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Storage Options iMac 27 inch Quad Core

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Pixelmage

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 22, 2008
46
0
I am not sure whether I should go with an 2TB external or an inexpensive RAID setup (around $400 to $500 with drives). My iMac has a 1TB internal.

Someone recommended 2 x 2TB externals FW800, one for Time Machine and the other for cloning the boot drive. The problem is I would like to store and access most of my files (InDesign, Photoshop, iTunes/iPhoto libraries) primarily off the external and not the internal. How would I achieve redundancy with out a RAID in this case? Can Time Machine clone information from one external to another external?

And if I go the RAID route, I read that if the controller is bad, portions of data can be corrupted or the drives are unreadable or dead. That's a scary realization. I am not sure which way to go.

Any advice or product suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
I would recommend keeping all your files on your internal drive. Use Time Machine to back up your files. The Guardian MAXimus is a great RAID 1 external drive to buy. 1.5TB costs $360. Buy a cheap 2TB dive to clone the internal. Seagate Expansion 2TB is $120 until May 24.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/raid_1/Gmax
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148503

The RAID drive will do hourly back ups and have redundant protection. The Seagate could do monthly cloning and kept off site.
 
What RAID do you mean, 1 or 0? 0 is useless as FW800 is too slow so it'll just make your data more vulnerable. If you're planning to use the other one for Time Machine to backup the internal and other external, get 2x2TBs but non-RAID so two separate ones.
 
I would have gotten an internal 2TB but I thought it was not worth paying Apple prices. I was planning on buying a 2TB and swap it out later but through poor planning on my part, I did not realize it is not user upgradeable as far as the warranty is concerned. :(

I was considering a RAID-1 (unless there is configurable RAID that's inexpensive) for it's duplicity. I would prefer not to store works files on the boot drive because many of them can get vary large in multitude and size (e.g. Photoshop). That can fill up the boot drive very quickly. That's why I want to store most of my work files on the external.

Is a RAID-1 as fast as a single FW external drive?

Also, could I simply get two matching 2TB external FW800 drives and use Time Machine or CarbonCopyCloner to clone the data in the background?
 
Pixelmage said:
Is a RAID-1 as fast as a single FW external drive?
Click to expand...

Yes, FW800 is too slow to take the full advantage of any drive anyway

Also, could I simply get two matching 2TB external FW800 drives and use Time Machine or CarbonCopyCloner to clone the data in the background?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can backup the internal and the other external to the second external
 
Yes, FW800 is too slow to take the full advantage of any drive anyway
Click to expand...

I am not sure what you meant buy that.

Is there a significant difference between Time Machine and CarbonCopyCloner? Can Time Machine do cloning?
 
You want to do Time Machine and Carbon Copy. Time Machine provides hourly back up in case of accidental deletion. You should have a seperate drive to carbon copy you main drive and keep it stored off site. This will protect against acts of god like fires, floods, electric surges, and destructive acts.
 
Pixelmage said:
I am not sure what you meant buy that.
Click to expand...

Most drives are faster than the speed what FW800 can provide. Most HDs get +80MB/s easily while FW800 tops out at ~80MB/s

Is there a significant difference between Time Machine and CarbonCopyCloner? Can Time Machine do cloning?
Click to expand...

CCC can make clones and is highly customizable while TM is just plug&play thing. I would use CCC
 
I finally settled on getting a Newer Tech Guardian Maximus. I have two options, the first one is getting the version that already comes with the 2 x 2TB drives. The second option is to just the casing and but the two Hitachi drives separately. I would be saving about $30 dollars if I purchase them separately.

I am thinking that if the casing fails but not the hard drives, I could send just the casing and not the drives for repairs. Also, I am worried about my data being misused if I did have to send the entire unit back (hard drives and all).

I know the warranty on the complete set-up is three years. And I think the casing only is one year. I am not sure what the warranty is for the Hitachi Deskstar 7k2000.

What would be the smarter move?
 
I have an 27" 17 2TB iMac.

Currently, I have 800GB on it, so it is about 40% full. Over the life of the machine I was pretty sure that I would go over 1TB, which is why I went with the 2TB option.

For backup, I have a 2TB TC that does hourly backups. I also have an unlimited Crashplan+ backup that does backups every 2 hours to the cloud. Both backup solutions are completely independent of each other, and both provide full versioning.

I disagree with the poster who recommends making a clone, and periodically moving it offsite. Many people have "good intentions" of doing this, but virtually everyone does not follow through.

For a backup strategy, I believe that the following practices should be followed:

1) Every backup operation must be fully automatic, with no human intervention
2) You should have 2 totally independent backups, preferably using two different backup programs
3) At least one of the backups must be offsite for disaster recovery
4) The second backup ideally is in the house, for quick recovery

I find that using Time Machine for internal backup, and either Mozy.com or Crashplan.com are good cloud backup programs. I actually have more trust in Mozy, if for no other reason, it is owned by EMC. I am personally using Crashplan + (get the + version) for only one reason... and that is it provides unlimited versioning. By contrast, Mozy only does 30 day versioning.

Beyond that, you must develop a methodology that ensures that this iMac contains the original copy of 100% of your data. Keeping different data spread across multiple machines is a recipe for data loss. I aggressively embrace the cloud, which ensures that anything I create, edit, or modify on any of my laptops syncs back to the iMac, and then is double backed up.

BTW, I am pretty sure that if you buy a 2TB drive, and then bring it to the Apple store, you can pay them to install it and preserve your warranty. Give them a call to find out for sure.

/Jim
 
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