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xpost - OWC Mercury Dual Drive Enclosure - Can I do no-raid?

Sean Dempsey

Sean Dempsey

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 7, 2006
1,622
8
(might be better here)

I want to get this: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...erformanceRAID

I have 2 drives that I mirror, with superduper.

If I put those 2 drives, identical WDBlacks, will they show up as 2 drives, or will the enclosure try to do a raid and erase everything?

anyone have experience with this enclosure? Or, recommend an enclosure for dual 3.5" drives that will allow each drive to be independent?

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Also, I guess my problem is is that I have the 2TB drives, about 75% full, and no way to get them from one to the other. If I take them out of my Mac Pro (which I'm selling), I have no idea what will happen if I put them in a dual enclosure.

Do I erase one, and then Raid1 the other to it? Do I have to erase them both, set up the raid1 (or is it in the firmware) and then copy everything back over? I don't have a way of doing that.

How do I get 2 drives to be 2 volumes in one enclosure? OR, how do I safely take 2 drives that are mirrored, and turn them into a raid1 with that OWC enclosure without losing it all??
 
marzer

marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,398
123
Colorado
Sean Dempsey said:
(might be better here)

I want to get this: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...erformanceRAID

I have 2 drives that I mirror, with superduper.

If I put those 2 drives, identical WDBlacks, will they show up as 2 drives, or will the enclosure try to do a raid and erase everything?

anyone have experience with this enclosure? Or, recommend an enclosure for dual 3.5" drives that will allow each drive to be independent?
Click to expand...

I have that enclosure, fairly compact and reliable. Mines been running almost 24/7 for three years.

Yes, it will allow you to load your disks and access them as independent drives. It has hardware switches that let you select Raid 0, 1 or independent drive modes. Set switches for independent drive mode before loading you disks in the enclosure and you'll have no worries of anything being overwritten.
 
marzer

marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,398
123
Colorado
Sean Dempsey said:
Also, I guess my problem is is that I have the 2TB drives, about 75% full, and no way to get them from one to the other. If I take them out of my Mac Pro (which I'm selling), I have no idea what will happen if I put them in a dual enclosure.

Do I erase one, and then Raid1 the other to it? Do I have to erase them both, set up the raid1 (or is it in the firmware) and then copy everything back over? I don't have a way of doing that.

How do I get 2 drives to be 2 volumes in one enclosure? OR, how do I safely take 2 drives that are mirrored, and turn them into a raid1 with that OWC enclosure without losing it all??
Click to expand...

So do you intend on converting your drives to RAID 1? If so, the first step is to make sure your backup is current. Converting drives from independent devices to a RAID CONFIG will cause the data on the drives to be lost.

I suggest that, if you go with the OWC enclosure, you leave it in independent drive mode and use the Apple RAID through Disk Utility. The reason is that the OWC enclosure does not have fault detection. If you lose a drive in the enclosure-managed mirror set, you'll never know it. Using Apple RAID, you'll know it and it has a rebuild option available.

Finally, restore your backup to the new RAID 1 set you just made. And make sure the new RAID set is included in your backup scheme.
 
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