RAID question

[Ben1l]

I was thinking of buying the LaCie 2 big thunderbolt drive (6tb) to back up important files. I just wanted to know if I set it up in raid 1 (mirrored) does that mean that I will only have 3tb of usable storage? Does the 6tb only apply if you run it in raid 0 mode?

 

[theSeb]

I was thinking of buying the LaCie 2 big thunderbolt drive (6tb) to back up important files. I just wanted to know if I set it up in raid 1 (mirrored) does that mean that I will only have 3tb of usable storage? Does the 6tb only apply if you run it in raid 0 mode?

Correct. The 6TB model has 2 x 3 TB drives. RAID 1 = ~3 TB of usable space

 

[hallux]

Do you have an off-premises plan as well? While the RAID is a nice way to back up external to the laptop, if it's in your home it still won't protect you from a disaster in the home. Plus, having the disks in a RAID doubles the chance of failure of the backup storage and a mirror (or striped array) won't help you if you mistakenly delete a file then back up your system.

A TRUE backup plan includes both local and off-site backups.

 

[AmestrisXServe]

As much as I like LaCie, and have been a continual customer, I am not sure how their drives perform in RAID-1 operation, as I don;t know what kind of controller their newer drives use. I have several of their older RAID-0 drives, and I always feared the worst out of any RAID-0 used for data that is in any way important.

Please do report how the drives perform in RAID-1, and what you need to do in order to switch it over. I thought that the controllers in their enclosures only supported RAID-0 (striping).

I own three of ther 1TB RAID-0 enclosures, plus a 2TB version, and a LightScribe. Most of these are FW 800, which is perfect for my use.

They do use strange PSU connectors, and their power supply transformers are notorious for short lifespans, but LaCie is usually good about replacing them. I would suggest ordering a backup PSU to keep on the shelf, in the event that the factory unit dies, so that you have a backup while you wait for an RMA.

You may also wish to read about various RAID configurations, for future reference. I generally use RAID 0+1 (or RAID-10), as it provides the best level of stability and data protection of the common RAID levels/ (RAID-15 is the best in this area, but few controllers support it.)

 

[MCAsan]

I run my LACie 2Gib 6TB in RAID 1 mirrored mode (3TB) for high availability of my libraries. My 3TB TC does backup of the entire rMBP file system including the 2Big drives. RAID 1 will help to keep data available if a single drive fails, not that is not a substitute for backups, both on and off site.

 

[theSeb]

As much as I like LaCie, and have been a continual customer, I am not sure how their drives perform in RAID-1 operation, as I don;t know what kind of controller their newer drives use. I have several of their older RAID-0 drives, and I always feared the worst out of any RAID-0 used for data that is in any way important.

Please do report how the drives perform in RAID-1, and what you need to do in order to switch it over. I thought that the controllers in their enclosures only supported RAID-0 (striping).

I own three of ther 1TB RAID-0 enclosures, plus a 2TB version, and a LightScribe. Most of these are FW 800, which is perfect for my use.

They do use strange PSU connectors, and their power supply transformers are notorious for short lifespans, but LaCie is usually good about replacing them. I would suggest ordering a backup PSU to keep on the shelf, in the event that the factory unit dies, so that you have a backup while you wait for an RMA.

You may also wish to read about various RAID configurations, for future reference. I generally use RAID 0+1 (or RAID-10), as it provides the best level of stability and data protection of the common RAID levels/ (RAID-15 is the best in this area, but few controllers support it.)

Lacie 2Big does not have a hardware RAID controller. It relies on OS X's software RAID.