Create a RAID drive for my Mac Pro 5,1

[cpnotebook80]

I have never considered a Raid drive system for my Mac Pro and wondering whats the best way to do it. I see the software solutions out there but afraid I might screw up something in the process. I'm on the latest Sierra OSX. Afraid to move over to the new OSX just in case.

I have 2 ssd and 2 HDD.

Samsung 256gb SSD ( main OSX)
Crucial 240gb SSD

2 WD HDD. One is 1 TB and other is 320GB.

Have an external passport WD drive also at 2TB.

So my question is - how do I go about or should I create a raid system. The issue right now is that files are all over the drives and hard to figure out whats where. I use my laptop more for my work. I don't do any idea editing either.

I have a trial of SoftRraid which said that the 320gb will fail due to bad sectors in it when i opens it up.

So any advise would be appreciated. I did find this video but it says creating raid will delete existing data so not sure how to create raid with existing data already on the drives.

Thank you!

 

[bookemdano]

First of all, you may want to read up on what RAID is and the different levels.

Why do you want to set up RAID? That would determine what advice I would offer.

But a few things:

Generally, RAID arrays are configured between identical disks (or at least disks of the same exact size). There can be exceptions to this but it's usually not a good idea.

Also, understand that usually when you create a RAID array, existing files on all of the disks (or all of the disks except one) get completely wiped out.

Ultimately one thing you must definitely understand... RAID is in no way a backup. Many people set up RAID as if it's a backup strategy and end up terribly sad when they've lost all their data.

 

[AidenShaw]

I have never considered a Raid drive system for my Mac Pro and wondering whats the best way to do it. I see the software solutions out there but afraid I might screw up something in the process. I'm on the latest Sierra OSX. Afraid to move over to the new OSX just in case.

I have 2 ssd and 2 HDD.

Samsung 256gb SSD ( main OSX)
Crucial 240gb SSD

2 WD HDD. One is 1 TB and other is 320GB.

Have an external passport WD drive also at 2TB.

So my question is - how do I go about or should I create a raid system. The issue right now is that files are all over the drives and hard to figure out whats where. I use my laptop more for my work. I don't do any idea editing either.

I have a trial of SoftRraid which said that the 320gb will fail due to bad sectors in it when i opens it up.

So any advise would be appreciated. I did find this video

Thank you!

In general, RAID assumes that the disks in a virtual volume are the same size - and you have four disks of four different sizes.

If the drives are different sizes, the smallest drive determines the usable capacity. (If you make a RAID-1 volume from your 1TB and 320GB WD drives, you'll get a 320GB RAID-1 volume. If RAID-0, 640GB. Lots of wasted space.)

Let's step back and answer the question of "why do you think that you want to use RAID?". Do you want more capacity in a single logical volume, or protection from the failure of a drive?

 

[cpnotebook80]

Thanks! I assumed raid would harness the speed of all drives and one disk drive to access all files. Been a while. Maybe I should I just stick with one large SSD. Yes I saw that creating raid deletes all existing files.

 

[bookemdano]

Thanks! I assumed raid would harness the speed of all drives and one disk drive to access all files. Been a while. Maybe I should I just stick with one large SSD. Yes I saw that creating raid deletes all existing files.

Definitely not that simple. Different RAID levels have different characteristics but also different drawbacks. In any case setting one up requires a lot of pre-planning. If you're still interested then I would do a lot of reading on the various levels and terms like striping, mirroring, parity, etc. It can get quite complex.
[doublepost=1532391154][/doublepost]What I'd recommend instead is that you use your 2TB external drive (assuming it has free space) as a time machine disk to back up all those other drives (ESPECIALLY the 320GB if there are bad sectors on it). Unless you don't care about any of the files on those disks, get a backup (preferably two backups, one you keep in a different location) before even thinking about RAID.

 

[AidenShaw]

Thanks! I assumed raid would harness the speed of all drives and one disk drive to access all files. Been a while. Maybe I should I just stick with one large SSD. Yes I saw that creating raid deletes all existing files.

That's probably a good plan.

And I would immediately get all data off that 320GB with the errors and send it to eWaste. That disk is way past its "sell by" date.

And it's a very, very risky thing to put an external USB drive into a RAID array. If the cable is dislodged all of the data on the entire array could be lost. (Many software RAIDs won't even allow external drives in an array.)

 

[cpnotebook80]

great thanks for the advice and will do the large SSD drive in the future. I'm sure the costs are down I believe for those.

 

[ssgbryan]

I have 3 Raid-0 drives in my Mac Pro. For me, it is about speed. For my boot drive, I have 2 256Gb in a Raid-0 in an Apricorn PCI card. I get 425Mb write/495Mb read speed.

For my Data & iTunes drives, I have 2 2Tb, also in a RAID-0. Hanging off the SATA-II bus, I get 126Mb write/143Mb read. In comparison, on a single HD I average 88Mb write/96Mb read (system backup drive).

And to reiterate what others have already said - Raid isn't a replacement for backups. All of my Raids have a separate backup. Always have a backup. Most importantly - TEST TO INSURE YOUR BACKUPS WORK. Nothing sucks more than having a drive fail, go to the backup and discover that your backup doesn't work.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

If you're trying to have "more space as a single volume, with redundancy in case of hardware failure," look in to a Drobo.