How to enable RAID 1 in Mac mini Server mid 2010

[technowar]

I have a Mac mini Server Mid 2010, which is RAID1 by default. As a PC user for about a decade and never heard of RAID, I 'un'-RAID'ed my Mac and used the conventional partitioning instead. Today, the HDD are individual to each other.

Then one dreaded day, my files was lost. Projects, documents and pictures (my mother was angry about this). The worst part is, I never had a backup. Then I realized, WTF did I do? Apple knows best. They set my Mac to RAID1 because they knew something horrible like this will happen in the future.

I am troubled, I want to enable RAID1 again but Idk what to do nor where to begin.

I am running on Mt. Lion right now.

Please help me.

Thank you!

[simsaladimbamba]

Since RAID1 needs two disks, and you "un-RAIDed" those, what did you do with the second HDD?
Does it show up in Finder or Disk Utility?

To edit your thread title to a descriptive one, to get a knowledgable audience and help making the thread easier to find for people looking for the same information, just click on the button on the bottom right of your original post and then click the button below your message.

Example: How to recover data from RAID1 HDD (RAID1 has been disabled for ....)?

And while RAID1 seems to be an ideal backup solution, it is not. Better to use an extra (external) HDD with Time Machine or CarbonCopyCloner/SuperDuper!.

[technowar]

Yes, it shows up in Finder and Disk Utility. I am currently using it for storing files.

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by technowar

Yes, it shows up in Finder and Disk Utility. I am currently using it for storing files.

Did you delete it prior to using it as you do now, after you have disabled RAID1?

Can you see any other files/folders besides the ones you put there after you you disabled RAID1?

As to your new thread title:

How to enable RAID1 in Mac mini Server mid 2010

If you enable it again, the disks you want to use, will be formatted, thus data on it gets thrown away and upon writing onto the new RAID1 volume, that data will be overwritten.

[technowar]

The disk was formatted before I un-raided it.

I am also aware that I need to format all disks before raiding it again.

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by technowar

The disk was formatted before I un-raided it.

I am also aware that I need to format all disks before raiding it again.

But you want to recover data from it, do you not?
Sorry, am confused right now, what exactly you want to accomplish.

[technowar]

No, not at all. I don't want to recover the lost files. I just want to enable RAID1 again to prevent HDD failures.

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by technowar

No, not at all. I don't want to recover the lost files. I just want to enable RAID1 again to prevent HDD failures.

Ah, sorry, totally misunderstood you, but again, RAID1 is not an ideal solution for data protection, as it can get corrupted (I have had several RAID1 in my work Mac Pro to mirror the footage on there and over time the RAID1 became unstable and developed errors.

Better use the one HDD you already have set up for Mac OS X and the other HDD via CarbonCopyCloner (version 3.4.7 is free and still downloadable) or SuperDuper! to make a bootable backup, which is much easier to recover from than from a RAID1 volume.
CCC and SD can be setup to make scheduled backups, which gets you automatism.

Anyway, if you have important data, back it up at least twice.
I have one 500 GB HDD for my photographs (digital and analog) libraries and editing documents, one 500 GB HDD with my personal video footage in an editing friendly format.
Both 500 GB HDDs get backed up to one 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
And that 1 TB HDD gets backed up to another 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
Therefore I have three copies of my important data.

[technowar]

So you think I was just doing fine with two individual HDD's?

Anyways, thank you! I was really thinking RAID1 is fine.

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by technowar

So you think I was just doing fine with two individual HDD's?

Anyways, thank you! I was really thinking RAID1 is fine.

Yes, it is better to use at least two individual HDDs, and an external rotating backup HDD would not be bad either (in case of fire or theft).

Take a look at CCC and/or SD, they are quite good backup utilities.

[technowar]

How about CCC? Can't you boot up on the cloned disk?

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by technowar

How about CCC? Can't you boot up on the cloned disk?

Yes, as mentioned in post #8.

[technowar]

Say I make a bootable backup and store it in a 2TB extenal HDD. Will it consume the whole 2TB, or I can still put stuff in the disk?

Anyways, is CCC 3.4.7 compatible with 10.8? How about ChronoSync? How is it in par with CCC and SuperDuper?

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by technowar

Say I make a bootable backup and store it in a 2TB extenal HDD. Will it consume the whole 2TB, or I can still put stuff in the disk?

Anyways, is CCC 3.4.7 compatible with 10.8? How about ChronoSync? How is it in par with CCC and SuperDuper?

Say you have a 500 GB internal HDD with 232 GB of it used and you get an external HDD with 2 TB capacity and clone the contents of the 500 GB HDD to it, then only 232 GB of the external HDD are used, although CCC offers an archiving function, which moves files/folder from the target folder into another CCC_Archives folder (on the 2 TB HDD) once that file/folder has been deleted from the source (500 GB HDD), thus it may accumulate stuff.
You could also partition a 2 TB HDD, one for data and one for the clone, but even with one 2 TB partition the clone and additional data can coexist, albeit you have to take care of CCC's settings, as there is one setting to delete data on the target that is not on the source.

As for ChronoSync, it does not create bootable backups as far as I know.

And CCC 3.4.7 is compatible with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

[technowar]

Ah I see. That clarifies it. Thank you once again. Anyways, there was a video in YT about ChronoSync making a bootable backup. I may be wrong though.

I guess I'm sticking to SuperDuper for bootable backup.

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by technowar

Ah I see. That clarifies it. Thank you once again. Anyways, there was a video in YT about ChronoSync making a bootable backup. I may be wrong though.

I guess I'm sticking to SuperDuper for bootable backup.

I have been wrong about ChronoSync: http://www.econtechnologies.com/page...no_tips14.html

[technowar]

Originally Posted by simsaladimbamba

I have been wrong about ChronoSync: http://www.econtechnologies.com/page...no_tips14.html

I know this is a bit off topic.

I am using CCC, and was wondering if you can save the clone to a networked storage (NAS).

[philipma1957]

Originally Posted by technowar

I know this is a bit off topic.

I am using CCC, and was wondering if you can save the clone to a networked storage (NAS).

maybe in theory yes, but it is not as solid or reliable as a fw800 usb3 or thunderbolt clone.

[technowar]

Originally Posted by philipma1957

maybe in theory yes, but it is not as solid or reliable as a fw800 usb3 or thunderbolt clone.

What I meant was, if CCC can clone my system and directly save it to a NAS. Or if not, what application can do such task?

ChronoSync can, but you need to buy ChronoAgent to have extra feature. :\

[philipma1957]

Originally Posted by technowar

What I meant was, if CCC can clone my system and directly save it to a NAS. Or if not, what application can do such task?

ChronoSync can, but you need to buy ChronoAgent to have extra feature. :\

I know what you mean and the answer is it depends. I have done many nas clones of mac osx and my advice is don't they are not as reliable as
thunderbolt
fw800
usb2/3 clones.

[technowar]

Originally Posted by philipma1957

I know what you mean and the answer is it depends. I have done many nas clones of mac osx and my advice is don't they are not as reliable as
thunderbolt
fw800
usb2/3 clones.

This is all the resources I've got, so I guess I need to stick with this. If I may, what app did you use back then?

[blueroom]

Remember RAID is not a backup.

IMHO When you get it all running I'd recommend skipping RAID in favor of nightly backups to an external drive. If you can afford it; something offsite.

I run a NAS that does weekly backups to an external drive, critical files are kept on a remote NAS (rsync), DropBox or SkyDrive.