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How safe is it to use Mac OSX Disk utility to create and manage software RAID ?

Hardware or Software RAID. Which is best

  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .
hassiman

hassiman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 30, 2006
120
11
San Diego
Hi,

I have always used hardware RAID external drive arrays with no problem. I am now looking at a CalDigit T3 Thunderbolt external HD which uses Mac's ( Mavericks ) Disk Utility to set up and manage the external RAID array. I will either use RAID 1 or RAID 5.

How reliable is software RAID using the Mac Disk utility and is it always best to go with hardware RAID?:confused:
 
smithrh

smithrh

macrumors 68030
Feb 28, 2009
2,727
1,735
Only ever used mirroring, but it works fine - I have 5 sets of drives in that configuration, no issues. Been doing that for, what, 3-4 years now? Haven't lost a thing, knock on wood.

If it wasn't safe, it wouldn't be an option. That is, Apple would not let something out the door that was problematic and lost data.

Having said that, you should know that striping is by definition more risky. The tradeoff is higher performance but you'd absolutely have to have everything backed up or risk losing everything on both drives if one were to fail.
 
m4v3r1ck

m4v3r1ck

macrumors 68030
Nov 2, 2011
2,586
532
The Netherlands
Software Raid-0 ATM because I put the hardware Mac Pro Raid card in the trashcan! Lot of $ & even more hassle and bugs!

(...) but NEVER EVER raid your bits & bytes without a rock solid back-up! :rolleyes:
 
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