Recommendations on drive/backup/RAID setup..

Hey there folks--
I've got a Mac Pro with OSX 10.6 on one main 500GB drive, which includes about 200GB of data on it (videos, MP3's, etc) in addition to OSX. Everything is being backed up to another 500GB drive via Time Machine. The main drive is running out of space, so I just ordered a 1TB Western Digital Blue drive (WD10EALS is the exact model). It's supposed to be a pretty fast drive--certainly faster than my existing two 500GB drives. Now, I have a dilemma I'm hoping folks can solve.
I also have a Macbook Pro with about 100GB of data on it, and I want to back that up with Time Machine as well (never have before). So I'm trying to decide among a few scenarios:
1. Move OSX 10.6 and my 200GB of data to the 1TB drive, and then use the two 500GB drives as the Time Machine target in a RAID configuration of some sort, maybe even as JBOD if need be.
2. Leave my main OSX 10.6 500GB drive alone, and just move my 200GB of data off of it onto the second 500GB drive (which then of course would no longer be a Time Machine target drive). Then use the new 1TB drive as the Time Machine target.
3. Buy a USB hard drive enclosure, insert the 1TB drive into it, and then hook that up to my ASUS RT-16N router that's arriving shortly and has two USB ports for storage devices. And use it as the Time Machine target for everything on my network.
4. Buy a NAS like a DNS-323, and put the two 500GB drives in it, connect THAT to the router, and use that as the Time Machine target. I'd rather not do this, because it would involve spending more money, but if this is deemed the best/fastest/most elegant solution, I'd consider it.
So those are the four choices I can see. I'm trying to find the simplest, least hassle solution that offers the best backups speed, while also maintaining as high a speed as possible for my main workhorse OSX drive (I like having my OS be on the fastest hard drive if possible, for performance reasons--although I've heard it's not such a great idea to have your OS on a 1TB drive?)
Can anyone recommend the best setup?
Thanks
Dave

I would go with option 2 personally. It's a good idea to have the time machine drive larger than the source, or at least I think that's what The Hatter said a while ago!! No doubt he'll be along soon.
If the 500GB drive is the only place you will have your data then you need to think again. Maybe add it into the time machine backup (which would actually just involve not excluding it I think). Many people often forget the need to backup external drives and only focus on boot drives, which is such a shame.
The MBP backup would also fit on the 1TB drive, but at that stage your backup drive is actually smaller than all the sources, not a great idea.
I would love to hear more on the fact about not having the OS on a 1 TB drive...

Similar Messages

Cannot see other drives after RAID setup

heys..ppls. i just setup my first RAID array with help from vango44..thnx alot m8.. all worked out perfectly.. but..when i was done and installed XP i hooked up my ''old'' drives and yes i put the jumpers to slave.. they dont appear in Windows and it takes a considerable amount of time to start XP while b4 this all XP started very quickly..can ya'll help me out?
btw here's the guide i used.. i am using the Intel controller..
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threadid=38845&sid=

First of all sorry for being incomplete with info .. but i just came home from a long vacation.. tired ..cranky.. computer not working .. u know the usual agony..
anyhows..
I have 2 drives as u can see in my sig that i want to use as storage. And yes they are IDE
The Raptors are for my OS, games and programs.
My bios on chip ata settings are:
Native Mode
S-ata only
sata and pata both active
pata channel both
config sata as raid yes
How do i reconnect my 2 Maxtors.. physically? I presume on IDE2..?
And is it a problem that one 1 of those Maxtors an old version of XP is installed?
And yes during the RAID setup i dissconnected my 2 Maxtors..
After have gone to bed yesterday i shut down my pc with 2 Maxtors connected and when i started it up this morning all settings were gone.. RAID gone at least not activated.. and i had 2 activate the RAID settings again. I just removed the Maxtors and activated everything again.. RAID is working fine.. please help :(
Need more info? just hollar..

Backup Raid Setup

Hello Everyone,
Happy New Year
I am looking for a Backup device for my Main Editing Suite, at the moment I am runing a Areca 1680ix 16 port with internal drives. I am looking for an exernal setup so I can back up my main editing suite and take away for security.
options:
1: use external out from current Areca to a enclosue using multilane cable, (is this possible even though i have 16 ports used already)
2: buy a new raid card with 2x external ports to control 8 bay enclosure or more
anyother ideas,
anyone had experience with Sonnet Fusion D800Raid it uses a Atto Raid Card, this model is a few years old now. not sure if suitable, as I have a freind who no longer requires one as he has upgraded and offered it to me.
thanks
Baz

Baz,
Have you considered a QNAP or Thecus NAS over iSCSI? There are models with 7 or 8 internal disks and for backup they are quite suitable.
Have a look at: http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/cat/685/nas-behuizingen.html#filter:ZY5LC8IwEIT_y5xzaPpQ2h9 Q8CAIehMPNVlhIX2wiQ8o_e8mak-eltlvZpgZV-kGu7MezRl1WUFB643GReHG4sNB2NCJe9p3LzTD3bk_wMMKRrEkL ZOzaPBgevpYNyXjx5QpeDPKt6paxUrIkQlkjxOZ35xCx3heFWmMj--WXSCJaEZZZ-n0KYxttPWpEzrHsixv
Sorry it is only in Dutch, but at least you have current prices.
This one appeals to me: http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/288692/qnap-turbo-station-ts-1079-pro.html#tab:info

Request for Advice re RAID Setup / Backup Options

I would be grateful for any comments on my RAID setup, or suggestions for improvement:
I have four LaCie Firewire drives. Each is 250 GB. Two are the Porsche design, and the other two are the ones designed to stack under (and resemble) the mac Mini. I'd like to not buy any additional storage hardware at this time.
I have two main needs for storage -- (1) my iTunes library, which is mostly Apple Lossless, and (2) backup of my PowerBook. These two needs presently take up about 300 GB.
Currently, all four hard drives are connected to a mac Mini. Both of the two pairs of hard drives is configured through OS X Disk Utility as RAID 0. Consequently, two fire wire drives of roughly 500 GB each show up on the mini's desktop. I mainly use the mini as a jukebox -- the video out connects to my TV, and the audio out connects to my receiver (through a buggy as he.ll M-Audio Transit, but that's another story). So the iTunes library for the mini lives on one of the RAID drives.
The other RAID drive serves as a backup. Using Silverkeeper, I incrementally backup the music library. Silverkeeper also backs up my PowerBook, when it is on the network.
Does this sound like the best way to go, if you accept that I don't want to get into a hardware RAID solution for now? Does OS X allow for software RAID 0+1? In other words, can I RAID the two pairs of drives independently as they are now, and then have them mirror each other? I'm not really worried about accidental file deletions and the like -- my biggest concern is one of these hard drives failing. If RAID 0+1 is available through software, is that advisable? Are there other alternatives I should be thinking about?
Any comments on this will be very helpful. Thanks in advance for your time.
PJP
PowerBook G4 15 | Mac mini G4 | 60 GB video iPod Mac OS X (10.4.6)
PowerBook G4 15 | Mac mini G4 | 60 GB video iPod Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi, PJP.
My take on RAID: Unless you're running a high-availability transaction server, IMO RAID is overkill for the home or SOHO (Small Office / Home Office) user. It's "cool" and has a certain amount of "geek" cachet, but as far as being practical for the average user, it adds an unnecessary level of complexity.
You may have specific reasons why you've decided to implement RAID, but from what you've described as what you're doing with your Macs, I don't really see the need for it.
Like you, I run backups to FireWire drives of all our Macs. I maintain at two current backups for each system, one backup per FireWire drive. This gives me the same kind of drive-failure protection for my backups without having to go the RAID route.
For advice on the backup and recovery solution I employ, see my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Reformatting external drive to Mac OS Extended but maintaining RAID setup

Hi again,
I am considering taking the leap finance-wise and purchasing [this external drive|http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WDH2Q20000N-Studio-Interface/dp/B00 16P7H3Q/ref=cmcr_pr_producttop]. It comes pre-formatted to HFS+ or something, so I guess I will need to reformat it to Mac OS Extended to use it with FCE.
So here are the questions:
*1. Would it make more sense to use it in RAID 0 mode for faster speed, or RAID 1 mode to keep a safer backup of my files?*
*2. Would reformatting it to Mac OS Extended for use with FCE still allow it to use normal RAID abilities?*
I realize this is not the right forum for posting this, but I thought someone here might be knowledgable about backup in general and how to best format an external drive for use with FCE, while maintaining the ability to have a "mirrored" RAID setup. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Sasha
Message was edited by: skalicki`

So just one more question because I'm pretty new to this whole RAID thing:
Say I formatted the drive to RAID 1 so in theory I have 1TB of space that is "mirrored" over to the other external drive.
*When I ingest my footage, will copies be stored to both drives, so if one fails, I will still have my media?*
I gathered this was the idea but didn't know how it works with FCE.

External Backup RAID drive Configuration

Hi Guys. I'm currently running my MacBook Pro with Final Cut Studio, Logic Studio and Aperture. I'm using a LaCie 4 TB 4Big Quadra RAID drive (via Express eSATA card) as a scratch disk and to store my projects on. I've just purchased a LaCie 4TB 2Big Quadra RAID drive to use as a backup drive for my projects. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding the best way to incorporate the backup drive into my setup? There are various options and i'm not sure which is the best solution. Any advice is much appreciated

Hi. Thanks for your input. This was the way i'd originally thought of doing it. However, in order to get maximum data transfer speeds (for HD video editing) from the 4Big quadra (via express eSATA), i'm now erring towards setting both drives to RAID 0 mode, and simply backing up projects (via firewire) between the drives using the Intego Backup Manager Pro software supplied with the drives.
This is my first multi drive setup and i'm not sure that this is the most logical solution. Any views are welcome. Thankyou

What RAID Setup do you use for your Macbook Pro Scratch Drive?

Is there any benefit to using an Express-ESata Raid Enclosure vs a single esata drive as the scratch drive?
If so, is there any benefit to using a 4 drive Raid 0 vs a 2 drive raid 0?
What Raid setups are any of you all using with your MacBook Pro's? Is there a significant performance difference between using a E-Sata drive and a FW800 drive. Is RAID the right way to go?
Sorry I'm not making a lot of sense right now, but I've searched through 20 or so pages of the forum and didn't see that anyone had addressed this question yet.

OK, just to give you a frame of reference, I just performed the following tests -
I hooked up my Sony AVCHD camera to my Mac Book Pro 2.4 ghz with 4 GB ram - (pretty close configuration to yours) - and imported a 26 second clip into FCP 7 with the following drive configurations:
Capture to internal Mac Drive, no externals: 26 Second clip takes 44 seconds
Capture to external WD USB2 drive: 26 Second clip takes 44 Seconds
Capture to external CalDigit 2 Sata Drive Array, Raid 0, via Firewire 800: 26 Second clip takes 42 seconds
OK, so now I move the camera over to my Mac Pro 8-Core, 2 x 3.2 Ghz Quad Core Xeon with 14 gigs of ram, and capture *to the same external CalDigit 2 Sata Drive Array,* Raid 0, via Firewire 800: 26 Second clip takes 11 seconds
My conclusion would be the drives and drive throughput is not as consequential as the CPU horsepower in doing the conversion from AVCHD to Pro Res. However, there are many very knowledgeable people who look at these threads, and I would be interested to hear what they have to say.
Hope this helps.
Message was edited by: Meg The Dog to correct typo

DIY Fusion Drive and RAID 5

Hi everyone!
I have spent several hours by reading various forums but haven’t found any definitive answers.
I have a 12 Core Mac Pro with the following setup: one 1TB SATA hard drive that carries the system and applications. For the files and storage there are three 2TB SATA drives in RAID 5 controlled by Apple RAID card. I am going to install a 512 GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD drive in the optical bay and have initially planned to use it just for the system and applications, but am curious if the following is possible.
1) Is it possible to combine the RAID 5 array with the SSD and create a Fusion drive?
2) If yes, will it retain all the features of the RAID 5?
3) Should TRIM be enabled?
Thank you in advance!

TRIM directly addresses the shortcomings of having only garbage collection available. SSD controller manufacturers and designers (including SandForce, the controller manufacturer for OWC's SSDs), recommends that TRIM be used with their products. So does Samsung.
For example, here's a 2011 article from OWC describing how you don't need TRIM on their SSDs and how it can in fact hurt performance or reliability.
That article has been discussed here on MacInTouch before. In my opinion it's bad advice, and inaccurate in some of its assertions. It also ignores the recommendation made by SandForce to use TRIM with their SSD controllers. But even if one were to take that article at face value, applying that advice to SSDs other than OWC's makes little sense.
The reason I'm advising against TRIM is simply that it's yet another driver-level modification of the OS, and these always carry potential risk (as all the folks with WD hard drives who lost data can attest to).
Apples and oranges comparison, for a variety of reasons. The short of it is that TRIM is supported natively in all recent versions of OS X. The tools used to enable it for third party SSDs do not add a new kernel extension; they change the setting to allow Apple's native TRIM implementation to be used with SSDs other than those factory installed by Apple.
This shows that the 840s do work slightly better with TRIM than without, but the differences are (in my opinion) trivial, a 9% increase at best.
One of the major reasons for the skepticism that exists about TRIM is that so many people, the authors of both articles you linked to included, don't understand it.
TRIM is not, strictly speaking, a performance-enhancement technology -- though it is plainly obvious that most people think it is.
Though it can, in many circumstances, improve performance, there are also circumstances under which it will provide little or no noticeable benefit. Not coincidentally, a new SSD tested fresh out of the factory packaging is unlikely to show much (if any) benefit. Or rather, TRIM is providing a real benefit for new SSDs, but that benefit doesn't become measurable in terms of benchmark performance testing until every memory cell in the SSD -- including many gigabytes of cells hidden from visibility by the SSD controller -- have been written to at least once. Writing 128 GB of files to an SSD with a nominal capacity of 128 GB won't do it, as there are several gigabytes (exact number varies depending on the model) still unwritten.
Under real-world use conditions, having TRIM disabled means eventually having noticeable write performance degradation due to write amplification. It is far greater than "9%" -- it can be a 50% or greater drop in write performance, depending on various factors. Defining "eventually" is difficult because it depends on how the SSD is used. But given enough time and write cycles, it can happen to all SSDs used without TRIM, no matter how sophisticated their garbage collection algorithms are.
Under those same real-world use conditions, having TRIM enabled means that the SSD should almost never reach a state of having noticeable write performance degradation, as it should almost never get into a state where write amplification is happening.
I will concede that it is possible to design a lab test in such a way as to defeat the benefits provided by TRIM, but such tests do not reflect any real-world usage scenario I can imagine. Furthermore, those same contrived tests would put an un-TRIMmed drive into an equally-addled state even more quickly.
I would suggest reading through the rather lengthy previous discussions about TRIM. Here are a couple of my past posts that are most relevant to the current discussion:
A description of what TRIM is here.
I addressed some of OWC Larry's comments about TRIM use with OWC/SandForce SSDs here.
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/index.html#d09dec2013

New Time Capsule: just use as external hard drive without other setup

I have a brand new 2 Tb Time Capsule, and I need to move data to it manually (not as a backup) as soon as I can to solve another problem.
Can I do this without doing the full blown Time Capsule setup (which I've never done) ? Just plug it in and wirelessly connect my MBP to it?
The other problem is 1 Tb external drive (G-Raid Mini) that suddenly cannot be written to, and I need to offload the data (700 Gb of photos) and reformat it immediately. There isn't enough room on the MBP and the USB connected 1 Tb Iomega being used as a time machine, and I don't have any other Mac formatted hard drives. This problem occurred I think because in order to get around an incompatibility problem with an Express Card CF Card Reader after loading Lion, I was advised to restart the MBP in 32 bit mode. Next thing I know, my G-Raid with all my photos can't be written to.
Thank you in advance for your help.
HenryTD

Tesserax:
Thank you very much for your response.
I got brave last night, and plugged in the TC, and ran an Ethernet cable from the Switch that connects via an in the wall Ethernet cable to the main VZ FiOS Router (which also propagates a private wireless network). I just answered the questions in the setup, which led me to setting up a secured wireless network, and configuring the router part of the TC as a Bridge. Then I wirelessly connected the MBP to this new network, and began moving some files.
Before doing that I had unplugged the cable from the MPB to the Switch (since instinctively I thought that would be a conflict with the wireless connection via the TC bridge to that switch, and the router behind it, but I'm not sure I'm right about that).
However, I later realized I should have just plugged that cable into the TC, and used that connection to move files (and connect to the Internet), since the wireless connection has been SLOW: about 1 min 40 seconds for each Gb. And it just stops sometimes (I guess because of competition with the traffic from the MBP to the Internet).
I'm moving 370 Gb off the Iomega that came from the G-Raid since I needed to clear space on the Iomega because it still has the duty of doing the Time Machine backup. I did't want that to run out of disk space on it since I had copied some of what was on the G-Raid there before I realized that the MacBk HD plus the Iomega were not going to have enough room to empty the G-Raid Mini.
As soon as this operation is finished, I'll change the connection from MPB to TC to wired, and start copying directly from the G-Raid everything that hasn't already been copied somewhere else directly to the Time Capsule storage. Instinct says I shouldn't disturb the present coping process, much as I'd like to speed things up.
As to your suggestion that I just plug the G-Raid into the TC, it's connection to the MBP is FW800. It also has a USB 2.0 port, and an E-SATA port. Wouldn't FW800 to MPB and MBP to TC via Ethernet be faster than a direct USB 2.0 connection?
How do I control what happens between the TC and drives plugged into it from the MBP (a novice kind of question, but I find it confusing that the TC is both a router, and an attached storage device)? Do I see it from the MBP as if it were directly attached to the MBP?
Do you (or any other forum member reading this) have any suggestions or comments about the above? Do you think my observations are correct?
Thanks in advance for any comments or help.
HenryTD

Raid Setup Guide 865/875 LSR/FIS2R Rev 1.04

On-Board Raid Setup MSI 865PE/875P
Revision History
Revision 1.0 (January 2004)
- Original Raid Article
Revision 1.01 (February 2004)
- Reformatted text and fixed spelling/grammar
Revision 1.02 (October 2004)
- Added warnings to temporarily disconnect ALL drives including Zip drives during formatting Raid drives for WinXP.
Revision 1.03 (October 2005)
- Reformatted text and added links to download Promise/Intel Raid floppies if user is missing them.
Revision1.04 (February 2006)
- Minor BB reformatting
Intro
Equipment List For Tests
Description of Tests
Pre-Raid Setup Bios Tweaks
Raid Setup On Promise Controller
Raid Setup On Intel Controller
--->Intel- Migrating from single SATA to Full Raid Array
Intro
This guide is intended to help people configure their Bios and setup Windows for Raid using the Intel ICH5R controller and the Promise FastTrak 378 controller. Although all the tests were done using Raid-0 the methods described should be virtually identical to setting up Raid-1 provided the user is aware of the fundamental differences between the two. It should be useful for anyone with an MSI 865PE/875P chipset on motherboards with LSR and FIS2R suffixes. Before continuing, please read the FAQ thread posted by Maesus and the Raid manual(s) that came with your motherboard. There's also some good info regarding Raid Here and Here and Here
Keep in mind this guide is intended as a reference to help you. It is not a manual. I do not work for MSI and my equipment and time are limited. You will have different equipment and different versions of software.
All the data below is based on tests that I ran and I tried to avoid using any theory that I did not test. If you feel I’ve missed something obvious or if you have something you feel should be added to make this guide clearer or simpler, please PM me with your thoughts. If you have a specific problem that this guide does not help you with, post a detailed thread in the forum on the main page.
Equipment List For Tests
MSI 875P FIS2R Motherboard
Bios 1.8
Enermax EG365P-VE (350w) PSU
P4 2.6c CPU
Kingston KHX-3200A2 2x512MB Memory
Radeon 9800Pro AIW Video Card
WD 400JB 40GB/8MB cache IDE Hdd
2-Seagate 80GB 7200.7 SATA Hdd's
Liteon 52x32x52 CDRW
Floppy Drive
Tests
Generally, tests were as follows:
Configure 2 SATA on Promise controller(serial3&4) as Raid0 and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on Raid
Configure 2 SATA on Promise controller(serial3&4) as Raid0 and add Raid to an existing WindowsXP installation on IDE drive(IDE1)
Configure 2 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1&2) as Raid0 and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on Raid
Configure 2 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1&2) as Raid0 and add Raid to an existing WindowsXP installation on IDE drive(IDE1)
Configure 1 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1) and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on it. Then add 2nd SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial2) and migrate to Raid0 using Intel Application Accelerator-Raid edition.
IDE drive used in these tests was pre-installed with a fresh copy of WinXP Home SP1a using default settings and the following drivers all from MSI setup CD and Raid Floppy Disks that came with motherboard:
Intel INF files - version 1002
Gigabit Lan drivers - 7.0.37.0
SoundMax drivers - 5.12.1.3538
Catalyst 3.7 & Multimedia Center drivers from standard ATI CD came with video card.
Pre-Raid BIOS Tweaks
Before I continue, I'd like to point out a few changes from the defaults that I alway make to Bios before I attempt a WinXP install or hardware change. I can't guarantee that they all apply to you but none should make things worse. If anything differs from a setting that you feel is fixing another problem you're having, by all means leave at your prefferred setting. Anything related to performance and overclocking can be raised again AFTER the Raid is all setup and everything is running smoothly.
Standard Cmos Features
The only thing I change here is to enable "32bit transfer mode" whenever I connect new devices to the Intel IDE controller.
Note: Devices attached to the Promise controller and the Intel Raid(when it is enabled) will NOT appear in the standard Cmos page
Advanced Bios Features
Everything on defaults is usually fine except I always change the following for WinXP:
APIC ACPI SCI IRQ - Enabled
Boot Device select is also on this page and you'll be changing it after all the hardware is setup; more later.
Advanced Cipset Features
Confirm that the memory timing "by SPD" is enabled
PNP/PCI Configurations
Clear NVRam option I always set to "YES" before the first boot after making hardware changes. I'm not sure how important this is but I understand that's what you're supposed to do. I believe it forces the motherboard to detect hardware changes. It reverts to "NO" after the reboot.
PCI/IDE Busmaster set to "enabled" to speed things up outside of Windows.
Integrated Peripherals (Before Raid for most flexibilty)
Onboard Promise IDE - Disabled if you have nothing attached to IDE3 and Serial 3&4
ON-Chip IDE Configuration:
Native Mode (Supported by WinXP- Allows all devices connected to IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 to be detected)
SATA Only or PATA Only (select the one that you boot XP with)
Keep SATA Active - Yes (if option available)
Keep PATA Active - Yes (if option available)
PATA Channel selection - Both (if option available)
Configure SATA as Raid - No (if option available)
Leave other settings here at default
Note: Some older Bios versions may appear different than above
Frequency/Voltage Control
Dynamic Overclocking - Disabled
Performance Mode - Slow
Dram Frequency - Auto
Adjust CPU Bus - 201 (for "c" type cpu's)
DDR Voltage - 2.65 (minimum for Dual-Channel Mem stability)
AGP Voltage - 1.55
Note: some features above may not appear with your Bios
Note: performance & overclocking features can be increased again AFTER the Raid array has been setup and is stable with Windows.
Raid On Promise Controller
This procedure should work for anyone adding a Raid array to a system already having XP installed on another drive on the Intel controller or intending to install Windows XP on the new Raid array.
Note: IDE 3 and Serial 3&4 connectors are controlled by the Promise controller.
Note: It is possible to setup Raid arrays using 2 IDE drives on IDE3 or even 2 SATA & 2 IDE drives. I only tested 2 SATA drives on Serial 3&4 connectors.
Note: It is possible to setup Raid 0+1 using 2 IDE drives on IDE3 and 2 SATA drives on Serial 3&4. See HERE for a related thread.
Note: It is possible to setup SATA or IDE drives on the Promise controller as separate drives NOT using Raid but I did not test this. See your manual.
- Attach the SATA drives to Serial 3&4 connectors and ensure that both power and data cables are securely connected. Most SATA drives do NOT need any changes to default jumper positions if any(check Hdd installation instructions).
- Boot into Bios
Integrated Peripherals:
Set Onboard Promise IDE - As Raid
- Save and reboot computer
- Use control-F keys during the boot(when prompted-goes by quickly) to enter the Promise Raid Bios.
Note: You will only be able to enter the promise Bios if you have set the Promise controller to "As Raid" AND there are devices connected and detected by the Promise Bios.
- Use the menus to configure the Raid for your preferences.
Note: I can't say which settings you should use for creating the Raid. It depends on many things. Do some research.
- After saving the Raid array, reboot to Bios.(you should see the configured array for a second or two during the post and it should be "functional")
- In Advanced bios Features>>Boot Device Select:
Set the order you prefer to boot from
- If you already have XP installed on another drive and are just adding the Raid for an extra drive, Ensure that the list is still appropriate and includes your XP drive.
- If you will be installing XP on the new Raid, make sure the new Raid array is in the boot list and any other hard drives are NOT.
Note: Typically, I put the disk with XP first and use F11 key during post to boot from another device. This is not required though.
- Save bios
Important!: If you are installing XP on the new Raid array, you should now shutdown and either disconnect or disable any other drives connected until AFTER XP is installed. This includes USB/Zip drives.(See "Bugs" below).
If Installing XP On The New Raid Array(others skip to below):
- Boot from the Windows XP Setup CD and use F6 key when prompted(at the beginning).
- Follow prompts to load the WinXP Promise FastTrack 376/378 Controller from the floppy that came with motherboard(If Required Download Floppy Here). There are a number of different choices on the floppy. PICK THE RIGHT ONE.
Note: if using Win2K with the floppy, you can scroll down to get more driver options on this screen. It's not readily apparent on the screen.
- Continue setup and Windows should now show you the new Raid array as a single drive available to install to. If it shows other drives that you have connected, re-read the "important" note above and the related section on "Bugs" below.
- When XP setup makes its first re-boot, make sure the floppy has been removed or depending on your settings it may give you a scary moment. Yes I did this(tries to boot from floppy).
- After XP is up and running, you can re-connect/re-enable any drives you disconnected earlier. If they have been formatted, they should show up immediately and be assigned letters after your CD/DVD drives.
- You can also install the Promise Array Manager software(from MSI CD utilities tab or download) which adds some array management settings.
If XP Already Installed On Another Drive(and you're just adding the Raid as an extra storage disk):
- Boot into WindowsXP.
- As Windows starts, it should detect a new Raid device and offer to install drivers.
- Select Cancel. It will tell you that it was unable to install new device. If you want you can confirm the new device is present by checking Windows device Manager. It should show the new device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it since the drivers aren't installed yet.
- Download the appropriate drivers or use the MSI CD that came with motherboard.
Note: The MSI CD detects devices connected and shows available drivers/utilities depending on what it sees. You might not have seen the Promise drivers when using the CD before but now that you have a Raid array connected to it, the drivers will be availble from the MSI setup CD.
- Install the drivers and re-boot
- Device Manager should now show the Raid properly identified by XP.
- If the Raid array was not previously formatted, you can now use Windows Disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to Initialize and then format the Raid array.
- The Raid array should now show in Windows Explorer with it's own drive letter.
Bugs/Surprises
- Trying to install WinXP on the Promise Raid while my IDE drive was connected to the Intel IDE connector resulted in Windows installing boot files to the IDE drive and the rest on the Raid drives. This was especially bad since I had another installation of XP on the IDE drive which was overwritten. The work-around was to disable the IDE drive until AFTER XP was setup on the Raid array.
Update: There have been a few posts on the forum since I wrote this guide where people installing XP have had problems similar to the one above with USB/Zip drives connected so i am adding them to the list of drives to disconnect while installing XP.
- When setting "Boot Device Select", if I selected "NO" for "boot from other devices", the motherboard would ignore my selection and still boot from other devices if the ones in the list were unusable.
- Be gentle with SATA connectors on the motherboard. They can stand firm downward pressure but not a lot of side-to-side pressure.
Raid On Intel Controller
This procedure should work for anyone adding 2 SATA hard drives for a Raid array on a system already having XP installed on another drive or intending to install XP on the new Raid array.
Note: IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 connectors are controlled by the Intel ICH5R controller. Only Serial 1&2 can be configured for Raid arrays.
You can also install a single SATA drive and configure the system for Raid BEFORE installing XP on this drive if you intend to add another SATA drive later to form a Raid array. This method was also tested. I will refer to this for the rest of the thread as the Raid-Ready Method.
Note: If you install WinXP on a single SATA drive without enabling Raid and loading Raid drivers, you will NOT be able to migrate the XP disk to a Raid array at a later date. Reinstalling XP would be required.
Note: There is no performance advantage to having a single drive with Raid enabled. But doing so makes the disk Raid-ready and XP reinstall unnecessary.
- Attach the SATA drive(s) to Serial 1&2 connectors and ensure that both power and data cables are securely connected. Most SATA drives do NOT need any changes to default jumper positions if any(check Hdd installation instructions).
- Boot into Bios
- In "Integrated Peripherals>>On-Chip IDE Configuration" set:
Native Mode (Supported by WinXP- Allows all devices connected to IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 to be detected)
SATA Only (Even if you will be booting XP from a PATA drive)
Keep PATA Active - Yes
PATA Channel selection - Both
Configure SATA as Raid - Yes
Leave other settings here at default
Note: Some older Bios versions may appear different than above.
- Save Bios and reboot computer
- Use control-I keys during post(when prompted-goes by quickly) to enter the Intel Raid Bios Utility.
Note: If you are using the single SATA Raid-Ready Method, you can skip the steps involving the Intel Raid utility. Go to the step for setting Boot device select in main Bios.
Note: You will only be able to enter the Intel Raid Bios if you have set the "Configure SATA as Raid" option to "YES" AND there are devices connected and detected by the Intel Raid Bios.
- Use the menus to configure the Raid for your preferences.
Note: I can't say which settings you should use for creating the Raid. It depends on many things. The Intel utility does describe the different options well though.
- After saving the Raid array, reboot to Bios.(you should see the configured array for a second or two during the post and it should be "functional")
- In Advanced bios Features>>Boot Device Select:
Set the order you prefer to boot from;
If you already have XP installed on another drive and are just adding the Raid for an extra drive, Ensure that the list is still appropriate and includes your XP drive.
If you will be installing XP on the new Raid or using Raid-Ready Method, make sure the new Raid array or raid-ready drive is in the boot list and any other hard drives are NOT.
Note: Typically, I put the disk with XP first and use F11 key during post to boot from another device. This is not required though.
- Save bios
Important!: If you are installing XP on the new Raid array or using the Raid-Ready Method, you should now shutdown and either disconnect or disable any other hard drives connected until AFTER XP is installed. This includes Zip/USB drives. (See "Bugs" below).
If Installing XP On The New Raid Array Or Using Raid-Ready Method(others skip to below):
- Boot from the Windows XP Setup CD and use F6 key when prompted(at the beginning).
- Follow prompts to load the IAA Raid Driver for ICH5R (If Required Download Floppy Here) from the floppy that came with motherboard. I only had 1 driver to choose from on my floppy but if you have more, CHOOSE THE RIGHT ONE!
- Continue and Windows Setup should now show you the new Raid array or Raid Ready drive as a single drive available to install to. If it shows other drives that you have connected, re-read the "important" note above and the related section on "Bugs" below.
- When XP setup makes its first re-boot, make sure the floppy has been removed or depending on your settings it may give you a scary moment. Yes I did this(tries to boot from floppy).
- After XP is up and running and INF files and other important drivers installed, you can re-connect/re-enable any hard drives you disconnected earlier. If they have been formatted, they should show up immediately and be assigned letters after your CD/DVD drives.
- You can also install the Intel IAA-Raid Program(from MSI CD utilities tab or download) which gives some info and adds the array management settings(Not many. Just the enable/disable cache setting and the migrate to raid option).
If XP Already Installed On Another Drive(and you're just adding the Raid as an extra storage disk):
- Boot into WindowsXP.
- As Windows starts, it should detect a new Raid device and offer to install drivers. Select Cancel. It will tell you that it was unable to install new device. If you want you can confirm the new device is present by checking Windows device Manager. It should show the new device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it since the drivers aren't installed yet.
- Download the appropriate drivers or use the MSI CD that came with motherboard.
Note: The MSI CD detects devices connected and shows available drivers/utilities depending on what it sees. You might not have seen the IAA Raid drivers when using the CD before but now that you have a Raid array connected to it, the drivers will be availble from the MSI setup CD.
- Install the drivers and re-boot
Note: If the IAA Raid program detects that the Raid controller is not enabled or no device is present, it will NOT allow you to install the drivers/utility.
- Using Windows Device Manager should now show the Raid device properly with no problems.
- If the Raid array has not been formatted, you can now use Windows Disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to Initialize and then format the Raid array.
- The new drive should now appear in Windows Explorer with it's own drive letter.
Bugs/Surprises
- Trying to install WinXP on the Promise Raid while my IDE drive was connected to the Intel IDE connector resulted in Windows installing boot files to the IDE drive and the rest on the Raid drives. This was especially bad since I had another installation of XP on the IDE drive which was overwritten. The work-around was to disable the IDE drive until AFTER XP was setup on the Raid array. It is safe to assume this can occur with the Intel controller as well since I believe the problem occurs because of how WinXP setup addresses the hard drives.
Update: There have been a few posts on the forum since I wrote this guide where people installing XP have had problems similar to the one above with USB/Zip drives connected so i am adding them to the list of drives to disconnect while installing XP.
- Be gentle with SATA connectors on the motherboard. They can stand firm downward pressure but not a lot of side-to-side pressure.
Migrating XP System Disk To Raid On Raid-Ready System
This part describes how to use the Intel Application Accelerator-Raid edition to migrate an existing WinXP system disk (1-SATA) to a 2-SATA Raid array.
This procedure is actually very well documented in the last part of the Intel SATA Raid manual that ships with the motherboard but I thought I’d add it to make this thread more complete.
Please note that to use this feature of the Intel raid software the disk you are migrating FROM must have been made Raid-Ready as described above. Basically, this means that Raid should have been enabled in the Bios and the drivers installed from floppy during the WinXP install.
Note: I tested this by migrating to a Raid0 array but Raid1 should work also if the latest Bios and version of Intel-Raid application used.
- Open the Intel Application Accelerator Raid utility.
- With the “Raid” tab window open, right-click on “Raid volume” and select “Create from Existing Disk” as seen below.
- Follow the next several steps to choose the type of Raid array and the strip size.
Note: 64kb strip size is good for general purpose and 128kb best for most desktops and work stations according to Intel. Anything smaller is for specialized purposes. You should research this a little because you can’t change it after easily.
- After configuring the array for your preferences, you will face a couple of warnings telling you that “All data will be deleted from the Raid-controlled drive(s) and is unrecoverable” and ask if you want to continue. Obviously all data(if any) on the new drive you’re adding will be lost but the OS and other data on the disk you’re migrating FROM will be striped to the new array and will remain intact.
Note: Any complex disk procedure such as this carries the risk of losing data. A backup of the disk is important BEFORE beginning the migration process. Don't say I didn't warn you.
- The migration process can take a long time. You should see the window below during the operation.
Note: With just a default WinXP installation, migrating to 2-80Gb drives took about an hour for me.
- After the migration is complete, you will be prompted to re-boot to complete the process.
- During the reboot, as the Intel Bios comes up for a couple of seconds(don’t blink) you will see the 2 drives configured as an array and they will be listed as “functional”.
- After the reboot, you should have a fully functional Raid array with 2 SATA drives and all data from the single drive will have been striped or mirrored into the second one. Check Windows Disk manager(Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to see the status of the new drive. See bugs/surprises below.
Bugs/Surprises
The only problem I had with this test came in the form of a small surprise after everything was completed and the computer had rebooted. Although the Intel Application Accelerator showed everything functioning normally, Windows explorer showed my Raid drive as 74Gb in size instead of the 150Gb or so that I expected. After checking Windows disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc), I found that the missing GB’s were in fact there but were unformatted. Unfortunately, Disk Manager does not seem to allow merging or extending partitions so I ended up using Partition Magic 8 to format the empty space and merge it with the rest of the partition. This seemed to work fine and I ended up with a single 150Gb drive showing up in Windows Explorer. I also briefly tested the performance to confirm that it was operating as a Raid array.
I know there is a utility for Win2K called DiskPart.exe that is run from command console to extend NTFS partitions but if anyone knows of an easier way or a FREE utility that will format/merge NTFS partitions that they have confirmed works, please PM me so that I can include a reference to it here.
All the data above is based on tests that I ran and I tried to avoid using any theory that I did not test. If you feel I’ve missed something obvious or if you have something you feel should be added to make this guide clearer or simpler, please PM me with your thoughts. If you have a specific problem that this guide does not help you with, post a detailed thread in the forum on the main page.
Vango44

Great work vango44!
Here are some RAID performance statistics I gathered while testing RAID on my system. The testing software was Winbench 99. The hard drives tested were new Seagate ST380013AS drives, formatted NTFS. Winbench was running on a third drive that is not included in the tests and should not affect the results.
The drives were reformatted between tests and chkdsk'ed to try and keep things "apples to apples".
No hardware or software changes other than the RAID setup/connections were made between tests.
Higher numbers mean better performance.
I also ran the same tests on the newish WD Raptor 10K drives:
I couldn't stand all the noise the Raptors made, so I returned them.
On my motherboard:
SATA 1 & 2 = Intel RAID controller
SATA 3 & 4 = Promise RAID controller
If the test title does not include "RAID", then it was a single drive test.
Unfortunately, I don't have a spreadsheet version of the above stats. Otherwise I'd create nice bar charts for us and it's would be easier to deduce performance.
Perhaps some kind reader will OCR the pictures, put them into Excel, and make some nice bar charts for us?
Hope the info helps.

Multiple RAID setups in one Xserve?

Hi hope you can help me, we are a small architecture practice in the market for a new server and we are considering an Xserve and Xserve RAID system. I would quite like to set up the Xserve unit to use two of the drives in RAID 1 to mirror the operating system. My question is it possible and/or wise to have multiple RAID sets in the Xserve RAID unit? For example using four of the bays for 4x500Gb in RAID 1 (1Tb storage) for projects, and then using another 2 bays for 2x250Gb in RAID 1 as well for say Mail, maybe even another 2 bays for holding user home accounts. I understand that with share points this isn't strictly necessary but it seems to make sense to keep functions separate across hard drives for quick replacements. Or is this a lot to ask of a single RAID controller?
Also how easy is to add storage to an existing RAID set-up without destroying the data?; say we wanted to increase the 1Tb project storage to 2Tb easily.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Andrew,
I think you are over complicating you setup.
If you do multiple RAID sets the you are really anti-optimiziung. If you asked "How can I get the least performance and lowest capacity out of a RAID?" then I would suggest three mirrored disks w/ spare per controller.
You would have far better performance and capacity if you were to put two drives in the Xserve to mirror, then set up your RAID as RAID 5 across 6 disks with 1 spare (default config).
With Disk Utility you can build multiple file systems on the RAID, so you could slice it up, but again that could be wasting space.
When you get the RAID setup as one file system do not share the root. Set up sub dirs to share:
/Volumes/Raid1 --your RAID root, aka mount point.
/Volumes/Raid1/Mail -- mail
/Volumes/Raid1/Users -- Home dirs
/Volumes/Raid1/Projects -- your production storage
/Volumes/Raid1/Backup -- Save disk images of your server and workstations here.
And yes, changing the size of a file system means wiping it out and restoring from backup.
Also consider the 750GB drives, it's a lot more storage for not that much more money.
Reese

What RAID setups work for each setup?

Can anyone point me to a source that can give me detailed information about what RAID setups are best for each situation. Our current situation is that we have:
2x Xserve RAID running on Xsan with two Xserve G5 servers, one for media and the other for Metadata.
We are thinking about using one whole RAID (2x LUN) for Media, and 1 LUN of the other RAID for metadata, and then the second LUN of the second RAID for switchable media (backup on HD's). So what RAID is best for media and what is best for metadata? Is it possible to set a whole RAID with two LUNs as RAID 0 or would it need to be seperate?
If someone has some info about what RAID setups work best I would be happy to hear about it!
We will be connecting 3x FCP machines through fiber, but other workstations will be connected through a deticated ethernet switch with 1Gb connection to the Xsan but 100Mb connection to the Switch.
Best regards,
Orvar Halldorsson
Sagafilm

You can also try the Xsan Tuning Guide. It recommends that the Meta info be striped as raid 1. When you are in RAID admin and click on create array it will tell you which raids are good for speed and which ones are good for protection. Here is the link as well
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Xsan1.1TuningGuide.pdf
There is also an app you can download to test the bandwidth of the volumes.

Set up Mini with 2 drives (non Raid)

just purchased the new Mac Mini Server with 2 1TB drives. Can I set up as two (2) 1TB drives (non-Raid) one will be the main drive and the second used as Time Machine

I was hesitant to plug the machine and and set it up. Was trying to figure out if I should do a transfer from my current machine or use migration assistant once I'd started up the new Mini.
I finally called a local Mac Reseller and talked with their service tech. Out of the box, the new Mac Mini Server has two separate 1TB hard drives, one named "Server HD" and the other is named "Macintosh HD2". This is the exact configuration I'd hoped for. Now I can use the Server HD as my main drive, and Macintosh HD2 as my Time Machine backup drive.
Since I'd set up an "admin" account on initial setup (which I do on all my machines) I'll now use Migration Assistant to transfer over my main account from my current computer to the Mini.
Thank you for your help!

Need a help on AHCI & RAID setup during Win 7 installation

Hello,
Sorry for a newbie question, but I need to reinstall Win 7 Professional with my new rig.
I would appreciate your help.
What are the procedures for the windows installation?
I would like to set up AHCI and RAID controller, as someone had suggested that Intel recommends RAID setup even for non-RAID configurations.
Here's the spec of my rig:
Motherboard: P67A-GD65 (B3)
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600k
CPU Fan: CoolMaster V8 (180W)
RAM: G.Skil F3-17000CL9D (4GBx2)
GPUs: Palit GTX 560Ti (x2, no SLI)
SSD: Crucial C300 (64GB)
Hard Drive: WD 1002FAEX (1TB)
Optical Drive: Lite-on BR Burner
Case: Corsair 650D with stock case fans
PSU: Corsair TX750W
Thanks in advance

The board should comes with a Manuel for you to refer on the installation of different drivers for the controllers.

[OT] External media drive - Backup with Time Capsule

Hi,
I have a Macbook Pro with 250GB HD and I want to get an external hard drive to store my large video files. I already have a 1TB Time Capsule that I use to backup my laptop. I would like the external drive to be big, either 1TB or 1.5TB, so I don't believe the Time Capsule would be large enough to completely back up the laptop and the external drive. I also would like a drive that would power up/down depending on my laptop's wake/sleep status, so I don't always have to power it manually. I have several options:
1. Buy 750GB firewire external drive and have laptop and drive backup to 1TB Time Capsule. I'm not sure if Time Capsule allows multiple drives to backup to it. My concern though is if my drives get near full, the 1TB still won't be able to fully backup both drives as they cycle large files.
2. Buy 2 external hard drives, connect 1 directly to the laptop and 1 to the USB port on my Time Capsule. I'm wondering whether Time Machine could perform 2 simultaneous backup paths: A. laptop to Time Capsule; B- external drives to each other.
3. Connect a Raid 1 drive setup to USB port on Time Capsule via the Guardian Maximus:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/GM8U27H10G64/
This would be an elegant method that would enable redundancy in one place. Only concern is performance would be bottlenecked by USB 2.0 as I'm used to performance of Firewire 800 or Gigabit ethernet (I do video work)
Also, I've noticed some NAS storage enclosures but I'm hoping the Time Capsule is the best option for my needs.
I think option 3 is my best solution, but was just curious about other peoples' setups. Mac users never cease to amaze me with their creativity and innovation.
Thanks,
Alexander

USB isn't going to be the right at all for Video media files.
Time Capsule has no limitations to the number of drives it can back up... just that space limitation...
Most of us don't back up media files unless they are from tapeless formats such as RED, or P2 etc.. then we're looking at a lot more FW drives, or better yet, a tape drive to back up media with. Quantum makes these. If you are shooting from tape though, just backing up your internal HD is all you really have to do... as you can recapture from tape if the media drive goes down.
Jerry

Recommendations on drive/backup/RAID setup..

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