Hayduke, I think you are throwing too much storage IN ONE PLACE at the issue. What if your Mac Pro were stolen, your data AND ALL BACKUP DRIVES would go with it. Honestly, just having one big backup drive to handle Time Machine for data and system would be fine, but you need external backup sources - off-site server, internet backup, anything... away from your Mac.
If it's worth THAT much, dude, that's what I would do. I'm a CIO and offsite storage is a key component of Disaster Recovery (theft, natural disaster, etc.). Look into it.
JP
As a newbie, how does one actually go about cloning the hard drive - what software is best or can it be done within apple os.
I wanted to clarify with apple before buying the quad if I could set up a hardware raid 0 with a 5th drive and they (mac Pro Specialist) said that it may or may not work, that the optical drive connection into which you'd be now putting another Hard Drive wasn't designed for a hard drive (but that it still may work) and that it will more than likely void any warranty.You can fit two HDDs in Optical Bay 2
I wanted to clarify with apple before buying the quad if I could set up a hardware raid 0 with a 5th drive and they (mac Pro Specialist) said that it may or may not work, that the optical drive connection into which you'd be now putting another Hard Drive wasn't designed for a hard drive (but that it still may work) and that it will more than likely void any warranty.So, I guess I'm stuck with 4x1TB in Raid 0 (with external back up) iso the 5TB that I wanted
I don't have the knowledge or expertise to start doing my own additions and upgrades. oh well.
the guy I spoke to was pretty short with me about it too. I had to go through 3 other reps before talking to him. By the time I basically insisted on speaking with a Mac Pro Specialist, he started off with: "So you want to go against what Apple recommends", to which I said, "No, I don't know what is recommended, that's why I'm calling". Any way. like I said, I don't have the expertise (time / patience) to argue the point with him or start fiddling around with the guts of what is at the end of the day, and expensive bit of kit. First time though I've felt a bit disappointed with apple support. I assumed that adding drives and things like that was what the Pro was all about, guess not.That's a load of BS. If they're honestly going to attempt to void the entire warranty over someone using a SATA connector to connect a SATA hard disk… ugh
1. Is there any problem just "copying" the entire folder using the finder (and then resetting it in sys prefs), vs using terminal as shown here:
2. What about diglloyd's method of separating data from apps, leaving Home on the system/app disk, but moving all data (music, photos etc) to a separate disk:
I have 2 questions:
- how does one put 6 hard drives into a MP 09 ?
there 4 bays with each a SATA connector, that I got... then there is 2 optical bay with each a SATA connector.
Now since most of the time optical bay 2 is empty, putting an HD in there using the available SATA connector makes sens... now how would one add another HDD in there (given that there is the physical space of doing so) where would it plug into ?? Are there some unused sata connectors on the main board ??
- I am really interested by the idea of separating the Home folder from the system/app drive... because I like simplicity, I like have itunes and iphoto do there thing and copy a bunch of thing in there... therefore I need a lot of space in my home drive...
Now where I have a problem is that I want to use an SSD 120g for my system/app drive. And obviously that ain't going to be enough space for my data.... hence separating the HOME to another bigger hard drive...
But now I am wandering if I am going to loose almost the advantages of using SSD... because all the browser cache and the whole bunch of little files are stored on the user home folder ? isn't?
What do you think about that ? Should I do a more complex move of the photo and music data and downloads folder etc. to a sperate drive and leave the whole of the HOME on the SSD ?
Alex