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asme

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 12, 2008
118
0
So, I just ordered a 2-disk JBOD external enclosure on the cheap, and I had a few conceptual questions about software RAIDs.

So if I RAID the two disks, my computer will recognize them as a RAID. I know if I plug it into a Windows or Linux machine they won't recognize it, but what if I plug my software-RAIDed enclosure into another Mac? Will the Mac recognize the RAID or will it just be confused?

If the other Mac doesn't recognize the RAID, and it's a RAID 1, will it still be able to read the disks?

Thanks all.
 
It would be easier to answer your question if you posted the make and model of drive enclosure you purchased. Does the enclosure provide the RAID for you or does it just present the individual drives to your machine?
 
It would be easier to answer your question if you posted the make and model of drive enclosure you purchased. Does the enclosure provide the RAID for you or does it just present the individual drives to your machine?

'twas a JBOD enclosure, meaning that it provides no RAID for me and thus presents the individual drives to my machine.
 
So you have 2 eSATA cables running into your machine?

Your RAID will not transfer to another machine if you disconnect it and plug it in somewhere else.

If your enclosure had its own RAID circuitry and you only have a single data cable running to your computer, then yes, it would transfer to another Mac, no problems...

Since it's software RAID, it can get confused if you move it.

If you're doing RAID 0, then another machine will probably see unformatted drives.

If you're doing RAID 1, you should be able to take one of the drives and plug it up to another Mac and read the files from that drive, but the second one wouldn't look like anything. Or possibly a duplicate of the first...

I made a 4-disk RAID 0 Array made from 2 RAID 1 arrays for fun a couple years ago. Actually, you can even make a RAID 0 array from two RAID 0 arrays in OS X's software RAID...that's quite a fast (and dangerous) array!
 
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