RAID & FCP Questions

I have been having trouble with multicam editing of AVCHD material and have been advised that the reason for the problems is the speed of my drives and RAID is recommended. For more information on this discussion see:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10545204#10545204
So, I am considering putting three 1.5TB Seagate Baracuda 7200rpm drives in slots 2, 3, 4 and create a RAID of the three drives to overcome the drive R/W speed issue and hopefully be able to label this drive as "H:" for the reasons stated below. However, some serious considerations:
1. I have nearly 800GB of FCP project data (media) on the drive that is currently in slot 2 - AMEDIA_1.
2. I would like to remove that drive AMEDIA_1 then mount it in an external drive USB case and copy it (AMEDIA_1) to the newly configured RAID drive bank (hopefully labeled as "H:" drive) to resolve the slow R/W drive access problems.
So, my questions are:
A. Will the media being read from AMEDIA_1 from an external case be stripped via the RAID 0 utility so that the data is spread across the three drives to circumvent the problem I'm currently having?
B. Any problems RAID'ing 1.5TB drives or should I limit it to 1.0TB?
C. Any problems with my idea here?
D. Will my FCP's recognize the path to the respective files and media assuming I am able to label the RAID bank as Drive H: ?
E. If a drive fails in the RAID bank is the entire bank dead and all data lost?
F. Is there any question I should be asking that I am not since I'm not that up to speed on Mac nor RAID yet?
Thanks in advance to those who take the time to read and respond to this lost sheep and feel free to ask any questions for clarification.
SYSTEM: MacPro 2.8GHz Xeon Quad Core x 2, Nvidia 8800 GT 512MB, 4GB Ram, 1667 FSB, Snow Leopard 10.6.1?, Final Cut Suite 3, 7200rpm 320GB OS HDD.
Additional Info & Question: If possible, I will want to remove the Windows XP Pro partition if that is possible at the same time.

This should work. Just make sure to keep the copy of the Amedia_1 just in case you have a problem with the Raid.
"So, I am considering putting three 1.5TB Seagate Baracuda 7200rpm drives in slots 2, 3, 4 and create a RAID of the three drives to overcome the drive R/W speed issue and hopefully be able to label this drive as "H:" for the reasons stated below. However, some serious considerations:"
Seagate baracuda are pretty sound. They come with a 5 year warranty. I have only had to send one back in 10 that I have bought. Keep in mind until they come up with something else hard drives can always fail for various reasons. So always back up. With a O raid with no redundancy, you are spreading the liability across three drives. You will get the speed you need but as long as you back up the work you will be fine. One of the things I do with raids is I only put media on them so I can replace it easier if necessary from my backup or original tape if you have it. Project, graphics, and anything else not media I put in a project folder on a what I like to call a work drive in a single slot. I also back that up if I do not have redundancy.
So, to sum up. Mount the Amedia drive in an external case.
Build a raid volume with the Baraccudas.
Copy (not move) the files to the raid "Volume"
Unmount the AMedia drive and set aside for safe keeping
Launch your project and reconnect the media in final cut when it prompts you to from the new raid volume.
Your speed problems should be solved.
(keep in mind that multicam editing need alot of speed the more cams you add)
Make sure you delete all window anything from your Mac. Window is a waste. The more you use Mac and FCP studio the more you will see what I mean. Boot camp and all that partition your Mac so you can run windows too is for indecisive suckers.
I will get off my soap box now.
Best of luck.
B Miller
Archetype HD Editorial LLC

Similar Messages

USB vs FIREWIRE vs ESata II RAID indirect FCP question

Question: I have been posed with a question from my purchaser... Why doesn't USB transfer my video files faster than Firewire (when USB is rated at 480Mbs and Firewire 400 at, well, 400Mbs) and I already know that firewire drives all "linked" spend too much time talking to each other, so the SATA drive is faster...
Anyway, can anyone tell me exactly why outputting via USB is not faster? I read something on former posts about "short bursts"...but I'm trying to keep this guy from buying cheap maxtor USB drives...and let me build the eSata that I know will work faster with my FCP files
Thanks
MW

Hi Mark,
This is common question. Check out this site, I think it explains the difference between Firewire and USB quite nicely. http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm
Basically, Firewire flows better and is constant, USB is not. So if you're going to do any capturing to the HDD's you're going to want Firewire.

Kona 3 [and XENA] for FCP Questions

Is the XENA 2Ke compatible with the Macintosh platform and FCP, and if so which is the recommended version of OSX and FCP?
I have previously read someone stating that you can use this card on both platforms therefor negating the need to purchase a Mac only Kona 3.
I am doubtful of this however your immediate response / confirmation / denial of this is greatly appreciated.
ALSO
Is anyone aware of news relating to an upgrade of the Kona 3 card [ie Kona 4 or a Mac and PC compatible XENA card]?
I am looking at assembling a new HD online capable suite in the next few weeks and am hoping to avoid purchasing ie a Kona 3 card just before the release of [theoretically] a Kona 4 card [possibly at NAB 08]. Being that 4K / Red post are and should be at a premium in the coming months I would like to assemble a post solution that can handle for example a short form 4K online [if possible].
I know I am dealing with a lot of what-ifs but for the investment I need to make I will be asking similar questions to these everywhere I can including the forums such as this.

Anyone / everyone please feel free to comment
Hi Jerry
First and foremost, thank you very much for your detailed reply.
1. Hmmmm. "AJA, is there something in the air too?" [lol].
I just love the thought of new gear and technology... and AJA furthering its hardware support of RED in FCP, looking forward to any NAB developments.
*2. Regarding the Xena-2Ke for Mac.* Just received a reply from AJA Tech Support stating the following:
+"Hi Mitch,+
+The Xena-2Ke is compatible with Mac OSX 10.3.x, 10.4.x and 10.5.x running+
+the appropriate Kona 3 driver.+
+On the other hand A Kona 3 is not compatible with Windows.+
+Let us know if you have more questions.+
+Thank you,+
Rudy
+Rudy Van Ko+
+AJA Video Technical Support+
+Email: [email protected]+
+Phone: 530-271-3190+
+AJA Video Systems+
+443 Crown Point Circle+
+Grass Valley, CA 95945"+
Interesting...
*3. Monitoring 2K?* What are you using to monitor 2K, HD Jerry?
Many guys in similar situations to myself over here in Australia are using Apple Cinema Displays with a Decklink HD-Link Pro box for monitoring. Obviously the 30" Cinema Display has the resolution to handle 2K monitoring but is it suitable in your view?
Realistically I am looking at offering an immediate service based mainly on a HD offline / online workflow. I would however like to future proof myself as best I can by assembling hardware that can handle 2K with reliability, stability and to reasonable levels of accuracy and complexity.
*Up until now [NAB] I've been looking at something in the order of the following setup:*
*Online Machine*
Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
8gb RAM
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3GB/s
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB (Stereo 3D, two dual-link DVI)
One 16x SuperDrive
AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi)
Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard
*Third Party Card / Hardware IO:*
Kona 3 with K-Box
*Offline Machine:*
Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
4GB (2 x 1GB)
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3GB/s
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (Two dual-link DVI)
One 16x SuperDrive
AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi)
Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard
Monitoring:
JVC DT-V24L1DGE 1920x1080 Pro HD LCD with 1:1 pixel monitoring / no scaling and all the regular / required inputs and features
*BUP / Archival Purposes / Proofs:*
Lacie D2 Ext Blu Ray Burner
Storage:
Caldigit's HD Pro OR G Technology's G Speed OR G Speed es [though not sold on G Speed es - great price point but really doesn't have the sustained drive speeds. Great for online SD, Pro Res and possibly basic DVCPro HD / HD Sequences etc. [www.g-technology.com states "Two G-SPEED eS units and the G-Tech PCIe RAID controller support all of the above plus 10-bit, 1080i/60 HD playback in RAID 0 or RAID 5 mode."]. Will be looking into the new Apple owned Promise RAIDs too; your thoughts on these? Unfortunately I don't really have the budget for SANman, X-Serve, Fibrejet etc solutions at present but for the right job, that would obviously change.
I really appreciate the idea of how you are working with 2K, though your description was not really that detailed it definitely sounds smooth. Do you think that I am heading in the right direction in your opinion with the gear I have in mind, and is the minimum 2K future proofing concept I have a valid one?
Thanks for taking the time to read this post, and hopefully reply to some or all.
Anyone / everyone please feel free to comment.

RAID + FCP

Hi Everyone,
I'm looking to buy some new FireWire storage for my PowerBook FCP setup, but I'm wondering: are there any distinct advantages to using a RAID? And, what is RAID to begin with, even?! Thanks!

Moly,
since you asked (but you may want to file this under 'more that I wanted to know ... lol)
What is Raid?
Defined as a Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or independent) Devices, raid systems are a collection of two or more drives that are configured to interact with each other in a variety of ways. The way they are configured is called the RAID LEVEL.
Below is a quick list of the three relevant levels for video editing. There are many many more, but those only make sense in large corporate server applications.
Raid 0 - the writing of files is split between the drives. if you have 2 160gb drives, you have a 320gb array. This is by far the most common application in video use.
Pro. Very fast since each write head is only doing a percentage of the work.
Con - If either disk fails, all data is lost.
Raid 1 - the writing of the files is mirrored (duplicated) on each drive. if you have 2 160gb drives, you have a 160gb array.
Pro - data is secure, if either drive dies, you have lost nothing. Simple to implement.
Con - slower writes- data must be written twice, but reads happen at normal speed.
Raid 5 - the writing of data to the disks is spread over all disks as is the parity checking. If an individual disk fails, the system should be able to rebuild it from the information on the other disks. If you have 2 160gb drives, you have a 320gb array. Very common is corporate servers because if its good balance of speed and data integrity.
Pro- relatively fast writes, but not as fast as Raid 0
Con - somewhat wasteful of space as the parity information takes up space.
Generally, since most video information comes in from tapes (at least for a while longer) and you can recapture from the tapes should a disk fail, data integrity is not of paramount importance. For example, a simple back up will take care of project, photoshop files, etc.
Because of this, most common implementation is Raid 0. It gives the fastest read/writes and the most usable space on the disks. From the cost/performance standpoint, it is the best deal.
Why do you want/need RAID disk arrays?
If you are working in formats that have a much higher data rate than DV, the demands of supplying multiple streams will overtax they ability of a single disk to provide them.
However, there are other issues as well. The speed of the connection between the computer and the disks once you reach a certain need is as important as the disk speed. If you get to the point where you NEED a raid 0 set up, you should also be sure to be running either a FW800 connection on its own bus or a SATA array.
If you are working with DV sourced material, a second FW400 external drive (non-raid) will be fast enough. The raid 0 on a FW800 bus just allows you more simultaneous streams of video to be played in real time. (This ability is also tempered by the processor speed in your computer.)
Questions? The quiz will be on Tuesday ...lol.
cheers,
x

Hard drive and FCP question

I got lots of short questions and a semi bigger one.
I plan on editing HD and standard definition video with my iMac using FCP. My hard drive is 130 gig and I need a bigger one. My current fire wire ports on my iMac are both 400mb/sec and that is too slow for HD and I was told I cannot get that upgraded. The guy at an apple store told me iMac's use lap top hard drives and there is no big improvement from my current 130 gig.
I looked my hard drive up and I believe it is actually a desktop hard drive if I'm not mistaken. The model number is ST3160812AS. So does that mean I can get a desk top hard drive upgrade? If so I was looking at the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 750g 7200 rpm. Is that a good choice?
How do you upgrade to a new hard drive anyway? Who installs it? Me or can I get a professional to do it for me for a small fee? How do I get all the current data on my hard drive on to the new one?
Where I usually do most of my editing the computers have two hard drives. One to hold the footage and transfer the data to the other one which is actually doing the editing. My film teacher says this is the best thing to do, but obviously I can't do that since two hard drives in my iMac is out of the question and I can't get a fire wire port fast enough to support a hard drive that isn't just for storage. Can that hard drive I was looking at handle doing the two processes on its own? Do I have any other options?
Thanks in advanced.

J D McIninch wrote:
\- The bitrate for HDV high-definition video is *25 Mbps* -- 1/16th the bandwidth of FW400.
\- Max bitrate for AVCHD is *24 Mbps*.
\- DVCPRO100 has the highest bitrate of all the HD video formats at a whopping *100 Mbps*.
The maximum burst speed of FW400 is about 393 MBps \[typo: 393 Mbps\] and sustained
transfer rate it near that.
You shouldn't worry about the transfer rates on FireWire as much as the drives.
Most hard drives are not going to be able to sustain transfer rates of 100 Mbps --
you probably need an array for that. It's moot, however, if you are using consumer-grade
HD (with rates around 25 Mbps).
Very useful info on the video data rates on various formats, JDM -- thanks.
However, I'm a little confused by the disk drive data rates you quoted. It appears that
the numbers you mentioned are actually MBytes/s (MBps) rather than Mbits/s (Mbps).
The OP's current internal HD (ST3160812AS) is a 160GB Seagate 7200.9 family drive
spec'd at 83MBytes/s max sustained throughput. (That applies only to the outermost
tracks, when the drive is nearly empty. It'll be about 40MBytes/s on the inner tracks.
So, when nearly full, the internal drive is about the same speed as a FW400 external.
The 750GB Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 is slightly faster (ca. 85-90MBytes/s maximum,
when empty, and half of that when nearly full). That's fairly fast as today's large HDs
go, but not quite as fast as the new Seagate 7200.11 family drives (105MBytes/s max)
or WesternDigital's WD7500AAKS (98MBytes/s, max) -- but they're all more than fast
enough to saturate a FW400 link, even when the external drive is nearly full.
BTW, from the spec sheets, I see no indication that any of the four drives mentioned
here are "green." They all have similar power requirements; if anything, the Hitachi
consumes the most power, and the Western Digital the least. (That seems to agree
with tomshardware.com's observation 7K1000 drives run hotter than most others.)
It is nice to see that today's fastest 750GB drives consume no more power than the
best-performing 160GB drives of a few years ago.
vtwiz wrote:
Don't attempt to replace the drive in your iMac. Keept it for the OS and software
and use an external drive for all your video.
Good advice! Regardless of the size of your internal drive, save the data-flogging
for the easily-replaceable external drive.
Looby

RAID 1 Question

I recently set up my system in a RAID 1 configuration (striping) and have a question:
At start up I am able to invoke the NVIDIA RAID utility. My array has a “N/A” in the bootable column. Never the less, I am able to boot the system.
From what I have read there should be a “Y” in the bootable section.
I THINK I forgot to format the new WD disk as bootable. In addition I THINK I answered “NO” when asked if I wanted to clear the array when I created it.
If I did screw up – would the following fix things? Do I even need to fix things since it seems to work?
(1)   Remove the new WD drive from the array.
(2)   Reformat the drive with the boot files.
(3)   Add the newly formatted (and bootable) WD disk back into the array.
(4)   Answer “Y” when asked to clear the array (I hate these type questions because the manual does not make it CLEAR what is being cleared – you sure hate to clear the DISKS by mistake – is it the ARRAY being cleared?).
(5)   Synchronize the array to get the preserved data from the original disk back onto the new WD disk.
My system is:
MS-7250 SLI Platinum Rev. 1.0 (BIOS 1.8) with AMD 5400+ CPU
Vista Home Premium 64-bit
(2) 1mb Mushkin 800 MHz Dual Channel memory
Antec NSK4400 case with a replacement Antec Truepower 2.0 430 watt power supply
Max. Load +3.3V   28.0A, +5V 35A, +12V1 17A, +12V2 17A, +5V SB 2.0A, -12V 1.0A
Hitachi Deskstar HDT722525 DLA380 & WD2500AAJS, 250GB SATA HDs in RAID 1 Array
WD 8.4GB EIDE HD (backup drive)
3D Fuzion PCI-e graphics card (based on the Nvida GeForce 6200 LE chipset).
Generic Floppy
Logiteh keyboard & Microsoft mouse
Memorex DVD+/- DLRWL16 double layer CD

You'll have to clear up some confusion first: RAID-1 is mirroring, not striping... which is a big difference in how you proceed. Since it sounds, from what you want to do that you have a mirror I'll answer with that assumption.
Are you sure the array is "healthy" - it shows in NVidia's MediaShield/Storage Management as such? Before you break anything, take a look at the MBR with www.bootitng.com's Partition Work utility: press Esc twice when booting from the media to get to the maintenance desktop. If it finds a problem with its Properties, let it fix it.
1) Why?
2) There's no need to format a drive which is going to be added to an array; in fact a zeroed drive would probably be best.
4) Clear the Data will overwrite the MBR and clobber access to the data - it does not actually touch the data areas, but usually you don't want to do that. If you make a mistake, BootitNG can undo it by using its Undelete option in Partition Work, which scans a drive looking for partition markers and reconstructs the MBR.
5) Rebuilding the array might be useful but I've no idea why your array is not allowing the bootable option - never seen that.
The method I use to build a RAID-1 array is to assign both controllers/drives to RAID in main BIOS but in NVRaid BIOS, assign only the original disk with the data as a single drive striped array, leaving the "new" 2nd drive as unassigned to an array. Boot into Windows and use MediaShield to Convert/Migrate the striping array to a mirror which will pick up the 2nd drive and build the mirror array.

Did I Dream It? Combined FCE/FCP Questions In Final Cut Forum?

I am sure that for the last few weeks the Final Cut Forum has combined the questions from both FCE and FCP.
Then yesterday - NOTHING! Just a doorway for entering FCE, FCP, LiveType etc.
Did I dream it?
I actually liked the combination of the 2 sites.
Did anyone else?
Ian.

It's off temporarily: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=260337&tstart=0

Mirrored RAID Set Questions

I initially set up a mirrored RAID set up on my system drive as a means of backing up my files. I've since decided I'd like to use Time Machine instead. When I try and break up the RAID set using Disk Utility, a lock icon appears next to the RAID set and I'm unable to "delete" the set. My guess is that I need to reboot off a different system, but since Lion didn't come with an install disc, and since Lion doesn't set up a Recovery HD on RAID sets, how would I go about unlinking this mirrored RAID set?
Conversely, I inadvertantly unlinked a different RAID set and would like to reconnect them, but Disk Utility says it'll erase all the data on the drives before it establishes the connection. Is there a way to reconnect a mirrored RAID set that has been disconnected?

For the first question, go back to the App Store download Lion again but before it begins the install stop the process and create a flash drive installer. See How to make a bootable Lion install disc or drive .
Remember you have to make sure the install process doesn;t proceed because once Lion is installed the installer app will be removed from your HD.
Sorry can;t help with the second question.
regards

Msi k2n9 diamond raid problems/questions

Hi, yesterday I bought 2 hard drives western digital 1 TB Caviar Blue 32mb cache each and wanted to make a raid stripe array, so they work as one and are twice as fast.
I had problems installing windows XP, so I tried windows 7. It detected the raid array, partitioned it, and installed the windows, but in the device manager I got other devices -> RAID Controller and no drivers for it. I also have a Coprocessor, but that may be the chipset drivers, that I didn't install yet.
The windows 7 is currently installed on the array, but I can't really see the performance difference. All disk information tools say it's currently 32 cache, shouldn't it be 64? And the speed is the same ~ 40-60 mb/s copy rate, 100mb/s sata-sata transfer rate.
With windows XP I tried installing the extra drivers from the web site from a floppy drive during installation, but the installation didn't detect the array at all.
Can somebody give me a clue how to fix my problem? And if you have any idea what software can I use to check the raid transfer rate and proper performance?

Quote from: Fredrik on 28-October-10, 02:45:27
Hello! It is a bit "dangerous" to help someone without knowing what the system looks like. What little you said, K2N9 motherboard, doesn't exist. Have a look here http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=prodarchive&maincat_no=1 Go to the title "AM2", because a fair guess lands you there. In order to help with your driver questions we need to know what the drivers are for, you see. An alternative would be to go to Nvidia's site, where you can pick most things you need: www.nvidia.com.
Coprocessor? Might it be - if you in fact have a processor - there are more than one core?
The cache thing is a little new to me, but one must remember you have one disk now, not two. Partitioning deals with the first bytes of data on this single hard disk, and not with the "RAM" memory.
Noticing a difference can be hard, but if you were to return to no-RAID status you will, for a little while, hate the longer boot-up time and slower start of programs. Since it runs at all, 100 mb/s read time is not out of order.
well i misplaced the numbers, it's k9n2, it's not that big mistake, and I know my system well. I have two disks, but one array, and i think the cache must be 2x, because the idea of raid 0, simultaneously writing bits on both disks. The logical idea is that if you write something to e drive with 32 mb cache you will be able to write the same thing on two drives with 32 mb cache each which makes it 64 mb
The coprocessor part is solved, after I installed the chipset drivers, but the raid thing is still there.

RAID 1 question for external drives...

Hope this is the right category for this question...
I have a 2-dock external hard drive (Icy Dock with eSATA and USB) and just put in two 2TB drives to handle all my video. When I plug it into my MBP (via USB), the LED indicators - from Icy Dock's shoddy online "manual" - tell me that one drive is "rebuilding" the other.
It is taking a VERY long time - now at about 24 hours, and the lights on the drive are still blinking. My questions:
- When the computer went to sleep, the rebuilding on the hard drive stopped. When I woke up the computer, it began again. Did it start the whole process over?
- The drive shows up on the desktop, and small files copy onto it fine. Can I go ahead and start the big copy of all my movie files before the rebuild is complete, and it'll make the RAID happen when it happens?
much obliged!

Hope this is the right category for this question...
I have a 2-dock external hard drive (Icy Dock with eSATA and USB) and just put in two 2TB drives to handle all my video. When I plug it into my MBP (via USB), the LED indicators - from Icy Dock's shoddy online "manual" - tell me that one drive is "rebuilding" the other.
It is taking a VERY long time - now at about 24 hours, and the lights on the drive are still blinking. My questions:
- When the computer went to sleep, the rebuilding on the hard drive stopped. When I woke up the computer, it began again. Did it start the whole process over?
- The drive shows up on the desktop, and small files copy onto it fine. Can I go ahead and start the big copy of all my movie files before the rebuild is complete, and it'll make the RAID happen when it happens?
much obliged!

3-Drive/4-Drive RAID setup questions

I'm contemplating purchasing a new 8-core Mac Pro. I understand RAID but I'm not an expert. That said, I'm thinking of doing one of the following but I don't know if both are doable:
One setup is 1 hard drive for Mac OS X, and 3 RAID drives for the video capture (3TB total RAID 0 Seagate 7200rpm drives).
Or, my question, can I just RAID 0 all 4 drives together and then create a partition for Mac OS X? It seems like this would give A LOT faster bootable drive, plus the benefits of seperating the media storage from the operating system.
The reason I ask now is this makes a difference in my purchase decision. If I can RAID all 4 drives together, do they all have to be the same capacity for RAID 0? If not, I'll just get a standalone 320GB drive for the OS, and RAID the other three 1TB drives together.
Last question, would it help to use a dedicated RAID card like the CalDigit card (or Apple card) instead of software RAIDing within Mac OS X?
Thanks in advance.

First off - DO NOT put your system on your capture RAID. No no no. bad bad bad.
Yes you can RAID your other three drives into a RAID 0 configuration using Disk Utility. All drives should be the same size. Recognize two things with this setup --
1. If your system crashes, you loose the RAID partition as it is created and maintained through system software.
2. If you loose one of the three drives, you loose all the information on all three drives.
A more secure way to go is with a hardware RAID controller. Apple sells one with the MacPros and Caldigit has one as well.
With the Caldigit you can set up the 3 drives as a RAID 5 which will give you data security. I'm not sure what RAID configurations beyond 0 the Apple card supports.
Good luck.
x

RAID 0 Questions - advice needed

I am stepping up to a new BTO Mac Pro (2.8Ghz with 8GB third-party RAM) and considering the Apple RAID Card vs. Software RAID. I have a few questions regarding RAID 0 on the startup volume and hardware vs. software RAID. I am a graphic designer and running Adobe CS3 and working often with pretty large files.
1. Does RAID 0 on a startup volume offer any performance boost if working data is on another volume? Does the working volume need to be in RAID 0 or RAID 5 to reap the performance beneftis. This is a point I am not entirely clear on yet.
2. I understand the risks of running RAID 0, especially on a startup volume. Any advice on whether or not this offers any real world performance boost?
- OR -
Would a single Raptor offer similar results. Or better yet, would a partial-stroked 500GB SATA II disk offer the same results as a single Raptor at a fraction of the cost, without the RAID 0 risks?
2. Is a hardware RAID card (i.e. the Apple RAID Card or better yet, the new CalDigit RAID Card for less $$$) a better option than software RAID (either Apple or SoftRAID)? With a RAID 0 startup volume and a RAID 1 pair for storage, will hardware RAID offer any performance gains? Or would a single startup volume with a 3-disk RAID 5 storage volume be a better option (I know RAID 5 is not possible with software RAID).
3. Any advice/feedback on the Apple RAID Card? I have read some horror stories about battery charging, at least initially. I have not seen much about the strange recharge cycle which apparently can cripple your machine for days every 3 months. The new CalDigit RAID card appears to be very promising. Supports the 4 internal drive bays as well as external drives, which the Apple card does not.
Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

I usually avoid linking to other forums, but in this case, there is a similar discussion over on MacNN forum setting up a Mac Pro to use RAID.
Apple RAID software has continued to improve. The difference in performance between Apple and SoftRAID has narrowed to the point both are excellent. SoftRAID though alerts you on any I/O time out or read/write errors, and use a stripped read which is nice, when or where it is needed.
I've never stopped upgrading and trying to improve on performance. The trick is not everyone can go out and spend $800 for a drive case and controller plus another $500 on disk drives for an external setup, and buy 3-6 drives for the existing SATA ports.
Rather than buying the fastest, I bought some 160GB RE WD drives, cheap, good for RAID, and planned to use those as the base. Then got the 320GB model. Then bought WD RE2 500GB $115 ea , which seems to be a nice price and still does nicely, optimized for writes. That means I can do some mix-and-matching.
Some can take their existing SATA drives to get started. And probably has some drives that can be used for backups and such.
Here is my own shopping list:
Sonnet Tempo E4P:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/TSATAIIE4P/
SeriTek Case: $525
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Firmtek/SATA5PM/
Or something cheaper,
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Norco%20Technologies/DS500N/
Dual bay case to use with 2 ODD ports and NewerTech kit:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MESATATBEK/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/MPQXES2/
(takes some work to access those two ODD SATA ports, but worth it, always on)
OWC XLR8 Specials, usually have Friday specials:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Specials/XLR8YourMac.cfm
10K Raptor $210 vs WD RE2 750GB $220 if you look under hard drives.

Z97 MPOWER MAX AC RAID Setup Question

Apologies if this is in the wrong place; I wasn't sure if I should stick this here or in the Windows x86/x64 board.
Essentially, what I would like to do is this:
Set up a RAID 1 (disk mirroring) array using the integrated Intel raid controller on my Z97 MPOWER MAX AC motherboard using two 1TB WD Blue drives. After setting up the array in BIOS, I'm wanting to do a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate (OEM).
My question is this: If I wanted to set up a software recovery partition (like how OEMs ship most systems these days with an OS recovery partition), how would I go about setting up this partition in relation to setting up the RAID array and installing Windows? Is it even possible to do what I'm trying to accomplish, or am I giving the "department of redundancy department" a run for their money?
Many thanks.
EJ

isn't that you will still need the bios to be modified first so it will point to your OS recovery?

Not a normal RAID 1 question

WD=Western Digital
I would like to run this question by a few people and see what they think.
Originally I had a 2008 (non R2) server now upgraded to 2012 and it had two drives - both the same size - one WD and one Hitachi. Both of those drives were in a RAID 1, and had no issues.
Then of course one fails, and I replace it. No more issues for a year or so, then I replace a failed drive again. Now both of the drives that were replaced were the WD, and not the Hitachi. These drives do get a lot of "abuse" since they do a bunch
of data compression and decompression, so yes I would expect it to fail.
Now my question, which is hopefully simple, is the Windows implementation of RAID 1 tied to any one disk per say, and then sycn'd, or is it just dumb luck and coincidence that both of the drives that failed were the WD drives?

OK so here is a really good walkthrough of implementing a RAID 1 -
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2005.05.raid.aspx Its an older article. But since you can boot to the second drive then that would infer that they are initially sync'd and then both written to at the same time.
So one thing that I will mention here is that you say: These drives do get a lot of "abuse" since they do a bunch of data compression and decompression, so yes I would expect it to fail.
A Hardware RAID card with a cache will actually ease the amount of IO because they have a an "Read Ahead" and Write Back to cache feature. The Adaptive Read ahead will fetch additional blocks of data when data is requested - this will keep the hard drive
heads from working so hard. Write back allows data being written to disk to go to cache first. If you are using caching on the RAID card make sure it has a battery backup. Another note: Certain MS products will disable any caching on the C: drive these include
- Domain Controller, SQL, Exchange or any product that uses the JET database i.e. DHCP

Importing DVD to FCP questions

I did a search on importing DVD content into FCP. I have read a lot of the articles but I still have questions.
I have about 8 DVD's that I have to pull clips from. There are about 18 clips. I know it is possible to just decode those clips. I am going to be editing this in FCP so here are my questions.
Which software is easier as far as setting in and out marks for the decoding of the DVD (mpegstreamclip or Handbrake)? I know I have to Encode the DVD to MPEG-4. Is this the default in mpegstreamclip or Handbreak? I also read that you have to demux the file before you import it into FCP. Is this an option in mpegstreamclip or handbreak?
One last thing, I know that a DVD is MPEG2 and I have to convert it to MPEG 4 but is it better to transfer the DVD to DVCAM and then capture the tape or use the software to rip the files. As far as quality, I would assume it is the same thing but I would like to hear it from the Gurus.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
thanks
Dual G5 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Given the fact that both are free or very inexpensive downloads, give them both a try.
MPEG Streamclip extracts are variety of QT formats. And you do not have to encode the DVD to Mpeg4, instead mpeg2.
Not certain why you are calling something a fault of the program.
You might want to explain, and remember these programs do not work with encrypted DVDs.
best wishes
David
Remember to mark an response helpful or solved.
It protects the integrity of the board.

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