Option for Thunderbolt Raid storage

[hfg]

Based on some research, I'm probably going to go with a Promise Pegasus J4 (bare enclosure), and then add drives. Apparently is very versatile, and in Raid 0 with 2 striped dives the performance over TB is crazy fast.
Just my $.02, but it's a good way to get some really great speeds and flexible storage.

That is a very interesting enclosure for 4ea. 2.5" drives. It appears that the 4 drives are interfaced as separate drives and you RAID them with Apple software RAID using Disk Utility. It also seems to have a better transfer rate than the LaCie "Little Big Disk" with SSDs (which only hold 2 drives requiring 2 enclosures).

My concern is that it may require drivers, which would preclude putting a drive in there for Windows since that too may require a driver which I don't think they have available yet according to one review. I was hoping to put 4 SSDs in there with one devoted to booting/running Windows, the rest for OS X.

Is that your take on this product as well?


-howard

 

[Mikebuzzsaw]

I just bought two of these

http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-3-5-In...77072&sr=8-5&keywords=external+enclosure+dual

and a Esata Thunderbolt Hub

http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-eSATA-Hub-controller-eSATA-300/dp/B007SYXER2

Could be an option for you.

 

[flynz4]

Jim- just thought I would let you know I finally decided on the pegasus R6 drive (12T). It was very costly but it will solve my storage problem for a long time. The unit should arrive tomorrow. Apple recommended Raid 5 which offers speed and some redundancy but now I'm thinking that perhaps I should set it up as raid 10. Given that 6T should be enough storage for me for a few years would you go this route instead? Or would raid 5 be fairly safe given drive failure rates etc.? I looked into the seeding option at Crashplan but the website says it is only available in the US ( I'm in Canada). I am going to call them to see how much time it would take to backup my current data (probably 1.5T or so) over the cloud. I'm pretty sure it would take months and in the meantime it slows down the internet quite a bit but perhaps I can run it over night. In the meantime I still have 3T external drives that I can use.

By the way the new IMAC is working great- so far I have not loaded any pictures as I am waiting for the new unit so I haven't been able to really test the speed using lightroom/PS. However, from the work I have done so far everything is very fast ( fully loaded IMAC 27inch except for the 3T fusion drive instead of SSD option).

Thanks again, for your suggestions.

Marsha

Marsha,

I think you will be happy. I use RAID 10. If you do not need the extra capacity... then I feel it is worth it to go RAID 10.

Where do you live in Canada. My daughter just finished her masters at UBC in Vancouver. We also have good friends there. Lots of people use a PO Box service in Blaine WA (right over the border) so that they can have a USA address. We used our friends when we needed to ship stuff to our daughter. Depending upon where you live... something like that may be available. Then... once you seed... you can change your address.

A better way might be to make a complete backup on cheap USB HDDs. I did that originally and brought them to my office. I now had a static backup... which is better than nothing.

I also enabled backup in phases. First I backed up my documents... because it only took a few hours. Then I turned on Pictures... because it was my most valuable digital asset. After about a week... that was complete and I enabled music, then videos. So... the most important stuff was backed up quickly, and it really didn't matter how long my movies took... they were all re-createable.

One nice feature of Crashplan is that it backs up the newest stuff first. So for example... once I was done backing up my pictures... and in the middle of backing up music... if I imported more pictures into Aperture... that would generally take precedence over the music because it is newer. I cannot guarantee that it always backs up the newest stuff first... but that is the way the algorithm seems to work... and agrees with CP's claims.

Enjoy!

/Jim

 

[bonedaddio]

I pulled that trigger today (J4)

That is a very interesting enclosure for 4ea. 2.5" drives. It appears that the 4 drives are interfaced as separate drives and you RAID them with Apple software RAID using Disk Utility. It also seems to have a better transfer rate than the LaCie "Little Big Disk" with SSDs (which only hold 2 drives requiring 2 enclosures).

My concern is that it may require drivers, which would preclude putting a drive in there for Windows since that too may require a driver which I don't think they have available yet according to one review. I was hoping to put 4 SSDs in there with one devoted to booting/running Windows, the rest for OS X.

Is that your take on this product as well?


-howard

That's pretty much my take on it. I bought one today along with a Sammy 840 250gb drive for starters. I really like being able to stripe one pair and still have two other drives available; and being able to update/change drives later. AND YES, apparently the chipset used DOES offer faster speeds than some other brands/mfrs. when using SSDs.

Not sure about TB drivers... if that's the case for windows, then I imagine all TB devices will require them. IIRC, there's something on the forums about adding in the TB drivers to a Windows 8 iso... I'm not anticipating a big problem with this, as Promise is a very reputable outfit and people are using the J4 for Windows already (IIRC??!!). They do only show a driver for OSX on their website. I'm thinking one SSD for Mac, one SSD for Windows7, and other bays open for other options... Data stored on HDD's running on a Seagate TB adapter, USB 3.0 external drives, etc.

I'll post back in a bit when I actually get my 27"BTO, or I get bored off my nuts and set it up with my TB MBPro late 2011.

Happy New Years!

 

[hfg]

That's pretty much my take on it. I bought one today along with a Sammy 840 250gb drive for starters. I really like being able to stripe one pair and still have two other drives available; and being able to update/change drives later. AND YES, apparently the chipset used DOES offer faster speeds than some other brands/mfrs. when using SSDs.

Not sure about TB drivers... if that's the case for windows, then I imagine all TB devices will require them. IIRC, there's something on the forums about adding in the TB drivers to a Windows 8 iso... I'm not anticipating a big problem with this, as Promise is a very reputable outfit and people are using the J4 for Windows already (IIRC??!!). They do only show a driver for OSX on their website. I'm thinking one SSD for Mac, one SSD for Windows7, and other bays open for other options... Data stored on HDD's running on a Seagate TB adapter, USB 3.0 external drives, etc.

I'll post back in a bit when I actually get my 27"BTO, or I get bored off my nuts and set it up with my TB MBPro late 2011.

Happy New Years!

If it requires drivers, that probably rules out using it as a boot drive for OS X or Windows. The LaCie doesn't require drivers, so I wonder if the driver issue is for all operations, or just for ultimate speed. If the latter, you might be able to do the initial boot at nominal SSD speeds, then when the "turbo drivers" kick in you would realize the maximum transfer rates.

I think I may buy one to play around with as well, as it does seem to be pretty versatile and have a lot of potential. Where were you able to find the best price on the enclosure only?

-howard

 

[mfouks]

Out of the box the drive was set up as raid 5. I decided to just use it as a raid 5 and then backup the data with my old external drives. I think this is the easiest approach for now. I might also give crashpro another chance. So far everything is working great. I transfered over 1 TB worth pictures this afternoon from an old external USB 2 drive and it was actually pretty quick using superduper. It took about 6-7 hours.

I live in Toronto but was originally from Vancouver. Thanks again for all of your input.

Marsha

Marsha,

I think you will be happy. I use RAID 10. If you do not need the extra capacity... then I feel it is worth it to go RAID 10.

Where do you live in Canada. My daughter just finished her masters at UBC in Vancouver. We also have good friends there. Lots of people use a PO Box service in Blaine WA (right over the border) so that they can have a USA address. We used our friends when we needed to ship stuff to our daughter. Depending upon where you live... something like that may be available. Then... once you seed... you can change your address.

A better way might be to make a complete backup on cheap USB HDDs. I did that originally and brought them to my office. I now had a static backup... which is better than nothing.

I also enabled backup in phases. First I backed up my documents... because it only took a few hours. Then I turned on Pictures... because it was my most valuable digital asset. After about a week... that was complete and I enabled music, then videos. So... the most important stuff was backed up quickly, and it really didn't matter how long my movies took... they were all re-createable.

One nice feature of Crashplan is that it backs up the newest stuff first. So for example... once I was done backing up my pictures... and in the middle of backing up music... if I imported more pictures into Aperture... that would generally take precedence over the music because it is newer. I cannot guarantee that it always backs up the newest stuff first... but that is the way the algorithm seems to work... and agrees with CP's claims.

Enjoy!

/Jim

 

[mmomega]

I just bought two of these

http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-3-5-In...77072&sr=8-5&keywords=external+enclosure+dual

and a Esata Thunderbolt Hub

http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-eSATA-Hub-controller-eSATA-300/dp/B007SYXER2

Could be an option for you.

Not to want to crash the thread but I've been thinking about doing this as well for an extra option. How well do those drives perform through the Lacie hub?