OSX 10.5.2 and RAID ? ? ?

[lugesm]

Fairly new to the Mac and totally ignorant of RAID disk configuration.

I note that Disk Utility contains a RAID category under utility selection at the top of the window. Is it possible to run a RAID configuration with OSX?

Does anyone know of an article that provides some education on RAID configuration, function, definition, etc. ? ? ? I need a basic understanding, and would appreciate some pointers.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Linkety to an amazing RAID-level-description.

It is possible to run a software RAID in OS X via Disk Utility, and have it be your startup disk, but if you really really need speed there are hardware solutions available.

 

[lugesm]

Actually, speed was not one of my considerations. I am just beginning to understand some of the RAID concepts.

Specifically, I found the following discussion regarding RAID-1 on the Internet:

"RAID 1 (Data Mirror) provides data integrity by having the same data on two drives. If one drive fails, the same data is still intact on the other hard drive. This bundle is ideal for applications where data integrity is of utmost importance. This is not data backup."

My thought was that I could use two 500GB drives in a RAID-1 configuration for my TimeMachine backup, thereby enhancing my backup integrity by a substantial factor.

Is this a bad idea (other than the obvious costs issue) or would it work as described? If it would work, and if it makes sense, would the two 500GB drives need to be identical hardware implementations?