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Moving a Mirror Software RAID to a new iMac

brisbaneguy29

brisbaneguy29

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 27, 2007
370
1
Brisbane
I have taking the plunge and bought a new i7 iMac. On my current machine I have 2 WD external USB drives (1TB) in RAID mirror, done through Disk Utilities. I am looking for advice on the correct way to move this to my new machine. Do I simply plug them in, and OSX does the rest? The data is very valuable, and I don't really have enough space to copy it all / back it up before i move it. Being a mirror, it is essentially is my backup.
 
brisbaneguy29 said:
I have taking the plunge and bought a new i7 iMac. On my current machine I have 2 WD external USB drives (1TB) in RAID mirror, done through Disk Utilities. I am looking for advice on the correct way to move this to my new machine. Do I simply plug them in, and OSX does the rest? The data is very valuable, and I don't really have enough space to copy it all / back it up before i move it. Being a mirror, it is essentially is my backup.
Click to expand...

I have almost the exact same setup (2 WD 500 GB mirrored) and I have moved them successfully in the past. The thing is they must never be unplugged or plugged in except simultaneously. Easiest way, shut down the machine they are plugged into, then remove them and plug them into the new machine while its still off. Then, making sure they are both plugged in and powered, turn on the new Mac. OS X will recognize them and you'll be good.

I had an accident once where I thought I was pulling out another external drive cable and yanked one of the RAID drives. It broke the mirror and I had to rebuild. No data loss, but it took forever to rebuild it.
 
Nero Wolfe said:
I have almost the exact same setup (2 WD 500 GB mirrored) and I have moved them successfully in the past. The thing is they must never be unplugged or plugged in except simultaneously. Easiest way, shut down the machine they are plugged into, then remove them and plug them into the new machine while its still off. Then, making sure they are both plugged in and powered, turn on the new Mac. OS X will recognize them and you'll be good.

I had an accident once where I thought I was pulling out another external drive cable and yanked one of the RAID drives. It broke the mirror and I had to rebuild. No data loss, but it took forever to rebuild it.
Click to expand...

So on the new machine, did you have to prepare Disk Utility before you plugged them in, or is there some RAID info on the drives that once plugged in, will automatically show up in Disk Utility?
 
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