I’d like to expand the HD capacity of my iMac G5, but I’m reluctant to replace the internal HD. I’d also like to improve the reliability of my TimeMachine HD – I’ve had one of those fail on me.
So I’m thinking about adding two RAID arrays; a Striped Set for additional file capacity and a Mirrored Set for TimeMachine. I’m looking for suggestions on whether I should be considering packaged RAID hardware solutions, or if I would be better off having individual drives and using Disk Utility to implement the RAID sets.
Any thoughts?
Jerry
— Jerry Green
Thoughts: Why a RAID for a backup drive? It is a backup. Unless your backup fails at the same time as your main drive, it doesn't matter if your backup fails. Just start a new backup immediately. Better yet, have a normal drive as a backup, and a second drive as a second backup that you store off-site (relative's house, etc). That's way better than two drives as a RAID backup in one location.
I'm not sure of the advantages/disadvantages to using a hardware RAID vs. a RAID set up in Disk Utility. I've done both, but didn't have any problems with either.
Thanks Gary,
"Why a RAID for a backup drive? It is a backup." Well, as I found out, if your TimeMachine HD fails you no longer have the ability to go back in time to grab old versions of documents, files you shouldn't have deleted, etc. That experience left me wishing I'd backed up the backup. So my thinking is that RAID would be the least hassle for backing up the TM backup.
Thanks for sharing your experience on Disk Utility RAID vs. Hardware. I'm leaning toward the Disk Utility way, hoping that it doesn't add too much processor load on the old G5. It looks like the least expensive and most flexible way.
Regards,
Jerry
Why not consider a Drobo? Then it is more portable than simply internal, you can partition it for TimeMachine backups, and you can hot swap drives out as you need more space.