RAID for secondary drives?

Hey all, I was just curious about something. I have a KT3-Ultra2 with RAID but have never used RAID before. I got this board because I thought I'd try it.
My system runs off a 30 gig drive, but I thought it would be nice to have mirrored raid drives to store all my music, about 15 gigs. As it is a home computer I have no reason really to back up my whole system like this, just my music.
So I'm curious, if I get the drives to set up my raid array, can I still boot and run my system off my current drive, leaving it as a single drive on the normal IDE connector, and use a raid array for just for backup? Or if I set up the raid, will I have to boot from it?
Thanks in advance-

you can do it way you want
install raid drivers on current drive
http://www.amdforums.com/showindex.php?s=&threadid=146384

Similar Messages

RAID for OS drive failing

I jumped through the correct hoops to make this work once, and was fully up and running for a month or so. Then a Windows Critical Update (x3) caused blue screens to appear several times a day. At one point, I went into the BIOS and reset to all defaults. Which I think removed the "magic" that had allowed my two RAID-striped SSDs to act as a single logical system drive, fed by the two 6GB/s SATA cables from the MB. When it was working, it was blazingly fast! Sadly, the guru that led me through the whole setup the first time is no longer here.
The failure mode: very long wait with B4 in lowest righthand part of black screen. Then the MSI image flashes for an instant and black screen again, saying only "Missing operating system".
I've booted off the Win 7 Ult. installation DVD and reinstalled both the iaAHCI and iastor drivers. Under Advanced Boot options, Intel(R) Rapid Start Technology is Enabled. But I suspect there's something else I need to do in the BIOS with Rapid Start. The same screen where you enable RST says "No valid iFFS partition found." Not sure what that means.
Can anyone please help me?
Thanks.

Thanks for the note. It was just enough info to get me over the hump. I had to search the BIOS to find the place to set the HD mode to "RAID", but after a few minutes I found it. Thanks for the tip!
Sorry about not following the posting guidelines, I've been fighting a bad cold, but that's no excuse. I have a Z77A-G41 with an Intel i5-3570 Sandybridge CPU. No GPU. 16GB RAM, Win 7 Ultimate. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get a recurrance of the many blue screens-a-day problem that brought on the meltdown in the first place.
Cheers!

Setting up RAID for a drive with user folders on it!

We have one hard drive for user data, partitioned into 2 volumes, IDHome and IDData. IDHome contains the home directory for all the users. IDData is shared network data. I want to set up a Raid 1 array for this entire drive, however it seems that you cant do this on the fly without erasing both drives. Ive got a second identical drive, but when I try to create the array in Disk Utility, it wants to erase both drives. That would be a catastrophy of monumental proportions!
Everything from the original drive is backed up, so Im not affraid of losing anything. But I dont even want to go there.
Hers my main qustion. If no users are connected to the server and I backup the original HD, set up the Raid array (thus erasing both drives), then copy everything back onto the array, are users going to be able to log in as if nothing happened? Is OS X going to care that /Volumes/IDHome is no longer on /dev/disk1 and instead on the Raid array now (/dev/disk2 I guess)? Is OS X looking for specific hard drives or just at /Volumes/IDHome?
Ive read a couple of articles on the internet about using the command line diskutils to first enable one drive as a raid array, making the computer think the array exists, then adding a second drive to the array and "rebuilding" the array... but I go back to my original question, is osx going to care that /volumes/idhome isnt technically on /dev/disk1.
I tried to test diskutil enableRaid mirror /dev/disk2 (/dev/disk2 is a backup drive we have installed on the server), but I got an error message saying the syntax needed to be in diskutil enableRaid mirror /Volumes/VolumeName format...it wanted /Volumes in stead of /dev is guess.

You can't partition an Apple software raid drive.

T400S full SSD speed for secondary drives (eSATA, ultrabay, dock)?

Does the T400s delivier the full speed of SSDs (SATA-II 3 Gbps, ex: 220MB/Sec seq transfer of the X25-M) when the SSD is used
- in ultrabay
- on eSATA port
- on eSATA port of the Mini Dock (Plus Series 3)
The T400 seems to deliver the full speed of SSDs when used as primary drive:
http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T400_series_ThinkPads&message.id=12616

Many thanks for your responses. In the meantime I have purchased Vertex 2 Sata II drive and the installation has gone perfectly. This new drive is giving me a far better experience - first noticed in the speed of installing my software: Office, VS2010, SQL 2008R2 etc. Blindingly fast!
As for alignment - the previous installation was checked and was aligned. In fact I have read that Win 7 will automatically align when installed to an SSD.
My hope is that this newer version of SSD with the Sandforce controller will not degrade as the original one did. The difference in performance from new to 18 months of use was quite significant!
Cheers and thanks again,
David E (Sydney)

MSI GT70 Secondary Drive/750gb not detected while SSD in Raid !!

Long story short , my system crashed randomly for the first time ever (I left the room came back and the system had crashed) , then I got the raid boot failure message for the first time ever !
It was a perfectly clean system practically unused system.
I got the laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium.. this just before the Win 8 systems came out..
I deleted Raid Volume and then created a Raid Volume..
Installed Windows 8 , all this while Bios set to Raid !
I noticed my 750Gb drive was no longer visible in Windows.. i installed all the drivers i could think of but still my secondary HDD wasn't being detected in device manager..
Intel Rapid Storage Technology detected 699GB in Storage System View , while device manager didnt..
When i set Bios to either ACHI or IDE , Bios then reads the 750GB drive in boot priority list but then Windows fails to boot from my SSD's set to Raid !
When I set bios to RAID it only reads SSD , not the 750GB drive..
So basically when I set my Bios to raid my secondary 750gb drive disappears from the boot priority list + from Windows !
When I set to achi/IDE my raid disappears.
I want to keep my raid and have my 750gb drive !
How i dont know...
If i disable raid , only a single SSD drive is detected that leaves me with half the space.. so i cant even make do without Raid because ill lose half that space..
Another thing worth noting is that my Bios boot screen/time has increased noticeably compared to how things were originally. feeling sluggish !
Sorry for putting things in such a messy way..
Thanks for your input and help in advace !!!

thanks for updating me on that..
But to my luck , i had nearly been using the system for 2 days now..
Installed everything , played a few movies etc..
Then my system froze..
I had to force shut it down..
Now im getting the Raid boot failure status all over again..
So i went and reconnected the SSD's but the problems still the same..
I cant go delete my entire raid because what if this happens again..
I'm stuck in this non sense of a loop.. most disappointed , i spent so much money on this machine and i haven't once enjoyed it like i was supposed to..
Is it the raid card , is it the ssd , is it the raid software or is it something else.. :(
Why is my system doing this.. beyond disappointed all my efforts have gone to waste..

Neer WXP RAID and SSCI driver for my Satellite C650-10K

Does anybody know where I can find the Raid and SSCI driver for my Satellite C650-10K?

Hi buddy,
Are you sure that you need RAID or SCSI (not SSCI) driver for Satellite C650?
As far as I know this model doesnt support such hardware
I think you need drivers for SATA controller. This package is called Intel Storage Manager and can be downloaded on official Toshiba website.
Here is an interesting article about XP installation with SATA drivers:
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/TSB85017Z0000R01.htm

Mirror RAID on partitioned drive

Can you Mirror a partitioned drive (boot plus data)? thanks

thats no problem reformatting just wondered if I had a boot partition and a data partition how does a mirror work - automatically on both partitions or do you create two mirrors one for each partition<</div>
I know on my "hardware" mirrored RAID, it all automatic. Any information or partitioning written to the "primary" drive is instantly "mirrored" to the "secondary" drive. Mirrored RAID drives are configured to be "exactly" identical, that's why you need matching drive capacities as well as manufacturer.
As for "software" RAIDs, I'm sure they are setup the same way, except the computer takes over the process of making sure the information is the same on both drives. On my HW RAID, I don't even need it connected to a computer to do a HD restore.
HTH

RAID for Consumer PCs

If you have an interest in using RAID, then the MS Word document attached to this post may be useful information. Scroll all the way to the bottom for the attachment.
RAID for Consumer PCs
Table of Contents
RAID
RAID 0
RAID 1
RAID 5
RAID 10 (0+1)
INTEL Controller Support for Different RAID Configurations
Background Information for Creating a RAID configuration.
Considerations:
Performance comparisons
Creating a RAID 0 Array
Creating a RAID 1 Array
Creating a RAID 5 Array
Creating a RAID 10 (0+1) Array
Conversion from RAID 0 to RAID 5
RAID 0 to RAID 5 Observations
Other RAID Migrations
*************DISCLAIMER***********
RAID
RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks and also commonly called Redundant Array of Independent Disks. A RAID array is created when one or more hard disks or one or more solid state disks (SSD) are combined to form a logical volume using one of several different configurations. Consumer level PCs typically use RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and occasionally RAID 10 (0+1). The RAID configuration choice is dependent on the requirements for redundancy, speed and capacity. The choice of a RAID configuration will be a compromise between speed, redundancy, capacity and cost. The different RAID configuration options can be restricted by hardware limitations.
RAID 0
A RAID 0 volume is created when 2 hard disks are used and then data is spanned or striped across the different hard disks. The process of spanning data across different hard disks is also called scatter loading. By spreading data across multiple hard disks, a significant performance improvement can be gained. However, should one of the hard disks fail, then the entire RAID 0 configuration becomes unusable. A RAID 0 volume combines the capacity of the hard drives being used in the configuration.
RAID 1
A RAID 1 configuration is created when 2 hard disks are used and then data on hard drive 1 is replicated to hard drive 2. The process is also called data mirroring. This configuration provides for redundancy in the event of a single hard drive failure but at the expensive of a degradation to write performance as data has to be written to multiple hard drives. Since the data is being replicated between two volumes the overall capacity is limited to that of one hard drive.
RAID 5
A RAID 5 configuration is similar to a RAID 0 array except RAID 5 deploys distributed parity also referred to as checksum data. Blocks of data are stripped across three or more hard drives and each hard drive contains block level recreation data (parity). In the event of a hard drive failure, parity will allow for the data to be accessed through a dynamic data creation process. The downside to the dynamic data creation process is a reduction in performance until the failing hard drive can be replaced. RAID 5 performs best for supporting read accesses as write operations will be slower while the parity blocks are being updated. Parity data does consume disk space. A three hard drive RAID 5 array will have about the same total data capacity as a two hard drive RAID 0 array.
RAID 10 (0+1)
A RAID 10 configuration also called RAID 0+1 can be implemented in two different methods depending on the hardware being used. The below left configuration is a striped RAID 1 array being replicated and the below right configuration is a RAID 0 array being replicated. A RAID 10 configuration can provide a RAID 0 performance level even with the loss of one hard disk. The downside to RAID 10 is the reduced configuration capacity.
INTEL Controller Support for Different RAID Configurations.
The RAID configurations used in this document are based on the INTEL SATA controller.
See the below table.
NOTE: Even though your system board may have the appropriate Intel controller,
not all system boards will provide RAID functionality.
Background Information for Creating a RAID configuration.
You can create a RAID configuration provided that:
The PC cabinet can accommodate additional hard drive(s) if needed.
The system board has the necessary open SATA port(s) if needed.
A SATA controller that can support the desired RAID configuration.
You can determine the status of your RAID configuration by using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) software. If you don’t have this software on your PC then you can download IRST from the Intel web site. I recommend that you use the latest version available from Intel. Background information can be obtained from the IRST User Guide. When you launch IRST, the help topics are an excellent source of information. You can access IRST by going into the Control Panel and select Intel Rapid Storage Technology. You can also access IRST from the lower right Task Bar location. IRST should resemble a hard drive icon and normally it has a green check mark. By default IRST is set as delayed startup so don’t expect to see it active right after boot up. The Intel images being used in this document are from IRST version 11.1.0.1006.
If the SATA controller in your PC is not set to RAID then read this Microsoft article if you are running VISTA or Windows 7. You need to run the MrFixIT script before you reboot your PC in the bios and make the SATA controller mode change to RAID. The script will then allow Windows to choose the correct driver when you reboot your PC. If you plan on using a boot drive image restore then be sure to run the script just prior to making taking your image backup. That way your backup image is set to allow Windows to choose the correct SATA driver.
Before creating any RAID configuration, always make backups of your data and image the boot hard disk to external media such as an USB drive. Additionally, be sure that your imaging product boot disk is functional, particularly if the PC’s boot hard disk is part of the RAID configuration. Its best to use a commercial hard disk imaging product as support and functionality is generally better than the “freebie” software.
Be sure that your PC is running the latest available BIOS. BIOS updates are used to update the Intel ROM firmware. Additionally, check for hard drive and SSD firmware updates.
Summary of preparation steps in priority order:
Backup your data.
Test out your recovery and restore procedures.
Update the following: BIOS, hard drive firmware, SSD firmware
Update IRST
Execute the Microsoft MrFixIt if your PC is not set to RAID mode in the bios.
Create an image of your boot hard drive.
Considerations:
After replacing a failed hard drive, don’t expect the rebuild process to be fast. All of the data that existed on the failed hard drive must be either regenerated using parity data or replicated to the new hard drive.
I recommend that you use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) when using RAID 5. Cached write data needs to be written to hard drive in the event of a power failure to avoid the loss of data. You might want to consider disabling write back cache if you are not using an UPS. There is a performance reduction by doing so at the expense of improving data integrity.
If you need a RAID array over 2 TB then your PC needs: UEFI bios, 64 bit operating system, GPT formated hard drives. Review this Microsoft article on Windows and GPT FAQs.
Since a MBR formated array will limit the useable space to 2 TB it’s therefore best to use hard drives that are 1 TB or less for RAID 0, 5 and 10.
Consider the data growth rate and the size of the array. The Intel controller will limit the number of hard drives. The size of the PC cabinet and available system board SATA ports will also be growth constraints. It’s not uncommon for a business to experience an annual data growth rate of 20 percent.
If you need a RAID solution beyond the typical consumer level RAID configurations, then you should review the RAID options available from HP.
RAID technology in not infalible so you need to consider backups. A voltage spike inside your PC could render the RAID unusable and unrecoverable. Corrupted data or a virus are other reasons for keeping backups. An external USB connected hard drive might be sufficient for backups.
Throughly test your backup and restore software. Always keep more than one backup copy of your data.
Performance comparisons:
All of the hard drives benchmarked are Hitachi 1.5 TB SATA III hard drives connected as SATA II devices. HD Tune was used to benchmark the seniaros using default settings.
Configuration
Average MB/s
Maximum MB/s
Single hard drive
113
152
RAID 0
222
289
RAID 1
104
142
RAID 5
221
288
RAID 10 (0+1)
220
274
Creating a RAID 0 Array.
If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into a RAID 0 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array. Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
If you are creating a RAID 0 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array. You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
Launch IRST.
You can observe in the above image the status of the hard drives attached to the Intel SATA controller. Now click on Create. Select Optimized Disk (RAID 0) then click on Next.
Configure the RAID 0 array by selecting two hard drives of the same size and click on Next.
Next click on Create Volume.
A warning window will appear. Click on OK.
The new RAID volume is now created. However, you now need to use Windows Disk Management to ready the volume for use.
Creating a RAID 1 Array.
If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into a RAID 1 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array. Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
If you are creating a RAID 1 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array. You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
Launch IRST.
You can observe the above status of the hard drives attached to the Intel SATA controller. Now click on Create.
Select Real-time data protection (RAID 1) and click NEXT.
Configure the RAID 1 array by selecting two hard drives of the same size and click on Next.
Next click on Create Volume.
The new RAID volume is now created. However, you now need to use Windows Disk Management to ready the volume for use.
Creating a RAID 5 Array.
A RAID 5 array will require three to four hard drives. While it is possible to convert a RAID 0 to a RAID 5 array, I recommended that you consider building the RAID 5 array from scratch rather than use a conversion method.
If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into the RAID 5 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array. Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
If you are creating a RAID 5 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array. You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
The following procedure will build the RAID 5 array with three hard drives using IRST.
Launch IRST.
During this create process, I will be using the last three hard drives
listed in the above image under Storage System View. Now click Create.
Select Efficient data hosting and protection (RAID 5) and click
On Next.
Select the three hard drives for RAID 5 and click on Next.
Review the volume creation selections then click on Create Volume.
Review the final warning then click on OK.
Now click on OK and review the final array status.
Creating a RAID 10 (0+1) Array.
A RAID 10 (0+1) array will require four hard drives.
If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into the RAID 10 (0+1) array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array. Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
If you are creating a RAID 10 (0+1) data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array. You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
The following procedure will build the RAID 10 (0+1) array using four hard drives using IRST.
Launch IRST.
This create process will be using the last four hard drives listed in the above image under Storage System View. Notice that the hard drives are not the same size. Two of the hard drives are 1.5 TB and two hard drives are 2 TB. While it’s recommended to use all hard drives of the same size, it’s not required. The RAID 10 creation progam will pick to two smallest hard drives for the striped pair and then the two largest hard drives for replication pair but not the opposite as the two largest hard drives if used as the striped pair would not fit on the two smaller hard drives for replication. Now click Create.
Select Balanced performance and data protection (RAID 10) and click
on Next.
Select the four hard drives for RAID 10 and click on Next.
Notice that IRST is set to create a RAID 10 volume with the capacity of 2.7 TB.
Review the volume creation selections then click on Create Volume.
Review the final warning then click on OK.
Now click on OK and review the final array status.
Conversion from RAID 0 to RAID 5
If you have a RAID 0 hard disk configuration and you are concerned that a hard drive failure will cause your PC to crash or results in data loss then you might have an option to use RAID 5. A RAID 5 three drive configuration can survive a single hard drive failure but not two failing hard drives. While there are other RAID configurations possible, this document will only be addressing a three hard drive configuration using the Intel SATA controller. Some of the newer HP PCs can accommodate three hard drives and can be configured when ordered with RAID 5.
Observe the below image. This PC has a RAID 0 2.7 TB array. To build the RAID 5 array, you will need to add (configure) an additional hard drive into the array. Click on Manage and then add an eligible hard drive to the array.
Note: all data on the hard drive to be added to the array will be lost since parity and data from the existing array needs to be written to the added hard drive to create the RAID 5 array. Take backups of your existing array in case something goes wrong.
Once you are on the Manage screen then click on Change type.
The following screen will appear:
Select the drive to be included into the array and click on OK.
When the migration process begins, the Status is now indicating migrating and the Type is RAID 5. The hard drive added was 2 TB which meets the minimum amount. BE PATIENT! The migration process will take a very long time for an in place migration to complete.
It’s much faster to delete out the original RAID 0 volume, create the new RAID 5 volume and then reload the original RAID 0 image from your backups. I recommend that you consider
this method verses the in place approach.
Click on Status to show the migration progress.
RAID 0 to RAID 5 Observations
I was able to shut down and boot the RAID configuration before the migration process had completed. The in place migration method was very slow, about 3% per hour and hence my recommendation to use a differnet method. Booting up from different hard drive before the migration process has completed results in a BSOD on boot up.
After completing the RAID 5 conversion, I did receive a message from IRST indicating that one or more volumes is protected against a hard drive failure.
Other RAID Migrations
While there are other RAID migrations options available, they can be platform (chipset) specific. Review this Intel Chipset article on supported RAID migrations. Even though the Intel RAID migration has a safety function built into the process in the event of a power loss or shutdown, it’s always best to have a complete set of up-to-date backups.
The migration process can be painfully slow. The migration time is largely dependent on the hard drive sizes and the number of hard drives involved in the overall migration. In some cases it might be faster to build the RAID array from scratch and then load the data back to the array verses using an in place migration process.
It is possible to increase the overall RAID array (volume) size with some RAID configurations by adding hard drives to the array. The overall size of the array may be limited by how the array had been previously formatted by Windows. Review the information under the Considerations topic in this document.
*********updated August 21, 2013
If you are using SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration then you will need to have the Intel 7 or 8 chipset plus Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) version 11 or higher to get Windows TRIM support to function. The latest version of IRST as of 8/21/2013 that I have seen is 12.7.1036.
*************DISCLAIMER***********
There may be inaccuracies with the information contained in this document so please consider that when using RAID.
*************DISCLAIMER***********
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT
Attachments:
RAID for Consumer PCs.doc ‏3761 KB

Great document
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Printer -- HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus

G-Raid external hard drive won't mount -- have tried almost everything!

My iMac (Intel , OSX 10.4.11) has been happily working with my G-Raid external hard drive for over a year. But now, after the computer cord was disconnected yesterday, it refuses to mount the G-Raid or recognize it anywhere. Can't find it in the Disk Utilities or under "About this mac -- Firewire." Called Apple service and tried everything the agent recommended...PRAM diagnostic reboot, power surge, plugging, unplugging...nothing helped. The problem isn't with the G-Raid, which works fine plugged into my old Powerbook with the same firewire. Grateful for any help, as I really need the G-Raid -- it's got all my projects, music, photos....

Can you plug it in with a USB cable on your iMac? That might get you through your crisis and even resurrect your Firewire connection. Accidentally breaking the connection on my external Firewire drives happens too often as the connector doesn't make a snug fit compared to USB. It's not a problem unless there was something in your buffers at the time the connection was broken. You may need to Repair the drive using Disk Utility when it eventually reconnects or all may be well without more intervention.

Using RAID 1 Hard Drive as an encrypted Time Machine Disk???

I'd like to purchase a RAID hard drive to use as a backup for my iMac with Time Machine, but a review on the Apple store site (emphasis mine) says:
"LacCie 4TB 2 big Thunderbolt Raid Hard Drive
Written by Alexander S from Calgary
Apr 9, 2012
Hey Guys!
Impressive, very quiet, in fact the quietest of all the drives I had. The speed increase is nice too, but of course, if the source is slower, you won't benefit from the speed that it is capable. Quiet is worth the price.
I did notice that, if I use it as a raid configuration, Disk Utility won't do permissions, unless I boot from it, unlike my firewire drive. All my drives and computers are encrypted, however you can't encrypt a raid configuration. Even using it as Time Capsule, it won't save to it, so it used image encryption. Haven't research this further yet.
One very nice thing I notice, there is no lag or spinning ball when you are waking up the unit, unlike the other drives using USB or Firewire. In fact, that was so annoying, that I would unmount the firewire drives asap when not needed. No spinning ball wakeup lag make it worth the money.
The large LED blue button is bright, you wouldn't want this where you sleep, however I don't need a night light in my office. LaCie may want to consider an option to dim or turn off the LED if desired.
When starting up my computer, the bluetooth keyboard and mouse, trackpad, usually take some seconds before I can move the mouse and enter password. Funny thing, it is available instantly when booting from the raid unit. I wonder why?
This is the results of about two week of use. I am seriously considering get another unit to match."
I encrypt my Time Machine backups. I'd like to run a backup drive in RAID 1 for safety. Does anyone know if this is possible?
Thank you!
(OS 10.8.2)

I wouldn't use RAID for TM, but...
http://pondini.org/TM/2.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4062015?start=0&tstart=0

How do I move my home folder to secondary drive in ML?

Hello,
I've tried a bunch of methods I found by searching but they all appear to only be for Lion. It was basically moving the folder while logged in from another admin account, and repointing to the new location from System Preferences. Everytime I try, I log back into a new profile. The reason to do this is because I installed a SSD and replaced the optical drive with the original hard drive in a 2012 15" MBP. I'd like to keep my home folder on the secondary (original) HDD.
Thanks

Use backup software such as Carbon Copy Cloner 3.5.2 to copy the /Home/ folder to your secondary drive. Do not yet delete anything from your primary drive. Open Users & Groups preferences, click on the lock icon and authenticate. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your account entry in the list and select Advanced Options from the context menu.
Click on the Choose button to the right of the field labeled, "Home dir:". Navigate in the File browser to your /Home/ folder on the secondary drive. Select the Home folder itself then click on the Open button. You must Restart immediately. After restart you will boot from the primary disk but be using the Home folder located on the secondary disk.
Once you know it is working you can remove the contents of the folders in the /Home/ folder on the primary drive. Do not remove the folders themselves. DO NOT remove anything from the /Home/Library folder. This is in case you must switch back to using the Home folder on the primary drive.

Not Enough Space to Extract Files :-( Unable to extract to secondary drive?

I'm installing several Creative Cloud applications to my machine (Windows 8.1, 64-bit, quad-core). With current hardware & configuration, my OS drive is a relatively small SSD for speed while all applications are to install to a second drive. Creative Cloud apparently does not like this as it's trying to extract all files on the primary drive despite my setting the other drive as install location in preferences.
Any suggestions as to possible next steps? I'm not currently able to uninstall apps or clear any additional space on the OS drive, but I do want to install apps. Can I get Creative Cloud to extract the installation files on the secondary drive rather than the primary? If so, how?
I look forward to your suggestions and recommendations,
Matt

Extraction uses the local user and temp folders which is controlled by system variables and the relevant user profile settings in Windows itself. This has nothing to do with Adobe. If your SSD is that small, you probably should have done it a long time ago. No doubt your temp and user folders are clogged up already and contribute to the shortage of space...
Mylenium

HT2801 Apple Store said that the USB SuperDrive would work with my iMac that already has an internal optical drive to be used as a secondary drive, but I can't get it to work when I plug it in the usb port.

Apple store said the USB SuperDrive would work as a secondary drive with my iMac.
After plugging into my USB port, I find it doesn't work. Has anybody else tried this.

Which USB Superdrive are you referring to? If this is the one:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD564ZM/A/apple-usb-superdrive
it states it works with Macbook Air, Mini, or MBP with Retina display. If they told you differently, take it back for a full refund and show them their own website.

Software or Hardware RAID for LVM

Well, I've been looking into setting up a RAID for my home server. I've been trying to decide between a software raid or buying a relatively cheap SATA controller and using it for a hardware RAID. I'm trying to figure out the pros and cons of buying a cheap hardware card for use rather than simply using a software solution.
Are there any negatives to using LVM with either setup versus the other? Have software solutions become decent enough to be relied on?
If you recommend a hardware solution, a card suggestion would be appreciated. Preferably something under $50.. if that's even possible for a semi reliable card.
I'm also curious as to whether there would be an issue with software raid if it is run across multiple SATA controllers. Can you even run a single hardware RAID using 2 separate controllers?
Appreciate any advice!
EDIT: I'd also appreciate any information on the processor overhead of running a software RAID 5 with 5-6 disks. The home server is just an old Core2 and doesn't have all that much power to it.
Last edited by nedlinin (2012-01-05 00:35:03)

Anntoin wrote:
Stick with the software RAID, more flexible and probably more reliable. Hardware RAID only - arguably - becomes worth it if you have fancy stuff like a battery backed write cache, etc...
I'd avoid using RAID 5 and go for something like RAID 1+0, look up 'RAID 5 write hole'.
The processor overhead should be quite low even on a Core2.
The wiki has a bunch on info on RAID and LVM:
e.g. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/So … ID_and_LVM
Appreciate the info. I've actually been reading over the RAID/LVM wiki over the past couple days making sure I get myself aligned to what needs to be done.
As far as avoiding RAID 5, I was specifically choosing it as it allows for some form of backup while giving me a large amount of hard drive space. I will be using 6x2TB drives in the array and using a RAID1 would end up giving me half of it usable, RAID5 giving me 10TB usable. Right now each of the drives are on their own so even with the write hole issues I'd assume I'd be better off with the RAID 5 then simply having the drives separate no?
I don't simply want to put all 6 drives into a LV as I'd be worried about one failing and losing more data than each drive on their own.

PCIe SATA Cards for RAID for video: Seritek 2ME4-E vs Sonnet Tempo E4P

Hey Folks,
I'm just about to purchase bigger, faster RAID system for my video editing needs. I've already purchased 1TB Barracudas for the drives and I have decided on the Burly dual PM for the enclosure. http://www.burlystorage.com/ccp0-catshow/burlydualpm.html
The questions is which card? I've had a seritek 2 port card and also their expresscard for years without a problem. But some tests I've seen indicate that the Sonnet is a bit faster. Then again, I know that some people had problems with the firmware at least as recently as last spring.
What do people say? Hatter and Japamac, I'm hoping to hear from you.

FirmTek:
If you would like the ability to support port multiplier enclosures and 3rd party SMART applications, the FirmTek SeriTek/e6G would be my choice for a low cost 2-port 6G controller with these features. This card features hot swap and is also able to hot plug Oxford 936/946 based enclosures without the need for a restart. Installation is easy.
I use the SeriTek/e6G in the 2009 Mac Pro with Mac OS X 10.6.5. The PCIe 2.0 slots in the 2009 model provide optimized performance. >
http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-e6g/
You want a 4x or above card usually, one that has more bandwidth and performance, than those low end 1x 2-port cards that can't drive enough MB/sec to make using multiple drives / multiple enclosures.
Well, seeing you went with Seagate, not my cup of tea, I would have said WD Black Caviar 2TB drives instead.
Sonnet 4-port E4P is what I have used but it or its drivers may be an issue, totally unsure.
PM today is limited by today's drives. When it came out drives were slow by comparison, a mere 75MB/sec while today one drive can shovel 90-125MB/sec or half of what a PM can handle. You only get in real world about 250MB/sec maybe (overhead takes away from that 300MB/sec per port). That means while 6Gb is great, PM enclosures like FirmTek5PM need a new faster PM chip. Again, no idea where that is or when we will see it.
Maybe you should ask about SAS and be looking at even higher end RAID controllers from Areca perhaps.

RAID for secondary drives?

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