Format 2 drives as one big drive

[charlien]

Is it possible with OSX to format 2 - 1TB drives to look like one big 2 TB drive? If so, if one drive fails do you lose everything or just the data on that drive?

 

[TheHumphries]

You could do it via Raid 0. Basically it would look like one 2TB drive even though you are using two 1TB drives. There are some Pro/Cons to this.

Here is a little breakdown on Raid 0 and its performance: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/394

The BIG pro is the increased read speed as it can pull data from 2 sources instead of one. The BIG con is if one drive fails, then you lose all data.

But to me, if you only have 1 drive anyways, not much difference since if you lose it, it is gone anyways. But it does increase your risk of data loss since it is two hard drives over one.

Apple's HOW-TO for Raid: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2559

Best Of Luck!

 

[maflynn]

Is it possible with OSX to format 2 - 1TB drives to look like one big 2 TB drive?

Yes, its called Raid 0 or stripping.

If so, if one drive fails do you lose everything or just the data on that drive?

Yes, its a very risky setup because the data is striped across two drives, if you lose one drive, you lose everything.

 

[charlien]

You could do it via Raid 0. Basically it would look like one 2TB drive even though you are using two 1TB drives. There are some Pro/Cons to this.

I thought Raid 0 was simply to increase the write speed and did not increase the size of the partition. Guess I need to read up on the subject.

 

[vansouza]

Is it possible with OSX to format 2 - 1TB drives to look like one big 2 TB drive? If so, if one drive fails do you lose everything or just the data on that drive?

I just did it and am very very happy with the speed increase... as for safety, keep your backups coming.