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EHD partition advice

G

GregE

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 28, 2007
380
0
I have a RAID 1 EHD with 2 750GB hard drives in it. I'm using an iMac with a 500GB hard drive in it. I would like to use the EHD for Time Machine and also to store videos I import from my camcorder. To start with it will be Hi8 videos and I will be using a Canopus ADVC110. After I get those done, I will be using my Sony HC7.

I'm wondering if I should partition the EHD so I have one for Time Machine and one for my videos or should I just leave it as one big partition and use it for both. My only concern with one partition is Time Machine using all of it.

So, what would you recommend? One partition or two? If two, what size would you set them at?

Thanks
 
I honestly don't know if partitioning a RAID set causes problems with it... but assuming it doesn't, I'd partition it into two - one 500 GB for Time Machine and one 250 GB for video storage.
 
yellow said:
Can you partition a RAID1 set? Is that even possible?
Click to expand...
That's what I'm wondering too... I suspect you can, though, since I have a 1TB external hard drive that isn't actually a single drive. It's a pair of 500 GB drives in an internal RAID0 configuration, and I can partition it just fine.

How do I know this? When the drive spins up, it spins up twice, as if two drives inside are spinning up.
 
I'm new to Mac but I thought I had partitioned a RAID 1 array in Windows so I just figured I could on my Mac too.
 
Yes, the older 1TB offerings (from say, LaCie) were just 2x500GB striped.

But a RAID1 is a different beast.. it almost seems.. counter-intuative to me. Granted, I don't know a huge amount about RAIDs. The only practical experience I have is with RAID5. But I know with that, the array doesn't show up in Disk Utility, so you cannot partition it once it's in a RAID set. I suppose you could delete the RAID set and partition first, and then recreate the RAID1(s), but that seems like it would cause the disks to work even harder, thereby reducing their lifespan and kind of defeating the purpose of RAID1?

Ultimately, if you're adventerous and there's nothing on the array.. give it a shot! :)
 
I checked NewerTech website and the FAQ says you can partition the drives however you like. Anybody else have suggestions on partition sizes?
 
yellow said:
Well, TimeMachine is a bit broken, if you ask me. It's going to want 550+GB to back up your internal drive.
Click to expand...

Even if my iMac is brand new and I have barely dented the 500GB hard drive? What do you do to back up?
 
I had a 500GB drive parted into 250 and 250.

I aimed to experiment with my 25GB home directory. I used an external drive and parted it into a 100GB partition that I figured would be more than enough for TM to use for my home directory backup.

OOOoooooohhhhh no.

Despite exceptions being made to ALL directories except my home directory.. TM wanted a partition that was 299GB or more. So, I suspect you will find a similar experience, 2x on the disk size.

Oh, and I should note that my boot drive (250GB) total was only using about 55GB of space.
 
Dang. So I can't use my 750GB EHD with Time Machine on my 500GB internal hard drive?
 
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