JBOD possible on an OWC Mercury Elite-Al Pro Qx2?

[chrono1081]

Hi guys.

Does anyone have an OWC Mercury Elite-Al Pro Qx2? If so any idea how to get it into JBOD mode? In the book, it shows to set the selector to 0 if using a software raid, however if I do that the rebuild light just blinks (why when it shouldn't be in a raid?) and does nothing even after 36 hours. All other raid modes that I have tested on this work flawlessly. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[GGJstudios]

Don't you mean OWC?

 

[chrono1081]

Oops! Yes OWC. (Sorry I was telling someone to use Outlook Web Access while typing).

 

[GGJstudios]

You probably already know this, but if you're interested, you can correct your thread title by going here and double clicking in the area I indicated here:

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It might catch the eye of more who are familiar with OWC.

 

[chrono1081]

lol actually I didnt know that. I was going nuts trying to figure out how to change the thread title. Thanks for the tip

 

[OWCMichael]

The Qx2 does not have a JBOD mode and there isn't a way to actually use this product as separate mounted volumes.

The '0' setting is not an end-user selectable setting but rather used for diagnostics and programming from a manufacturer level. "Switch Position 0 = Not in use (software setting)" isn't referring to a software-based RAID mode.

 

[kirkbross]

The Qx2 does not have a JBOD mode and there isn't a way to actually use this product as separate mounted volumes.

The '0' setting is not an end-user selectable setting but rather used for diagnostics and programming from a manufacturer level. "Switch Position 0 = Not in use (software setting)" isn't referring to a software-based RAID mode.

So are you saying that if you stick four drives into this enclosure and connect it via USB or FW, all four drive will NOT mount? (I know eSATA won't mount multiple drives without port multiplier, but USB and FW?)

 

[xraydoc]

So are you saying that if you stick four drives into this enclosure and connect it via USB or FW, all four drive will NOT mount? (I know eSATA won't mount multiple drives without port multiplier, but USB and FW?)

Correct. One big RAID volume only; wont show as 4 separate drives. You can, however, partition the one master volume into separate logical volumes. But all 4 hard drives inside the case will be forever tied together.

 

[J&JPolangin]

...what's best, RAID 1 mirror or JBOD as a back up solution (what's easiest to recover in the event of a problem)?

 

[pprior]

Those are totally different animals.

JBOD is the simplest to recover, as each disk has it's own files and there will be loss of only a single disk's files should that disk die. However you have no redundancy (JBOD is technically not raid).

RAID1 gives redundancy and so you have to lose both disks in a pair to lose data, however it therefore cuts your storage space in half.

Personally if you have enough space, i would use RAID1 and have the extra security.

I use raid5 in my qx2 because I need the space.

 

[iMouse]

Sucks about the lack of JBOD support. I was looking at possibly connecting it to a small server running FreeNAS. Although, RAID5 over FireWire to a Mac mini would be fine.

I just bought a Drobo 4-bay that has both frustrated and scared me quite a bit in the last 72 hours of ownership. I hope something is wrong with the unit, cause I can't imagine anyone would risk their data on such a finicky device.