RAID 1 or Carbon Clone Copy

[fivepoint]

I'm in the process of putting all of my iMovie '08 files onto external disks to save space on my iMac. I'm using 2 750GB iomega Ultramax Hard Drives (FW800,400, USB 2.0, eSATA). I'd like to make sure that all of my external data is redundant, but am unsure about the best way to proceed with this. Any suggestions or benefits/negatives with each option would be helpful. Thanks!

Choice #1) Set up the two drives as a RAID 1 grouping through OSX Disk Utility. Save files to the disk set.

Choice #2) Set up the 2nd drive to backup the 1st drive daily (or weekly) with Carbon Clone Copier. Save files to first drive only.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Backup and RAID 1 (mirror) are not the same thing

Backup (whether a periodic copy or an incremental copy) saves your data as at a specific moment in time. The amount of data you are at risk of losing depends on the interval between backups.

RAID 1 mirrors in real time. The problem is, if you accidentally delete or overwrite a file, it is messed on the mirror at the same instant it is messed on your original drive. RAID also imposes some processing and transmission overhead as you are working. Backup takes time, but can be scheduled for overnight or when you are not at the machine.

 

[merl1n]

I'm in the process of putting all of my iMovie '08 files onto external disks to save space on my iMac. I'm using 2 750GB iomega Ultramax Hard Drives (FW800,400, USB 2.0, eSATA). I'd like to make sure that all of my external data is redundant, but am unsure about the best way to proceed with this. Any suggestions or benefits/negatives with each option would be helpful. Thanks!

Choice #1) Set up the two drives as a RAID 1 grouping through OSX Disk Utility. Save files to the disk set.

Choice #2) Set up the 2nd drive to backup the 1st drive daily (or weekly) with Carbon Clone Copier. Save files to first drive only.

RAID 1 is easier but appears as one file system. If you get any file system corruption though, both disks will be affected (the main and mirror).

CCC is also a good option but requires manual updating (but I think you can schedule it to run automatically).

I, myself use RAID 1 for all of my video files.

 

[blodwyn]

I'm in the process of putting all of my iMovie '08 files onto external disks to save space on my iMac. I'm using 2 750GB iomega Ultramax Hard Drives (FW800,400, USB 2.0, eSATA). I'd like to make sure that all of my external data is redundant, but am unsure about the best way to proceed with this. Any suggestions or benefits/negatives with each option would be helpful. Thanks!

Choice #1) Set up the two drives as a RAID 1 grouping through OSX Disk Utility. Save files to the disk set.

Choice #2) Set up the 2nd drive to backup the 1st drive daily (or weekly) with Carbon Clone Copier. Save files to first drive only.

From my own experience I'd say it depends on whether you'll be using the drives via USB or Firewire. I had problems with a RAID mirror on USB, where once in a while one disk would drop out when I plugged another USB device in. Admittedly, they were on a Belkin (powered) hub, but the drives did have their own power bricks. This meant a re-silver was necessary, which took ~18 hours every time. I had no problems with Firewire.