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View Full Version : Safety of Apple software raid - RAID 1 data partition in danger?



ASFx
May 4, 2009, 12:53 PM
If i have four drives, and I use apple software raid to do raid 0 across 2 drives for my OS, and raid 1 across the other 2 drives for my data, would my raid 1 still be lost if my OS were to completely crash or if i had to reinstall my OS? Or is the raid 1 easily recoverable during a subsequent leopard installation?


StormImpact
May 4, 2009, 04:47 PM
I second this question!

In general, what does it take to lose access to a RAID created by Disk Utility? If the system crashes or loses power, does it automatically kill the RAID?

Thanks,
Nathan
NoNameBrand
May 4, 2009, 04:55 PM
Testing it shouldn't be that hard. Put some disks in your Mac, RAID1 them. Put some data on the array.

Turn it off, pull out the system drive, boot off the install DVD, install the OS onto a spare partition/USB drive, see if your data is intact after the install.

You could also boot the machine with one of the drives removed and see what happens.
ASFx
May 4, 2009, 04:56 PM
Here is the answer I got from the softraid tech support regarding this:

"The Mirror is an independent volume and will not be affected. SoftRAID's driver is in every 10.5 installation. So even if you move the disks to a new machine, the volume will mount automatically."
StormImpact
May 5, 2009, 12:04 PM
Is there anyone with some RAID experiencing willing to share some information?

Thank you,
Nathan
costabunny
May 5, 2009, 12:12 PM
You can take em out and remount in newer machine / and/or fresh install of OSX

The partitions are marked as belonging to a RAID Set and the OS detects this and mounts the pair (if it sees them).

Ive done this so I know it works (I also took 2 disks from an external USB that I had raided there and moved them into the Pro chassis) - perfect.

one think to watch is your /Users folder (boot drive usually) if RAID0 for booting its at risk. I moved mine to the Mirror and keep it backed up (for a reinstall will put it back on the boot drive)
whatisthe
May 5, 2009, 02:49 PM
one think to watch is your /Users folder (boot drive usually) if RAID0 for booting its at risk. I moved mine to the Mirror and keep it backed up (for a reinstall will put it back on the boot drive)

Why would your /Users folder be at any more risk than the rest of the boot array?
ASFx
May 6, 2009, 01:02 AM
Why would your /Users folder be at any more risk than the rest of the boot array?

It's not any more at risk, but she was mentioning the user directory specifically because that's usually where a lot of our important data is. If you set your user directory to be on the mirror also, then you never have anything to worry about because the OS can easily be reinstalled any time without having to worry about backing up anything.
costabunny
May 6, 2009, 04:27 AM
It's not any more at risk, but she was mentioning the user directory specifically because that's usually where a lot of our important data is. If you set your user directory to be on the mirror also, then you never have anything to worry about because the OS can easily be reinstalled any time without having to worry about backing up anything.

Yep :) thats what I was saying (sorry if I wasnt clear)