western digital studio edition 2

[shiunn]

Hello ppl,
Need some info on this hdd:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-MyBook-Firewire-External/dp/B0016M27YS/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1209587990&sr=8-10
AFAIK, there's two harddisks inside this enclosure. But, can you use the harddisks as two separate partition? ie, to make two backups, so when one fails you have another to fall back on? Is this a good idea to use it as such?

Thanks!

 

[CortexRock]

I've been looking at one of the 2TB versions of this drive for backups.

You're right about the two separate drives (in my case, 2 x 1TB) which I believe are user serviceable should you need to replace a failed drive. Unlike the older My Book drives, the case on this one can be opened.

I would think you could either have the drive set as RAID0 (one big 2TB drive) or RAID1 (mirrored), with 1TB one drive acting as a redundant backup in the event of one of the two drives failing.

The RAID0 option gives you more storage, but if either of the two drives fails, you'll lose all the data.

 

[shiunn]

I'm not too familiar with how RAID works, but I understood your explanation.

Is it possible to just write to the hdds independently, without RAID? cuz, maybe sometimes i want to put some extra files in one hdd, and not the other?

 

[acrahm]

don't mean to jump in your thread, but it brought up a question i have. If i get a 2tb that has 2 HD's inside, how can i set it up where if one drive dies, i can recover the info on the other drive?

 

[CortexRock]

Is it possible to just write to the hdds independently, without RAID? cuz, maybe sometimes i want to put some extra files in one hdd, and not the other?

Honestly, I'm not sure - I couldn't find any reference to using the drive as you describe. By default the drive comes formatted as RAID0 (striped) which means it acts as one big 2GB drive, made up of the two separate 1TB disks. You can delete that setup in Disk Utility, but I don't know if that means you can format the two disks separately. I think you're stuck with one of the two options I outlined in my original response, but YMMV.

don't mean to jump in your thread, but it brought up a question i have. If i get a 2tb that has 2 HD's inside, how can i set it up where if one drive dies, i can recover the info on the other drive?

You can format an external drive (or any drive attached to your machine) via Utilities > Disk Utility. It will also allow you to create RAID sets from those drives. What you're after is a RAID1, or mirrored, set.

 

[shiunn]

Thanks CortexRock. Appreciate your replies.
So, how's your experience so far on using the My Books? there are a lot of bad reviews out there, eg with drives failing on them in weeks or hours.
did you get the 2tb Studio Edition II? where did you get it from?

 

[CortexRock]

I don't have one yet, but I have two My Book Pro 500GB Studio drives. One has lasted over two years, and the second one died after about six months.

But because I'd registered with WD under their 3 year guarantee, they sent a replacement through, which so far has been fine.