Good and Cheap Two-Drive RAID System

[I AM THE MAN]

Hey everyone. I'm looking for a RAID system that only has 2 slots and should be able to support up to/at least 2 TB hard drives per slot. Anyone know a good and cheap RAID system?

Thanks for all the help in advance.

 

[marzer]

What level of RAID? Network or local connection? External or bus powered?
I'm fond of, any usually recommend, OWC. I use both the Elite Pro Dual mini and the Elite Pro RAID. Both were purchased bare and I added my own drives. They will do hardware RAID 0 or 1, and the Elite Pro RAID can be configure to show both as standalone drives, handy for keeping cord cluttter down

However, as I've discussed in a previous thread, the Elite Pro RAID will not indicate a failed drive, so you use RAID 1 at your own risk. Otherwise, it performs great in RAID 0 mode. But it also works well configure in RAID 1 with the OS X RAID software, which does provide drive fault detection to the user.

How cheap is cheap (very subjective)? I consider OWC prices cheap, esp. for the quality/features/design.

 

[I AM THE MAN]

What level of RAID? Network or local connection? External or bus powered?
I'm fond of, any usually recommend, OWC. I use both the Elite Pro Dual mini and the Elite Pro RAID. Both were purchased bare and I added my own drives. They will do hardware RAID 0 or 1, and the Elite Pro RAID can be configure to show both as standalone drives, handy for keeping cord cluttter down

However, as I've discussed in a previous thread, the Elite Pro RAID will not indicate a failed drive, so you use RAID 1 at your own risk. Otherwise, it performs great in RAID 0 mode. But it also works well configure in RAID 1 with the OS X RAID software, which does provide drive fault detection to the user.

How cheap is cheap (very subjective)? I consider OWC prices cheap, esp. for the quality/features/design.

Hey! Sorry for leaving out those key points. I want a RAID system that has a firewire/USB connection (so local). I just want a simple and cheap RAID system that can clone the drive and have it backed up.

E.G. Hard drive 2 is a clone of Hard drive 1.

Just had a bad experience with my external drive failing so I want to go purchase a RAID system.

As far as the price goes, whatever the cheapest one is. My budget is no more than $400.

 

[marzer]

Hey! Sorry for leaving out those key points. I want a RAID system that has a firewire/USB connection (so local). I just want a simple and cheap RAID system that can clone the drive and have it backed up.

E.G. Hard drive 2 is a clone of Hard drive 1.

Just had a bad experience with my external drive failing so I want to go purchase a RAID system.

As far as the price goes, whatever the cheapest one is. My budget is no more than $400.

Just a point. RAID provides data reliability (and accessibility) but should NOT be mistaken as a form of backup. If your interest is backing up, you should use two independant drives, one to hold the working data and the other that holds the backup via backup software (Time Machine, Chronosync, etc. - many options out there).

In that case I can recommed the Elite Pro RAID configured as independant drives. This is how I store my media library at the server, one drive holds the working library the other holds the backup, ran incrementally every weekend using Chronosync.

Since my needs are non-mission essential, I don't employ a RAID. I don't mind taking the time to do a restore to get the library back up and running.

 

[I AM THE MAN]

Just a point. RAID provides data reliability (and accessibility) but should NOT be mistaken as a form of backup. If your interest is backing up, you should use two independant drives, one to hold the working data and the other that holds the backup via backup software (Time Machine, Chronosync, etc. - many options out there).

In that case I can recommed the Elite Pro RAID configured as independant drives. This is how I store my media library at the server, one drive holds the working library the other holds the backup, ran incrementally every weekend using Chronosync.

Since my needs are non-mission essential, I don't employ a RAID. I don't mind taking the time to do a restore to get the library back up and running.

So would you just recommend me getting 2 external drives and backing up the data on one and then copying/pasting on the other one weekly or just use the RAID system in which one drive has my files while the other one has the backup?

 

[marzer]

You could backup your internal drive to an external RAID, yes. It all comes down to what your tolerances are for data loss. I wouldn't copy and paste anything, but rely on backup software.

 

[I AM THE MAN]

You could backup your internal drive to an external RAID, yes. It all comes down to what your tolerances are for data loss. I wouldn't copy and paste anything, but rely on backup software.

Well I'm just trying to back up other files like photos and media that are not on my computer.

 

[marzer]

Well I'm just trying to back up other files like photos and media that are not on my computer.

So the two external drives with backup, as previously described, would work for your situation.

 

[radiogoober]

So would you just recommend me getting 2 external drives and backing up the data on one and then copying/pasting on the other one weekly or just use the RAID system in which one drive has my files while the other one has the backup?

That works perfectly fine. I have two identical external USB drives. I use CarbonCopyCloner (incredible piece of free (donation) software) to handle my backups. Currently I have it do this:

At 3:00 AM, it clones my Mac's HD onto Backup_Drive_1
At 3:45 AM, it clones Backup_Drive_1 onto Backup_Drive_2

I also use DropBox to backup my ~/Desktop and ~/Documents folder.

I also have a USB drive hooked up to my Airport Extreme for TimeMachine backups (this does incremental backups.)

This way I have two identical backups of my Mac's HD. Both copies are "bootable" in case anything fails. I also have an online backup of my important documents that I may need to access outside my house, from anywhere in the world or on my phone, etc. And incremental backups are handled by TimeMachine.

The best part is its all automatic. CarbonCopyCloner runs automatically, as does TimeMachine and DropBox. I don't have to manage anything, and I have multiple backups. The only other thing I feel I could do to make my backups "safer" is some type of whole hard disk off-site backup, but I haven't found anything attractive yet.

 

[I AM THE MAN]

That works perfectly fine. I have two identical external USB drives. I use CarbonCopyCloner (incredible piece of free (donation) software) to handle my backups. Currently I have it do this:

At 3:00 AM, it clones my Mac's HD onto Backup_Drive_1
At 3:45 AM, it clones Backup_Drive_1 onto Backup_Drive_2

I also use DropBox to backup my ~/Desktop and ~/Documents folder.

I also have a USB drive hooked up to my Airport Extreme for TimeMachine backups (this does incremental backups.)

This way I have two identical backups of my Mac's HD. Both copies are "bootable" in case anything fails. I also have an online backup of my important documents that I may need to access outside my house, from anywhere in the world or on my phone, etc. And incremental backups are handled by TimeMachine.

The best part is its all automatic. CarbonCopyCloner runs automatically, as does TimeMachine and DropBox. I don't have to manage anything, and I have multiple backups. The only other thing I feel I could do to make my backups "safer" is some type of whole hard disk off-site backup, but I haven't found anything attractive yet.

So the two external drives with backup, as previously described, would work for your situation.

Thanks all! I went ahead with buying 2 (1TB) hard drives and I'll just clone the main one. Thanks for all the help.