Make 1 external HDD into RAID1 on two HDDs

[FlyLight]

Having had an important drive die last week (and recovering most but not all of the info from backups), I'm thinking about getting a Guardian Maximus mirrored-RAID enclosure.

If I currently have a 2TB bare disk with all I need already on it, can I simply clone it to a second drive, then put them both in the RAID enclosure and start using it as RAID, or do I have to put empty drives in first, then copy across?

 

[JesterJJZ]

The latter. New drives in the enclosure, format, use.

 

[treestar]

Be reminded that RAID1 is for eliminating downtime during failure. It's not a backup contingency. RAID1 is not acceptable for backing up data; it has a narrower purpose.

 

[Alrescha]

Be reminded that RAID0 is for eliminating downtime during failure. It's not a backup contingency. RAID0 is not acceptable for backing up data; it has a narrower purpose.

RAID 1 might be useful for eliminating downtime during a failure, but RAID 0 is not. RAID 0 is for speed and/or capacity. Nothing else. Of course no RAID system is a substitute for backup.

A.

 

[treestar]

RAID 1 might be useful for eliminating downtime during a failure, but RAID 0 is not. RAID 0 is for speed and/or capacity. Nothing else. Of course no RAID system is a substitute for backup.

A.

I'll just change that 0 to a 1. It was a mistake in nomenclature, not understanding.

 

[marzer]

Having had an important drive die last week (and recovering most but not all of the info from backups), I'm thinking about getting a Guardian Maximus mirrored-RAID enclosure.

If I currently have a 2TB bare disk with all I need already on it, can I simply clone it to a second drive, then put them both in the RAID enclosure and start using it as RAID, or do I have to put empty drives in first, then copy across?

Generally, no. Building a an initial RAID1 will usually destroy the data on the disks.

But in a broader discussion, the Guardian Maximus seems to only be available populated with drives from the manufacturer so it would not be a good idea to replace those right out of the box. You'd void the warranty for one, two, the older drive likely has less life expectancy than the brand new ones in the devices.

Best bet is to do a copy from the old drive to the Maximus. If your data doesn't fill the 2TB of disk space, consider reusing the old drive to backup the Maximus. At least until you need a bigger backup drive.

Another option, this is essentially the same thing, but you can get it without drives, to add your own (with or without RAID configuration): http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/PerformanceRAID

 

[FlyLight]

Thanks for the replies.

The Maximus is available in Australia as a bare case. I wanted to put Hitachi/Toshiba or WD drives in it The last enclosure was a LaCie that had a Seagate 2TB. Word on the street is that they are by far the least reliable.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/175089-who-makes-the-most-reliable-hard-drives

Also wanted the Maximus as it has eSata connection for my mac Pro, and FW800 for my current iMac, and USB3 for future machines. I work in two locations and need my latest work available at both. Photography, video and graphic design, so Dropbox isn't an option (slow Aussie internet!).

I'll grab two matching 2TB drives and copy the data across. I already have other externals as backups, just hadn't backed up in a couple of days, so only lost a bit of data. Was able to recover the last imported images from the Lightroom catalog.

 

[Terminalcity]

I came across this thread while looking for info on to, stop the g*d awful fan noise on my Guardian Maximus. I have two of them... Can't really recommend them as on one of them the whole drive died after four months. Because I'm in Canada, OWC wanted me to ship the whole unit back to them at my cost (about $40-$60 cad depending on the postal service here.) i said nuts to that, and having 20 years of electronics experience I opened the unit to see if I could fix it.
I did fix it-- the problem was with the manufacturing quality. It was something I had never seen before: one of the pins on the little JST connector that is used to join the power switch wires to the main PCB had black gunk on it. Either some black gunk got on it during assembly, or the plating on the pin corroded.

In any case, now the fan is making a noise that sounds like there's a squirrel trapped in the drive case.

Overall I would say avoid this product, as the manufacturing quality, in my estimation, is low.

 

[hfg]

I came across this thread while looking for info on to, stop the g*d awful fan noise on my Guardian Maximus. I have two of them...

In any case, not the fan is making a noise that sounds like there's a squirrel trapped in the drive case.

I just this afternoon replaced the fans in my Guardian MAXimus and the similar Mercury Elite Pro Dual with this quiet fan:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RD0RDU/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Much better!

Note: The Elite Pro was a simple "plug & play" ... the MAXimus required the supplied 2-pin to 3-pin adapter and I had to move one wire from the center to the outside hole (very easy).

 

[Terminalcity]

Having had an important drive die last week (and recovering most but not all of the info from backups), I'm thinking about getting a Guardian Maximus mirrored-RAID enclosure.

If I currently have a 2TB bare disk with all I need already on it, can I simply clone it to a second drive, then put them both in the RAID enclosure and start using it as RAID, or do I have to put empty drives in first, then copy across?

One thing that is not immediately evident with the GUardian Maximus is that whenever you plug in a drive it gets automatically formatted.

Thanks to the previous poster for the fan tip!