(RAID) super geek HDD questions

I want super geeks to respond because I trust their opinions :P and I know nothing about RAID or external HDDs now adays.
I'm a video/3D animation professional and my internal HDD is clogged with crap from old clients. In turn it's not allowing me to have much fun.
I found an eSata pci-E 2-port card for about 50 bux. I've been looking at a lot of RAID HDDs that are eSata on NewEgg but a lot of them say "PC Ready." The only one I see that is "Mac Ready" is not eSata and does not give me the rpms (5100 7200). Ideally I'm looking at 1TB-1.5 TB. Does it matter that some of them say "PC Ready". One of them I saw was "FAT 32". Isn't that what Mac is?
Is RAID hard to set up? Do I really need it with eSata Speeds being up to 3gb per second? Is there a solution that is around the same as regular eSATA drives described below?
What are your suggestions and where can I find them cheapest? I'm kinda thinking I don't need RAID and this is what I've found below.
This is the cheapest eSATA raid I've found:
http://www.micronet.com/products/sr4.htm
These are the drives I've looked at so far and wonder if they are good for Mac but are not RAID:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204079
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154332
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=35721 42&CatId=136
Thank you
Scott
Message was edited by: spiralof5

Maybe it would help you to become more knowledgeable about RAIDs so you can make a more intelligent decision. OS X does support software RAIDs and Disk Utility can be used to make RAID arrays from multiple drives installed in the computer. You can also purchase hardware RAID cards to use with internal or external drives. You can purchase RAID systems that can connect to the FireWire ports. Many options. FireWire systems will be slower than RAIDs using dedicated hard drives internally or connected directly to a SATA controller.
RAID Basics
For basic definitions and discussion of what a RAID is and the different types of RAIDs see RAIDs. Additional discussions plus advantages and disadvantages of RAIDs and different RAID arrays see:
RAID Tutorial;
RAID Array and Server: Hardware and Service Comparison>.
Hardware or Software RAID?
RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
RAID is a method of combining multiple disk drives into a single entity in order to improve the overall performance and reliability of your system. The different options for combining the disks are referred to as RAID levels. There are several different levels of RAID available depending on the needs of your system. One of the options available to you is whether you should use a Hardware RAID solution or a Software RAID solution.
RAID Hardware is always a disk controller to which you can cable up the disk drives. RAID Software is a set of kernel modules coupled together with management utilities that implement RAID in Software and require no additional hardware.
Pros and cons
Software RAID is more flexible than Hardware RAID. Software RAID is also considerably less expensive. On the other hand, a Software RAID system requires more CPU cycles and power to run well than a comparable Hardware RAID System. Also, because Software RAID operates on a partition by partition basis where a number of individual disk partitions are grouped together as opposed to Hardware RAID systems which generally group together entire disk drives, Software RAID tends be slightly more complicated to run. This is because it has more available configurations and options. An added benefit to the slightly more expensive Hardware RAID solution is that many Hardware RAID systems incorporate features that are specialized for optimizing the performance of your system.
For more detailed information on the differences between Software RAID and Hardware RAID you may want to read: Hardware RAID vs. Software RAID: Which Implementation is Best for my Application?

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    The RAID level for video editors. There is redundancy! There is only a small performance hit when rebuilding an array after a disk failure due to the dedicated parity disk. There is quite a perfomance gain achieveable, but the drawback is that it requires a hardware controller from Areca. You could do worse, but apart from it being the Rolls-Royce amongst the hardware controllers, it is expensive like the car.
    Performance wise it will achieve around 85% (X-1) on reads and 60% (X-1) on writes over a single disk with X being the number of disks in the array. So with a 6 disk array in RAID3, you get around 0.85x (6-1) = 425% the performance of a single disk on reads and 300% on writes.
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    RAID10
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    RAID30, 50 & 60
     Just striped arrays of RAID 3, 5 or 6 which doubles the speed while keeping redundancy at the same level.
    EXTRAS
     RAID level 0 is striping, RAID level 1 is mirroring and RAID levels 3, 5 & 6 are parity check methods. For parity check methods, dedicated controllers offer the possibility of defining a hot-spare disk. A hot-spare disk is an extra disk that does not belong to the array, but is instantly available to take over from a failed disk in the array. Suppose you have a 6 disk RAID3 array with a single hot-spare disk and assume one disk fails. What happens? The data on the failed disk can be reconstructed in the background, while you keep working with negligeable impact on performance, to the hot-spare. In mere minutes your system is back at the performance level you were before the disk failure. Sometime later you take out the failed drive, replace it for a new drive and define that as the new hot-spare.
    As stated earlier, dedicated hardware controllers use their own IOP and their own cache instead of using the memory on the mobo. The larger the cache on the controller, the better the performance, but the main benefits of cache memory are when handling random R+W activities. For sequential activities, like with video editing it does not pay to use more than 2 GB of cache maximum.
    REDUNDANCY(or security)
    Not using RAID entails the risk of a drive failing and losing all data. The same applies to using RAID0 (or better said AID0), only multiplied by the number of disks in the array.
    RAID1 or 10 overcomes that risk by offering a mirror, an instant backup in case of failure at high cost.
    RAID3, 5 or 6 offers protection for disk failure by reconstructing the lost data in the background (1 disk for RAID3 & 5, 2 disks for RAID6) while continuing your work. This is even enhanced by the use of hot-spares (a double assurance).
    PERFORMANCE
     RAID0 offers the best performance increase over a single disk, followed by RAID3, then RAID5 amd finally RAID6. RAID1 does not offer any performance increase.
    Hardware RAID controllers offer the best performance and the best options (like adjustable block/stripe size and hot-spares), but they are costly.
     SUMMARY
     If you only have 3 or 4 disks in total, forget about RAID. Set them up as individual disks, or the better alternative, get more disks for better redundancy and better performance. What does it cost today to buy an extra disk when compared to the downtime you have when a single disk fails?
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    Look carefully at this chart to see what a properly configured RAID can do to performance and compare it to the earlier single disk chart to see the performance difference, while taking into consideration that you can have one disks (in each array) fail at the same time without data loss:
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    WARNING: If you have a power outage without a UPS, all bets are off.
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    Harm,
    thanks for your comment.
    Your understanding  was absolutely right.
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    C:  i understand
    D: i understand
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    View Solution.

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    ****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
    ****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
    ****I don't work for HP****
    Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

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    Hello all!  Just started using Time Machine with an external HDD.  So, here is my question, if my HDD (USB) is not attached for a week, and Time Machine is running, will I get some sort of error message letting me know that the backup volume cannot be found?  Also, when I reattach, say one week later, will Time Machine pick up and backup those items over the past week?  Please advise.  Thanks!

    Time machine might give you an error but its very unlikely. And as for unplugging the drive, yes time machine will pick up were it left off and update the changes you have made. I usually only hook mine up every couple weeks cause I don't make very many changes.

  • Mac Book HDD question

    I actually have 2 questions for my macbook. I have a late 2008 aluminum body 13 inch macbook 2ghz intel core 2 duo with snow leapord . 1st question the 128gb hdd is almost full i have about 29 gb left. I want to upgrade to an internal hdd can this be done? And any recommendations would be awesome with a link to the HDD.
    also the same laptop is crashing. I dont know what seem to be causing it. Itll randomly just crash and it takes for ever to reboot. the battery is fully charged.
    thanks

    TM will backup everything you do not specifically exclude.
    You might try reinstalling OS X. See the following:
    How to Perform an Archive and Install
    An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
    1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
    Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
    Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
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    2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
    3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
    4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
    5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
    6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

  • Encrypted external HDD question

    Hi,
    Hope this doesn't  sound like a daft question, but I am trying to learn as much as I can. I have encrypted my external drives, but I was wondering where the decrypt key is. Is it held on the computer or on the drive itself? I ask as in the future either when I upgrade, or as the result of a serious problem with my Mac I would want to restore from one of the drives so need to know if it will work ok on another machine. Also if the decrypt key is on the external HDD isn´t that a security flaw as any hacker would have the key with which to decrypt together with the files?
    Thanks

    Hi Linc,
    I have two external drives, one runs os and has my files on it and the other is a time machine back up of it. Now that I have encrypted the os disk it asks for the drive password on boot up, so I assume that the decrypt key is on the os drive and that I can use that HDD on any Mac but just inputting the password?
    Is that correct?

  • HDD questions...

    I recently acquired a 17" iMac G5 for free and am trying to repair it. I thought that the original HDD was bad until i recently booted to my 10.4 install disk and opened the disk utility to find the disk there...
    I had another hard drive hooked up via an external USB enclosure, but it wasn't showing in Disk Utility. Not only that, but the only time that the internal HDD would show up is if that external drive was connected. I tried to erase the disk and start fresh, but the Disk Utility comes up with some weird error, and does not continue...
    My questions:
    What could be causing this, and would reformatting the HDD with all zeros correct this problem?
    I will try to use firewire target disk mode with another PPC mac (The one listed below) to see what can turn up. I'll keep what I find posted.
    thanks,
    Superd@ve

    Take a look at Console and see if the are any heat related messages in your system log. You likely have a failing power supply or some bad caps.

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