged at first, is now being "repaired" (charging ?).
I then ran AHT to see whether there was something wrong. No errors reported.
Because all four drives were Raid Edition, I thought this could be the root of the problems. So I bought a Caviar SE16 (WD5000AAKS). To no avail. It fails too, in the very same way. And now it no longer appears in any bay.
The last step I took was to remove the RAID card (connecting the iPass connector to the motherboard). Out of the five WD drives, only two RE2 (the two that still show up with the RAID card) do appear in disk utility. But disk utility never ends "writing the partition map" or "preparing for initialization".
By now, I end up with five WD drives that appear to be just dead, as if they were killed by the RAID card trying to RAID them. The only drive that works, with or without the RAID card, in any bay, is the Seagate. I didn't try to fiddle with it though (I'm reluctant to format it just to see whether I can create an enhanced JBOD raid with it).
So the question is, are Western Digital drives compatible with this RAID card ? If they do, then how a RAID card can kill them in such a way while keeping the Seagate alive ?
I'm lost in conjectures. I don't even know if/how I can bring all the WD drives back to life. I'm not sure the RAID card is faulty, I've already lost a lot of time and money, I'm not willing to buy yet another drive to see it fail too, and my Mac Pro is kind of useless as I don't want to spend time on installing/configuring everything I need on a drive that is bound to be replaced by a larger RAID 5 array.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Someone yesterday or Friday, had a system with 4 x 1TB drives and Pro RAID, but in their case, it was determined later Saturday that drive bay #1 was not functioning.
Hopefully these fully retail drives, not OEMs, and I would think they are fine. They are what I would use (Sonnet Tempo only supports RE of the WD drives). Someone else, Danish?, had 3 out of 4 WD drives were DOA.
I've never had trouble buying over a dozen from OWC, so it does seem odd.
If you have SoftRAID 3.6.6 I would use that to zero the first and last 100 sectors, or you can begin to zero the whole drive and cancel at any time, just to check the health of the drive and that it can zero and not produce I/O errors.
There are two other methods for accessing and managing Mac Pro RAID, ARD and CLI
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306231
Originally, only Apple drives were supported. My understanding was that this changed. But the only article I found in KB dates back to Aug '07:
Question: What drives does Apple support with the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card?
Answer: +Only Apple drives are supported with the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card.+
My understanding that 3rd party retail drives such as WD RE2 750GB, Seagate, Hitachi were supported as well since the article was written - and I can't find where I read that, but sure that I did, as this was discussed in the past.
I'd like to find an official article. Even my friend Google was helpless

Graphics card crash on Mac Pro RAID

I've had a very odd issue with a Mac Pro RAID running SL client.
The Mac Pro serves files to a small network of Macs and is usually very reliable, however I was archiving and moving around a lot of files (over 100gb) overnight and when I returned next day, the monitor that the Mac pros connected to wouldn't show the desktop screen.
The monitor had power, and the Mac was turned on, still serving files as normal and had not crashed in any way.
I VNC'ed into this Mac and the desktop appeared, and looking in system profiler the video card wasn't there.
A restart sorted it out.
This has happened a few times and it's always when a large file copy is in progress overnight. The screen is switched off overnight by default.
I've thought the graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 5870) maybe overheated, so I cleaned the inside of the Mac of dust (it was a bit dusty but not much), but the problem remains, always when a large file copy takes place.
The past couple of times this has happened I couldn't even VNC into the Mac and had to restart it remotely using the terminal.
I've seen this article from Apple, but the video card cables are connected as normal:
Mac Pro (Mid 2010): Black screen after installing ATI Radeon HD 5870
My next steps are a hardware test, but would that test the video card?
Any help much appreciated.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4208248?tstart=0
Want to play safe w/ Apple ATI 5770 or play with PC flash/injector just to save $$

Leopard/Bootcamp/Mac pro RAID Card

The last two bullets in the "More Info" section of Apple's Mac Pro RAID card read as follows:
• The Mac Pro RAID Card is required when selecting 15,000-rpm SAS drives.
• The Mac Pro RAID Card supports Mac OS X only.
Five Apple tech reps have told me I can run Leopard on a striped array of three 300GB SAS drives and then, via Bootcamp, use the fourth independent 300GB SAS drive to run Windows XP. I ordered a $10,000 G5 tower on this premise and now, today, a sixth Apple tech rep tells me it cannot be done. Each time I've called, I get a somewhat different answer. Does anyone have actual experience with a G5 such as this? Is there a third party RAID card that will work? If necessary, I still have time to cancel my order. Why would Apple build a RAID card that is not compatible with a most important feature of Leopard--Bootcamp? I don't understand their philosophy. They seem to work at biting the hand that feeds them.

Kappy, thanks for taking time to try to answer my question. I'll state it more clearly.
At this moment I'm typing on a 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon machine with four 500Gb drives. Three drives are configured as a RAID 0 Volume running Leopard. The fourth INDEPENDENT drive is partitioned via Bootcamp into two bootable volumes--one with Leopard and other with Windows XP Professional. For the new machine I would like to purchase, I never intend to run Windows from a RAID volume. My beef with Apple is that their high performance 15,000 rpm SCSI drives require their RAID card to function, whether it be in a RAID set or independently. Their interface to the motherboard is through the RAID card. Apple has not written Windows drivers for their RAID card. Consequently, if I intend to run Windows on their latest Mac Pro, I cannot install the high performance 15,000 rpm drives. I simply would like to configure the new machine the same as the one I have now, which is three drives combined in a RAID 0 array running Leopard, and the fourth drive remaining a stand alone for Bootcamp to partition into two bootable volumes--one with Leopard and one with Windows XP.
In summary, there is no way to use Apple's highest performance Mac Pro in a Windows environment. I think that's inconsiderate of Apple. I would like the performance of 15,000 rpm SCSI drives (RAID or not) but I also need Windows XP. I'm sure many others will face the same dilemma. Apple should give this matter a high priority and churn out the sorely needed drivers. So back to my original question--five Apple tech reps said I can configure the machine as described above and it will work fine--the sixth rep said there is no way it can work, because their card cannot run Windows. Who should I believe. I don't want to make a ten-thousand dollar mistake.
P.S. The configuration shown below is for the machine I hope to purchase, not the one I'm using now. This one is a 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro.

Mac Pro RAID Card - RAID 5 capacity with 4 drives

Greetings everyone,
last weekend, I installed a Mac Pro RAID card in my Mac Pro, gave it 4 Samsung 1TB disks to play with and set up a RAID 5 array on it. However, the capacity is less than what I would have expected (expected around 2.8TB and got 2.38TB).
After some searching on the Apple Support pages, I found this ...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306212
... support article stating that in a 4 column RAID 5, the capacity indeed could be less than expected due to "data placement and layout techiques".
Does anyone know the technical reason behind this? Any other RAID 5 I know, hardware or otherwise, does not have this quirk.
Is there any way to work around this? If not, are there any other, comparable RAID cards that get this right?
Thanks in advance,
-sai

Hi sairath;
With RAID 5 one of the drive is devoted to Parity so that the data can be restored in case of a drive failure. Hence you are only going to see the space for three of the drive so your results sound pretty normal.
Allan

Mac Pro RAID block size recommendations for working with audio in Logic Pro

I have recently ordered a Mac Pro and plan to do a RAID configuration across 3 HDD's
The RAID type i am going to do is a RAID 0 striped.
The computer is going to be used primarily for audio post production and working with 20+ 24-Bit audio files at any one time within a Logic project.
I want to know what is the best block size i should use when configuring the RAID.
I understand that using a higher block size is best for working with large files but do i need to do this in my case or will the default 32k block size be enough?
Thanks in advance

Use 64k. Things like databases like having 32k blocks because of all the small files. Audio files are pretty small even at 24-bit 192KHz. Go to 128k if all you are doing is streaming and no samples. But 20+ 24-bit is really not too large anyway considering most modern HDD's can stream 100MB/s off one spindle. You'll probably be fine regardless of the block size you choose. But most audio pro's choose 64k.

Mac Pro RAID and Boot Camp and eSATA controller Card

Hello all,
I have carefully read the topics concerning the Apple RAID card and its inability to run Boot Camp. Of course, I read this after placing my order. I have been mulling over my alternatives based on everyone's input. Here is what I want to do and how I think I can get there:
My system, when it finally arrives and is assembled will be:
Mac Pro 3.2GHz
12MG RAM
4 x 1TB hard drives
Apple RAID Card
ATI 2600
Except for the RAID card, the memory and drives are third party.
My plan was to create a RAID 5 with 3 of the internal drives, with the OS and apps on the non-RAIDed drive. I wanted to install Windows in a Boot Camp partition, but since learned this is not possible with the Apple card. I also planned on using the OWC Mercury Elite RAIDs I have (each enclosure house 2 x 500GB drives, and I have 4 enclosures for a possible max of 4TB of back up) to handle Time Machine (or other BU strategy) for the internals.
I have not received the Mac yet, so cannot look inside. From what I can gather, the Graphics card will occupy the Slot 1. The Raid Card will occupy Slot 4. This leaves me with only one 4x slot for a 4 port eSATA controller card (such as the RocketRAID 2314)
As I see it, I have a couple of obstacles to overcome, and I would appreciate advice/feedback on my possible solutions.
Problem 1: In order to use my existing OWC RAID enclosures, I need TWO controller cards, each with 4 eSATA connectors. Unless I scrap the 500GB drives for 1TB drives, I am stuck. Am I correct in assuming I cannot use Slot 2 for another controller card? Is there any work around?
Problem 2: Boot Camp. Can I purchase the Newer Technology extender cable to access the two eSATA ports on the Mac's motherboard to attach an external SATA drive for this purpose?
Questions:
1) I assume I can set up an external RAID (another RAID 5?) with my OWC drives and use Time Machine to back up to them?
2) From the illustration in the Mac Pro manual I downloaded, there appear to be only 4 PCIe slots, but 5 openings (one seems to be aligned with the back-up battery). I assume this is the double-wide space for the graphics card. Can I use the extra opening for the Newer Tech ports since there is no card taking up space?
3) Should I remove the Apple RAID card (resell on ebay) and buy the CalDigit RAID Card? It has the virture of allowing a Boot Camp install AND has ports that I can buy SAS to eSATA cables for, allowing me to use all of my OWC drives.
The CalDigit Card sounds good, but I would like to make the Apple card work if I can. Also, with the OPTIONAL battery back-up, the CalDigit card isn't that much less than the Apple card. Besides, I cannot find this card anywhere, everyone's at NAB, and it's Passover next week. AND I need to get this system up and running ASAP so I can begin making the money to pay for it.
Any input would be most welcome.
Gary

Problem 1: In order to use my existing OWC RAID enclosures, I need TWO controller cards, each with 4 eSATA connectors. Unless I scrap the 500GB drives for 1TB drives, I am stuck.
You could get new enclosures with SATA port multipliers for up to five drives per SATA port.
Am I correct in assuming I cannot use Slot 2 for another controller card? Is there any work around?
Apple says any PCI-e card should work in slot 2
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Conceptual/HWtechPCI/Articles/pciimplementation.html#>
"Mac Pro detects whether an inserted card is PCIe 2.0 (5.0 GHz) or PCIe (2.5 GHz) and selects the operation depending on the card's maximum capability."
but there have been reports of trouble (maybe caused by the recent firmware update). Check with the card maker to be sure.
Problem 2: Boot Camp. Can I purchase the Newer Technology extender cable to access the two eSATA ports on the Mac's motherboard to attach an external SATA drive for this purpose?
No. Those ports are only usable from OSX, but if you only have one optical drive, you can mount another drive in the lower optical drive bay with a Pro Caddy for use with Boot Camp.
<http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2704&RequestTimeOut=500>
This simplest connection is to use the optical ATA cable (with a SATA to ATA adapter for a SATA drive).
If you want to use a SATA connection, use a iPass to SATA cable from the iPass port on the Mac Pro logic board, which is normally used for the four SATA drives when there is no RAID card.
<http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=7252016>
Questions:
1) I assume I can set up an external RAID (another RAID 5?) with my OWC drives and use Time Machine to back up to them?
Yes
2) From the illustration in the Mac Pro manual I downloaded, there appear to be only 4 PCIe slots, but 5 openings (one seems to be aligned with the back-up battery). I assume this is the double-wide space for the graphics card. Can I use the extra opening for the Newer Tech ports since there is no card taking up space?
It looks like it should work if you route the cables just above the graphics card.
<http://www.newertech.com/Static/articles/images/macensteineSATA_5.jpg>

Install windows 7 on mac pro raid

I have just got a mac pro with raid (3 1tb drives), they are set to raid 0 and I am trying to install windows 7 64 bit, 32bit if I really have too but it will not find the drivers on the disk the mac made for the windows installation. Where do I find the drivers, and can I set up for raid 0 and have mac+windows installed?
Dave

Mac OS X software RAID is implemented in software that loads when the Mac OS X kernel is operational.
Mac OS X software RAID cannot be used for Windows. If you want your Windows Boot Volume on a RAID, put it on a separate drive (which is good advice in general) and use a Windows-only RAID solution.
Many users find that the OS (Mac or Windows) does not benefit much from RAID -- having multiple bootable backups is a better solution. For performance, having a separate Boot Volume reduces competition for the data Drives, and speeds up your computer considerably.

Mac Pro RAID configuration advice needed to address photography workflow

I am a semi-professional photographer and I am moving off a Windows machine and over to a Mac Pro.
I am waiting for the new Mac Pro to arrive and have purchased (4) 500GB SATA drives to replace the 250GB drive the system will arrive with.
I am considering setting up drive #1 as a stand alone boot drive. The second and third drives would be set up in a RAID 0 config and the 4th drive set up as a RAID 1 drive which would mirror the content on my RAID 0 set of drives to automatically backup the content on drives 2 & 3.
I think it would be beneficial if I describe my image processing workflow briefly so that you can understand why I am considering this RAID configuration (I've never set up a RAID configuration in the past so this is all new to me).
Image Processing Workflow
It isn't uncommon for me to return from a photo shoot with an 8GB Compact Flash card full (approx 750 8mb RAW files).
1) I plan on uploading my card to the boot drive (#1) where I would hold them temporarily.
2) I would sort thru the images and trash 80% immediately in most cases.
3) Next I would open up the "keepers" and do the initial post processing in Adobe RAW and save them to drives 2 & 3 (the RAID 0 set).
4) Further post processing (the heavy lifting and the most taxing operations in Photoshop and associated filters) would take place as I access these files from the RAID 0 set of drives.
5) All of my files would be mirrored to drive 4 as I work them. Once post-processing is complete I would copy the files from drive #4 (RAID 1)to an additional external 500GB drive for archiving purposes and then eventually delete the files from drive #1 and the RAID 0 set.
6) Once drive #4 (and the external drive) is nearly filled I would pull both and archive them and replace both with fresh drives.
Is there anything wrong with taking this approach? Can a single drive be set up in a RAID 1 configuration to mirror a set of drives in a RAID 0 configuration?
Is there anything else I should be considering?
Thanks for any assistance you guys can provide! I appreciate it!!

For the purposes of 500GB drives in RAID, I would go with WD RE2. they format to 465GB and performance falls off @ 65% and beyond anyway.
I even "short-stroke" drives to just 60% and then stay within 1/3 full - if I want to insure the maximum I/O.
Memory: 4GB is pretty much minimum but using more than 8GB isn't efficient. Ideal: 4 x 2GB.
Shame that the Hitachi 1TB drive costs over $399 for now, fast and might be better than 10K Raptor. There are also 750GB drives for $249, but the RE2 isn't quite ready to ship.
Never want to get into using 75% or more usually, though large (8-20 drives) RAIDs can hold sustained I/O for video editing and multiple streams.
One 750GB or 1TB (930GB formatted, 800GB "usable") might make sense.
How about a SATA drive case w/ hot-swap. Think of 1TB "floppy" if you will :-)) Unlimited archiving of projects.
All you want is an inexpensive eSATA 1x 2-channel PM controller and any cases. Two drives that you can use drive trays as needed.
there are also 'spare' drive sleds if you want to have the option of popping a drive out, and use it internally. $29 each or $49 a pair.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com - link to TransIntl site
Vista 64-bit can or does work quite well now on Mac Pro... if you ever get into a jam and just need to. SP1 by end of the year will even have more support for UEFI 2.0 (Apple uses Intel EFI 1.1).

Mac Pro & RAID Card configuration

hello-
i've got a 2 x 2.26 Quad Core Xeon Mac Pro with an Apple RAID card in it
1 x 1TB system drive
and
3 x 2TB media drive for video
question: can i have the system drive separate from the RAID card and just create a 6TB RAID0 array for the media drive?
i've heard that the system drive should be part o the RAID (currently it's its own JBOD RAID, so NOT part of the 6TB array) but I can't see how to do this
any help/advice will be much appreciated.
thanks
david

If you have a RAID card installed and the drives are in their trays, they're all going through the RAID card (for MLB interface purposes). You could have a single drive setup as the sys drive and then the three drive RAID 0 set. The card will support RAIDed and non-RAIDed disks. I currently have a MacPro with a RAID card installed, yet all of the disks are setup with the original OS-based RAID configuration (will be switching soon as the RAID card was just installed). You have plenty of choices and what you're wanting to do is totally doable with or without the RAID card, as it could be done in the OS via Disk Utility.

Mac Pro RAID

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