RAID - Macbook Pro

[chris.bowden]

Hi guys!

I have never configured a RAID setup but am looking into configuring one on my macbook pro. I'm not positive of the generation (it is the most recent before apple started making the eco-friendly ones). My guess is it is 2nd or 3rd generation.

Anyways I have quite a bit of data (about 1.2TB right now). I am a college student who does independent web contracting. I manage all of my clients' data on a regular basis. Many of them have Dedicated Servers etc., however for extra precaution (not only for their data but for my own) I want to set up a RAID configuration.

I found this quite interesting
http://www.3ware.com/products/Ext_serial_ata2-9000.asp

It says it works on Mac Pros and requires a PCI Express x4 slot.

Is it possible to configure this with my Mac? I am quite unfamiliar with configuring RAID as most of the systems I work on either have RAID already setup or not.

I know my Mac has a PCI Express slot, but will I need an adapter for this drive cage, or better yet, is the a better cage for the price?

Any help is appreciated guys! I'm just tired of having drives all over the place with 60GB SQL backup files laying around and having to move them over USB2.0

 

[TheYeti]

The main problem with esata on the macbook pro is that all of the drivers for the express cards cause kernal panics on 10.5.3 and later, and often don't work at all on 10.5.2.


I would recommend a firewire solution or a san solution that you could access via gigabit ethernet.

For pure speed, the LaCie little big disk is a 2.5 inch firewire 800 raid box which does not need a power brick. That might work for you with a pair of 500 gig disks plus a 500 gig disk in your computer.


If you do find an esata card for the express card that does not crash, I am interested in it. I have 2 esata expansion boxes that I would like to use, but I am currently in driver hell.

For data storage I spent about 4 hours to build a open solaris box using the november build, to share that I made and admin user, then a user to share, and set the share user to userid to 501, in group 20.