New, larger drives for Sonnet Fusion RAIDs

Hello-
I got some great advice here a couple of years ago in regards to building my two 5-drive RAID systems with Sonnet Fusion 500Ps and WD RE2 500GB enterprise drives. They have performed flawlessly, and I've never had a single glitch. (They are connected to my 2006 MacPro and are used almost exclusively for video capture).
Now, however, I'm in need of more storage; I want to either add a 3rd enclosure (I'm considering the FirmTek SeriTek 5-bay enclosure) or replace the 500GB drives I have with larger ones. Perhaps eventually I'll do both; I have a Sonnet E4P with two SATA ports still available.
Either way, I'm looking for larger drive recommendations for these boxes. I use a striped RAID 1 configuration for the 500Ps I have, and then backup/clone one box to the other.
I've been considering the WD 1.0TB Caviar Black Enterprise drives, but I might want to go with 1.5TB drives, such as the Seagate 7200.11. The price on these is right, but I've heard that early versions of this model had problems in RAID configurations; it's also not a 5 yr. warranty/enterprise class drive.
Any suggestions? I got valuable help last time from mbean and hatter; perhaps they will contribute again, but I'd appreciate any advice I can get before purchasing 10 new drives, or 5 additional drives and a new enclosure.

Thanks for the reply and the recommendation. The Samsung is pretty new; I wonder how reliable it is. MacSales (OWC) has a Samsung 1TB model HD103UJ (The U replaces the S) and it is more expensive.
Hi,
The Samsung F1 HD103UJ is the older model. AMUG has 18 of these that were used in RAID tests for the last year. They are a great HD - but for blazing speed the new Samsung F3 model HD103SJ is the next replacement and about 20% faster.
I have never found "Enterprise" hard disks worth the extra money. The reason is that most standard hard disks will reliably last 3 years and the enterprise versions are almost never faster than the standard version they were developed from. After 3 years all of my hard disks are ancient technology.
Three years ago the hot hard drive to own was a 300GB with 65MB/sec performance. We thought that was great. Now its in the junk heap or delegated to backup duty on a notebook
Hard disk technology is increasing much faster than most of us can keep up with and prices are very reasonable for new 1TB hard disks. Sure there will be a few buyers who think they need to pay the 2TB premium but most users will wait until these hard disks are under $130.
Buying hard disks at premium prices can be painful especially when you realize that a new set will probably be required every 3 years.
Have fun!

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I have a Mac Pro 1,1 using Lion:
I would like to create a new and bigger boot drive but having not done this before I would appreciate any direction that would make this as painless as possible. I will continue to use Lion but am a little lost when it comes to doing this with the download process of Lion as well as transferring what has been created on the current HD in the MacPro. I have a new WD Black 2 TB SATA that I would like to use as the new boot drive. Again, thank you for the help.

Don't. Use. 2TB for system. Seriously.
Use that for data.
Get yourself a $89 Samsung 840 120GB instead along with Icy Dock $15. You will. Love it.
You don't need a large drive for the system. All you need to do is MOVE all the data and media files and every thing else, just leave the small 4GB /Users/myuseraccount/Library on the boot drive with the OS and apps. Everything else gets off loaded.
Leave your drive you ahve now as is for backup. Move data and clone the system.
Clone your system:
How to Clone a Volume
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
See also Erasing a Drive, How and Why to Partition a Drive, RAID.
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-partition-your-hard-drive-on-mac-os -x-snow-.html
http://pondini.org/OSX/DU.html
How to relocate system and user data to another drive:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4337http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/To successfully relocate your operating system, user accounts and data from one storage device to another, meet the following conditions:
The destination storage device (SSD drive or hard drive) you are migrating to should be physically located in the same computer. Moving operating system files from one computer to another computer using software not specifically designed for that computer can cause issues due to software, hardware, and firmware version mismatches.
Always back up your storage device with Time Machine or Disk Utility before you start.
Icy Dock $15
http://www.amazon.com/2-5-3-5-Ssd-sata-Convert/dp/B002Z2QDNE/
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 128GB
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-7TE120BW/dp/B00E3 W15P0/
2x2GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz @ $25
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Hold down the Option key while you boot your Mac. Then, it should show you a selection of devices. Click your flash drive and it will boot from that.

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When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial.

Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
Time Machine:
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          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
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          Destinations:
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                    Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
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                    Size of backup disk: Too small
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I need help finding a new hard drive for my T43. It appears that my hard drive is starting to fail. It just seems to not power up all the time during boot up or it just dies after it's in used for a little while. The T43 seems to only be compatible with certain types of hard drives though and I can't find any place that still sells them. Does anyone know of a place that still sells hard drive compatible with the T43?

Welcome to the forum!
Any PATA laptop drive will work as long as it's 9.5mm high, but most of today's drives will throw a "2010 error" on boot, which is really not a big deal IMHO.
The biggest hard drive that won't throw this error is Fujitsu MHV2120AH (120GB/5400rpm) that has been discontinued a while ago. Expect to pay a hefty premium for a sealed one.
A lot of good info here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11059
Good luck.
Cheers,
George
In daily use: R60F, R500F, T61, T410
Collecting dust: T60
Enjoying retirement: A31p, T42p,
Non-ThinkPads: Panasonic CF-31 & CF-52, HP 8760W
Starting Thursday, 08/14/2014 I'll be away from the forums until further notice. Please do NOT send private messages since I won't be able to read them. Thank you.

I HAD TO BUY A NEW HARD DRIVE FOR MY LAPTOP. I AM TRYING TO RE-INSTALL MY ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 12 BUT IT KEEPS SAYING MY SERIAL NUMBER IS INVALID. WHAT DO I DO?

I HAD TO BUY A NEW HARD DRIVE FOR MY LAPTOP. I AM TRYING TO RE-INSTALL MY ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 12 BUT IT KEEPS SAYING MY SERIAL NUMBER IS INVALID. WHAT DO I DO?

jessicar
Just user to user....based on past and current history, Adobe Tech Support is not going to help you with a technical issue which is preventing you from using your purchased serial number for Photoshop Elements. Version 12 is not the current version. And, the Adobe Tech Support is limited even for the current version which is 13. If this matter involves a purchased activated serial number trapped on a crashed computer while you are trying to install on a 3rd computer, then probably Adobe Chat Activation can be of assistance. If that is the case and you want to explore that possibility, then click on the following link
Contact Customer Care
Photoshop Elements
Adobe ID, Signing In
Adobe ID, Sign In, Account Help
Chat Panel
If the above link does not hold its set, then you will need to navigate to the Chat Panel using the above titles as guides.
Are you getting one of those "too many computers with your serial number" messages? Then the above should apply to your situation.
Before the above consider....
a. For Photoshop Elements technical issues please post your question in the Adobe Photoshop Elements Forum. Somehow your
question got posted in the Adobe Premiere Elements Forum.
b. Have you verified your Photoshop Elements serial number at the Adobe web site (http://www.adobe.com) - after signing in with your
Adobe ID and Password, type My Products in the Search field and follow the path to your product in My Products. Click on Adobe
Photoshop Elements 12 in your list to reveal the serial number.
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ATR

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<Title Edited by Host>

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KWCitizen_Apple

I have a MAC Pro from 2011 currently running MAC OS 10.9.5. This weekend I cloned the MAC HD drive to a new SSD drive for improved performance. The clone was completed successfully with no errors. After the clone completed I successfull restarted my sy

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Boilerplate text:
Reset Preferences
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/375776
1) Close the program and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (not reversible)
or
2) Move the Folder. See:
http://www.bugge.com/Family-and-friends/Illy/illy.html
--OB

I had to get a new hard drive for my laptop. Need help?

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It says so, so yea I guess....

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how can I get all of my music off of my laptop and onto an external hard drive? I bought a new hard drive for it but it got turned into a Time Machine drive... I want to have all of my music on the external hard drive, and NOT on my macbook pro. Thanks everyone

Hello lramospsych,
To move your iTunes media library to a different location, take a look at the article below to walk you through that process. Make sure that you have everything organized before you move everything over.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Regards,
-Norm G.

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Ken

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bilbo_baggins wrote:
Just wondering whether using Disk Utility to 'restore' the drive (ie. making a duplicate to a new larger drive) would be 100% functional and compatible with Time Machine?
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Need new external drive array- Sonnet or Gtech?

Looking to free up my internals and go with a external RAID.
I have no experience with either one.
Reading descriptions- the Sonnet seems as if it would be the better choice (quiet and faster)
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Well, you have no shortage of choices here.
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http://www.lacie.com
http://www.otherworldcomputing.com (a.k.a. macsales.com)
http://www.promax.com
http://www.sonnettech.com
http://www.wiebetech.com
Newer to Mac:
http://www.drobo.com/
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Report back on what you get!
-Warren

New, larger drives for Sonnet Fusion RAIDs

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