Realtime mirrored hard drive image

here is what i want to do: i have an external firewire drive that i created a partition on that is the same size as my internal hard drive. i want that drive to be a mirror image of my internal drive. i dont want time machine, that keeps backups, i want a realtime backup, so if i delete a file on my internal drive, it will also be erased from the external drive. id also like some way for the external drive to synchronize to the current state of my internal drive when i have been working with the drive unplugged and then plug it back in.
i hope this is clear... is this possible at all?

Not a good idea. First, you cannot add an existing startup volume to a RAID set. You would have to erase your startup volume, create the RAID, then reinstall OS X. Second, an external drive is slower than in internal drive, so the RAID would function only as fast as the slower drive in the RAID set. Third, the external drive would have to be permanently connected and operational in order to boot from it. You would be better off simply using the external drive as a backup for the internal drive.
See the following to learn more about RAIDs:
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?

Similar Messages

  • NetInstall from configured hard drive image - is the OS hardware-specific?

    Hello.
    I deal with the installations, maintenance, etc. of about 30 computers — it's a mix of Intel iMacs, Mac Pros and G5s. About 75% of these machines in configured in one way (including applications, etc.) and the other 25% another way. Other than the OS (as some are Intel, some aren't), there's not a big different between these machines (again, with respect to the installed applications, configurations, etc.). So, I'm looking at starting to use NetInstall of future installations and upgrades and I'd like to use hard drive images of base machine installs (OS, applications, base users, settings) and I'm wondering — is the install of the OS (10.5.x) hardware-specific? Do I need to create an image for specific hardware (not including Intel vs PPC)? For example, if I create the image from an Intel iMac, can I use that image for installing a Mac Pro? I'm not sure how hardware-specific the original OS install is (if it only installs files for the machine it's being installed on, or if it installs all files for use on various machines)?
    Some advice here would be appreciated!
    Thanks,
    Kristin.

    Provided the Build of Mac OS X 10.5.x is the same or newer than that of your newest hardware then technically it is hardware-independent in that case.
    For example 10.5.6 (9G55) will support any model of Mac (meeting Leopard's requirements) which shipped prior to its release - however there are some cases where you may be missing multi-touch demo videos if you didn't start your build from a system containing these. The 10.5.6 (9G66) retail DVD contains these and would serve as a good base. 10.5.6 (9G2141) would support all currently shipping Macs as of March 2nd 2009.
    10.5.x is a fully Universal system so it will support any PowerPC-based Mac (meeting Leopard's requirements).
    Refer to this document for specific build numbers for Intel Macs: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159

  • Photshop CS6 not showing as `open-with` for desktop/external hard.drive images

    Hi, I have CS6 and am using Photoshop, but when I try to open any image on my desktop  the `open with` option dosent include Photoshop CS6, only other Adobe applications; even when I browse I can only find the Adobe systems file, with the .exe doc; I have a lot of images to edit, preferably without having to open Photoshop and individually open them from their folders; any advice on how to make Photshop CS6  `open-with`-able for any desktop/external hard drive images?

    Thanks for raising this issue. I found the answer at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/photoshopsupport/discuss/72157630067784368/. Hope it works. I have done it but I believe I must now reboot before trying it.

  • Hard drive image moving on screen

    I have been running on Macs since '84 and I have no clue if it is possible to have the hard drive image from moving from its place after an update and to have it not move
      Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

    Thanks Glenn,
    Hopefully by applying the snap to grid will solve my problem.
    I noticed though that when you go to the View tab and then to the Arange By tab I can not uncheck all. The item in the tab that is applied as in view arange by name will sort the items by name and will stay that way. I am not able to have it uncheck all
      Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

  • How do I erase an older Western Digital 1TB mirrored hard drive? Newer drives can be erased via a WD Utility, but the WD site says to "ask Apple" about the older ones.

    I have a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.7.5.  The hard drive is approx. six years old - a Western Digital for Macs, mirrored with 1TB on each half. 
    Because the drive is "infected" with Time Machine backups that I can't erase, I have removed all important files from the drive and now want to wipe it clean.  I've done this with new drives, via the WD Utility that came with the drive, but the older drive doesn't have such a utility.  The WD site only has a protocol for PCs. 
    I find nothing on the Apple site itself.  Can you community members help??
    (I've tried various ways of deleting the Time Machine backups, but nothing has worked.  The instructions for that, which I read on a community support site, were too advanced for me to understand.  A Mac IT guy tried to erase the backups, but he didn't know how either.  So that is why I'm erasing the drive totally.  I've learned my lesson and have a dedicated Time Machine drive now.)

    Please be clear:
    This is a mirrored RAID that you use as the startup disk?
    You now have a different startup disk and wish to erase the RAID mirror?
    Do you wish to continue using the RAID for backup?
    If all you want to do is erase the RAID to get rid or the Time Machine backups, the use Disk Utility to erase the mirror disk mounted on the Desktop.

  • Time Machine backup mirrors Hard Drive, but doesn't back up

    I noticed a few days ago that my external hard drive, on which I store my Time Machine backups, only mirrors the content of my Hard Drive instead of actually backing up. I don't know if it has anything to do with that fact that I finally recently upgraded from OS Snow Leopard to OS Lion, which is the last OS upgrade my late 2007 model MacBook will accept. I'm using 10.7.5, build 11G63
    I can drag files from my Time Machine backup folders going back to Feb. 22, 2013 on to my desktop, but they do not copy. Instead, they move out onto the desk top from the Time Machine folders and the same files disappear from the equivalent hard drive file folders, as if they had been dragged to the desk top. Likewise, any file I drag from any hard drive folder to the desk top disappears from the equivalent Time Machine folder. Conversely, files moved from the desk top to either a Time Machine folder or its hard drive equivalent show up in the other.
    I don't know the significance of the Feb. 22 date, since I upgraded to OS Lion sometime after that.
    Any suggestions?

    I solved this myself. I found that, after upgrading to Mac OS Lion from Snow Leopard, some of the aliased folders in my Time Machine backup hard drive are not locked, but the regular folders are locked. Apparently this is new in Lion. (As I mentioned above, my MacBook is too old to upgrade to Mountain Lion.) I had based my query above on my ability to delete things from some aliased folders on my backup hard drive. Fortunately, they are locked in the equivalent non-aliased folders.

  • Setting UP a Mirror Hard Drive

    OK so I have a Leopard Server that has 3 hard drives, so I thought that I would set it up so that it mirror's in case of hard drive failure... But apparently I am not smart enough to do this on my own so I'm calling out for help... Could someone please dummy proof this for me... :-
    Specs.
    Mac OS 10.5.6
    Xserve G5
    2 GHz
    5 GB RAM
    It says no RAID installed
    Main Server HD = 500 GB
    Backup #1 HD = 250 GB
    Backup #2 HD = 250 GB
    USB External Drive = 1 TB
    I'm also in the process of setting up Synchronize Pro that was just recently purchased for backing up...
    Greatly appreciate the help...

    Your only mirror option is to mirror the two 250GB drives. You'll then need need to either re-install or clone your OS onto that mirror and reboot.
    This can all be done via the GUI (Disk Utility.app) or the command line (diskutil), whichever you prefer.
    To use the GUI, select one of the 250GB drives, then select the RAID tab.
    Drag each of the 250GB drives to the RAID set list and make sure the RAID Type is set to mirror.
    Once that's done you can use the restore tab to clone the boot drive to the new mirror. You can do this live, but if the server is busy you would be better off booting from the install DVD and running Disk Utility from there (avoids issues of trying to clone active files).

  • Only the hard drive image showing up upon start up

    When I started up my computer today for the first time ever all I saw was a larger image of my hard drive located in the middle of a gray screen. Had to click on it to proceed to the desk top. Has this every happened to anyone else? This is the first time for me and I am curious as to what caused that.

    This happens if you hold the option key while booting - it invokes the startup manager so that if you have a bootable external disk you can choose that to boot from just this one time: as you only have the internal disk that's all that showed. Possibly you hit the option key by accident: anyway it's quite harmless.

  • Using FTP to Mirror hard drives across different platforms

    Hello,
    I was wondering if anyone knows of an easy to use program that can mirror 2 external hard drives over the internet securely. My friend and I have been attempting to set up a system where my external is backed up to his computer and his to mine so that both hard drives are identical. He has winxp and I have OSX.
    I have done some research and this seems to be the easiest program that I can find:
    https://www.foldershare.com/info/aboutFoldershare.php?
    However, it states that it only supports g series macs and I am planning to update to an intel based mac in the very near future. (I would have done it already but apple is taking their sweet time updating the mini to c2d!)
    I have come across some other programs/applications that claim to do this such as:
    http://dirvish.org/
    http://www.cis.upenn.edu/%7Ebcpierce/unison/
    They all appear to be fairly techie to figure out and/or have week cross platform abilities. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time.

    "However, it states that it only supports g series macs"
    It should still work on Intel based Macs through the Rosetta translation engine.

  • Hard drive image

    I am going to get a new MBP and want to know if it is possible to completely duplicate the hard drive on my iMac and install it on the new MBP. I have a lot of programs on my iMac from my old job, like CS3, and want them on my new MBP but do not have the install disc any more. Any info is greatly apreciated!

    You can clone the HD using an application like SuperDuper! and/or Carbon Copy Cloner. Usually a good rule of thumb, however, when crossing machines is to use Migration Assistant. The problem with cloning a HD across hardware platforms is that you might not get the drivers for the destination machine.
    For example... the 13" MacBook Pro had a very specific build of 10.5.7 when it came out that no other machine had and people that did the clone-transfer method were not getting system sound.

  • Mirrored Hard Drives

    Hello Everyone
    I have 2 Macs, iMac and MBP i do alot of photography, video and graphics. I often find my self working between 2 computers and several external drives. My biggest problem is through all of that my files get scattered throughout the different hard drives. Im currently creating a folder structure i want to be on all my computers and available to be viewed by other family members in my house on their Macs.
    So here is basically what im looking to do.
    Have my 2 computers share files in real time if possible or over night sync the changes that have been made so they have the same files in the same places. I would also like each of my computers to back up their structers to external drives "ill use time machine for that i guess"
    The next thing is i dont want all of the files to sync to everyone else's computer but id like them to have read only permissions so as they dont accidentally delete stuff.
    To me sounds very possible, and im not sure how on earth something like this wouldn't be available thanks!

    The only way to do this is to network share certain folders, and hard link to the network share. One computer will act as a server serving up the folders for the other computers to connect to. That computer should also then be backing up any changes to those shared folders.
    That of course means the server should always be up and running. If someone tries to write or read from the computer when it is not, data corruption can happen. Being especially vigilent about your backup of the shared drive is important*:
    http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

  • Lost hard drive image on 2.8 Ghz iMac

    I have a 2009 27 inch, 2.8 GHz, i7 iMac with a 1TB hard drive and Mac O Rama in Reno installed  OWC 960 GB SSD drive with the data doubler adapter. The iMac now has internal two drives. The optical drive was removed. I was using the SSD drive for booting.  This has been running just fine for the last five weeks.
    I have two external backup drives, one for SuperDuper and one for Time Machine. 
    Today I setup Time Machine to backup the SSD drive to the internal 1 TB hard drive.  After a couple of hours I came back and the screen was black.  Held the start button down to shut every thing off.  Then restarted and the SSD drive does not show up. It restarted from the original hard drive.
    Ran Disk Utility on the the startup disk, nothing.  Then shut down waited for a minute and restarted with the "option" key held down, the SSD did nor appear.  Ran Disk Warrior v4.4 and still no SSD. 
    What to do next? 

    Hi
    As above.
    But if You want to squees in eg 3hour on a standard 4.7Gb DVD disk.
    One way is to use Roxio Toast™ and the function put in the movie anyhow.
    This will do the work but to a rather reduced quality.
    There are other programs that can do this too but Toast™ does it as good as
    one can anticipate and to a fair price.
    Alt. DVD Studio Pro in FinalCutStudio bundle
    ForMac Devideon™ but then You'll buy an extra DVD-burner too. (not sold separately
    as I'm aware of)
    Yours Bengt W

  • Recovering MAX configuration from a hard drive image

    Hi there, 
    I've inherited responsibility for a large, complex and expensive piece of lab equipment that is controlled by LabView, via two PXI NI-DAQ cards, several other custom PXI cards designed in ~2004-5, and a whole host of complex VIs. Recently, the PXI controller running the show decided to depart this world, and I've subsequently replaced it with a newer model. I have an image of the old controller's hard disk, and I've successfully installed LabView/migrated the data onto the new controller. 
    However, one thing eludes me: NI-DAQ (as opposed to DAQmx) channel names and settings in MAX. I can't find where these are stored on the filesystem, and it's nontrivial to recreate them manually. Does anyone know where MAX, for LabView 7(!)*, stores its information? Where might I find the channel settings? Most things work, aside from a few features of the VI, which obviously make references to non-existent channels. 
    Short of starting up the image in something like Buchs (an x86 emulator), I've no way of getting the old system up and running to have al ook. I can, howwever, look at its filesystem and registry easily. Might any of you NI-Knights be able to give me a hint where to find the information I need? 
    Thanks for your help! 
    * Yes, I'm aware that everything is written with outdated sfotware, using a depreciated -- or dead, rather -- DAQ library. However, it works, and these multi-gigabyte VIs have been keeping our lab in business for over a decade. I'm loath to spend time rewriting things basically for the sake of it. Apologies! 

    Hi Jack.Miller!
    My name's Max and i'm an application engineer here at NI, I've been doing some research for you on this issue. Although I couldn't find out where the MAX settings are stored, I think the simplest way for you to transfer over your settings would be to use a program like Buchs and then follow this KB - http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/0E0D3D7C4AA8903886256B29000C9D5A .
    You can then import the settings and you should have all the channels etc that you're after.
    I hope this helps!
    Max

  • Microsoft messenger reading as a hard drive image on desktop

    I've just got my mac, downloaded microsoft messenger for mac and i don't know what's gone wrong but theres a icon on my desktop reading "microsoft messenger" and when I try to eject it is says "the disk microsoft messenger is in use and could not be ejected. try quitting applications and try again"
    Is there any way to resolve this?
    Thanks

    Software for Mac OS X usually comes packed as a ".dmg" or ".pkg" file. If you have downloaded the file from Mactopia (Microsoft's Mac page) then it's dmg. Double-click on one of these files and it will get mounted like a real partition or removable device (e.g. like a usb stick). If you didn't change the default settings of Safari (the built-in web-browser) downloaded dmg-files are mounted automatically this way.
    Just double-click the icon on your screen and wait for a window to pop up that indicates to drag-and-drop the "Microsoft Messenger" icon to the "Applications" folder. Do that. This way you install software in Mac OS X (i.e. by dragging it into your Applications folder). Now the program should be available for you to use.
    If you still can't remove or delete the icon on your desktop try rebooting your machine. Afterwards you should be able to delete the downloaded dmg-file (you won't need it anymore).
    Hope this helps. Let me know if that solved your question.
    floba

  • Restarted my macbook and then there was my macbook hard drive image and an alias

    Do I drag  the alias of my macbook hardrive to the trash? Did not duplicate this on purpose it just appeared after a restart

    familyfromapo wrote:
    The movies are Dexter that we purchased at a store.  He uses the Air and since it does not have the disk option this is how we were hoping he could view his shows.  We had no idea we would be breaking the law....just wanted to put all of the movies we have purchased  on the external solely for the intent of our viewing. 
    Thank you for your time and help.
    Sorry.
    It is illegal to break the encryption to copy a dvd.
    Judge: DVD-copying software is illegal - CNET News
    Judge Rules DVD-Copying Software Is Illegal | Threat Level | Wired ...
    MPAA Says Making Even "One Copy" of a DVD is Illegal

Maybe you are looking for