RAID for Dummies?

[SeattlePhotog]

Hi all,

Let's say you've got this FRIEND...we'll call him "Bert"...who has 2 drives in his Dual G5. The 300 GB drive is his primary drive, and it is almost full. He also added a 500 GB drive internally as a backup.

Since the 300 GB drive is nearing capacity, Bert bought himself another 500 GB drive. I would...I mean, HE would like to remove the 300 GB drive and replace it with the new 500 GB drive.

But...and here's the plot twist...he would like to set up the two 500 GB drives as a mirrored RAID, providing a constant backup solution.

Can this be done without having to wipe both drives and re-installing everything? I mean, what a pain, to have to add all of the applications and serial numbers and junk.

Please tell me...I mean, tell BERT...that there's a no-pain way to use both 500 GB drives as a mirrored RAID.

Thanks in advance! From Bert!

[mattkime]

>>providing a constant backup solution.

its not a constant backup. a RAID 1 will delete your info on both drives as fast a single drive would.

what kind of work do you do?

RAID 1 is used to increase uptime. If a drive dies, you can keep working. however, if _anything_ happens to the files on the drive - accidental delete, diskwarrior corrupts them, whatever - it happens to both drives and you've lost a backup as well.

[BillMac]

Tell "Bert" that the drive must be wiped out to do the RAID. Get an external case, put the 300 in there, Install the 500 and set up the RAID as desired. Recopy the data from the 300 back to the RAID.

[jdc]

constant bootable backup?

or just a backup of data?

or a "like the drive never died" backup?

[SeattlePhotog]

Wow, those are both good points and ideas. Especially the "deleting on one drive deletes on the other drive" thing. I'd overlooked that. I wish I could get three drives inhere. More reason to upgrade to a NEW mac soon, with four-drive internal capacity.

Maybe I'm better off just ChronoSynching the entire 1st drive nightly to the 2nd 500 GB drive.

And BillMac, I do have an external case I can use for this project. Would I have to do any type of "archive and install-ish" tricks in order to COMPLETELY copy and re-copy all of the system software, settings, etc on the entire drive? Is that what carbon Copy Cloner is good for?

Thanks again!

[SeattlePhotog]

[quote jdc]constant bootable backup?

or just a backup of data?

or a "like the drive never died" backup?
jdc, I'd say MOSTLY for data backup, but having a "like the drive never died" would be cool too.

[SeattlePhotog]

And MOSTLY because I don't backup as often as I should! ;-)

[mattkime]

what kind of work do you do????

[BigGuynRusty]

I have 5 (FIVE) HD's in my G5 tower.

BGnR

[SeattlePhotog]

[quote mattkime]what kind of work do you do????
Photography...lots and lots of images. If I lost them, I'd be up a certain creek sans paddle.

I'm not saying I DON'T backup to external drives...I'm just saying I should probably automate it more.