File transfer - LaCie Big5 RAID 5 to OWC ThunderBay 4 mini RAID 5

[MyopicPaideia]

Hi,

Have an M1 Mac mini and My 8TB LaCie RAID 5 enclosure (6TB effective space) won’t work with it because the software RAID manager is not being supported on Apple Silicon.

I have ordered the 16TB OWC unit also setup on RAID 5 (12TB effective space) and plan on transferring these files over.

I currently host my Plex media library on the LaCie, as well as the family’s Photos and iTunes libraries and Final Cut and iMovie home movie project libraries. Something like 5TB total of mostly media files and some documents.

Can I simply transfer over the files by dragging over the top folder over the network from volume to volume (I have to set up the LaCie on an old Mac mini to mount it) or will I need special cloning software? I would then rename the new RAID volume to match the old one and assume that Plex, Photos, iTunes, Final Cut, and iMovie won’t even know the difference?

I don’t have access to a drive that would be big enough to hold a clone file. 😬

 

[HDFan]

I have ordered the 16TB OWC unit also setup on RAID 5 (12TB effective space) and plan on transferring these files over.

Will you be using OWC SoftRaid? It is Beta only for Big Sur, not released for the M1. Doesn't play well with other disk utilities such as Disk Manager.

Have an M1 Mac mini and My 8TB LaCie RAID 5 enclosure (6TB effective space) won’t work with it because the software RAID manager is not being supported on Apple Silicon.

I have ordered the 16TB OWC unit also setup on RAID 5 (12TB effective space) and plan on transferring these files over.

transfer to the 16 TB for use on the M1? How will you read it on the M1 without a driver?

Can I simply transfer over the files by dragging over the top folder over the network from volume to volume (I have to set up the LaCie on an old Mac mini to mount it) or will I need special cloning software? I would then rename the new RAID volume to match the old one and assume that Plex, Photos, iTunes, Final Cut, and iMovie won’t even know the difference?

Plex, Photos, iTunes, FCP and iMovie are all pointing to an external drive for their libraries/data, or are they on the boot drive?

Assuming it isn't a boot drive and the applications are referencing an external disk you can drag/drop or use a program such as CCC to copy the files for the networked external disk to the M1 external disk. [CCC clones of a bootable disk require special handling].

 

[MyopicPaideia]

Thanks for the answer! Yes, SoftRAID XT, beta confirmed working on M1.

Yes, all the libraries already point to the external RAID volume, not the internal boot drive, so I am thinking if I make the path the exact same then they will all just find it again after the transfer?

And I can drag and drop - and advantage to using a program like CCC over just doing it via Finder? Just thinking it is a lot of data.

 

[chown33]

As I recall, CCC would tell you about any errors that happen, and continue. Finder is more "stop and ask".

 

[HDFan]

Yes, all the libraries already point to the external RAID volume, not the internal boot drive, so I am thinking if I make the path the exact same then they will all just find it again after the transfer?

If the absolute path is the same then it should work.

advantage to using a program like CCC over just doing it via Finder?

CC would tell you about any errors that happen, and continue. Finder is more "stop and ask".

CCC tends to be cleaner. It will do the transfer and then report errors. You can then simply run the task again once the errors are fixed.

Finder copies are more complex. Errors may happen, which require you to restart the copy. Then you get the "file already exists" issue. Much messier.

 

[phrehdd]

If the absolute path is the same then it should work.




CCC tends to be cleaner. It will do the transfer and then report errors. You can then simply run the task again once the errors are fixed.

Finder copies are more complex. Errors may happen, which require you to restart the copy. Then you get the "file already exists" issue. Much messier.

CCC is a good option as is using (for the more geek savvy) - rsync on the command line.

 

[MyopicPaideia]

SoftRAID beta working perfectly, the OWC Thunderbay mini mounted on the M1 Mac mini after enabling system extensions, and CCC currently working on cloning the LaCie Big5 over to the OWC Thunderbay mini...many hours left to go doing it over the network...