Basically as of right now I have all 4 drive bays in my mac pro full, the 4th drive being my time machine backup (2tb) I've recently filled it and need more space. I can either upgrade to a 3tb which is I believe the max supported? but who knows, that could be filled up a month after doing so. I'm looking to go another route such as raid that would combine multiple tb drives into one massive time machine backup drive or just use them separately as you would using a time machine backup half on an external and the rest on an internal. I'm just looking for something simple like a 2-4 bay enclosure. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas on how to go about this, I would appreciate it.
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Time Machine (Storage Array)
- Thread starter ggoerl
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One possibility is a 4 bay enclosure using raid 5. This gives you the space of 3 disks and you're covered in case one disk fails.
And I'm pretty sure 4TB disks should work internally to your system.
And I'm pretty sure 4TB disks should work internally to your system.
Well I heard the max was 3tb and I didn't want to push it not too mention 4tb disks are expensive even though this configuration I'm considering would be far more expensive than a one 4tb disk but I'd still rather do that in the long run since I can always swap out drives of the enclosure to bigger ones in the future.
If this doesn't work out, I'm gonna end up leaning towards blu-ray media.
If this doesn't work out, I'm gonna end up leaning towards blu-ray media.
Why don't you look at an external four bay enclosure that is capable of RAID 5, buy four 1TB disks and you are done. I have the same thing, external firewire 800, four bay, raid enclosure. Presently I have two 750GB drives in it in RAID 1, but it suites my needs.
I have an 8-bay Drobo Pro with 18 TB of disks in it. 8 TB Time Machine volume. My primary storage on my Mac Pro is a 256gb ssd + 5 TB logical volume for a home directory (raid6). I also use CrashPlan to dump a second backup onto a 12 TB OWC hw raid.
I also have two Time Capsules that I use for laptops around the house.
This seems to be working for me. If 4 drives will be enough, I really recommend the OWC mercurypro+. The empty enclosure is $250 and it's real hardware raid. eSATA performance is fast, though really for backups, fw800 is OK too.
I also have two Time Capsules that I use for laptops around the house.
This seems to be working for me. If 4 drives will be enough, I really recommend the OWC mercurypro+. The empty enclosure is $250 and it's real hardware raid. eSATA performance is fast, though really for backups, fw800 is OK too.
I was looking into drobo's but I hadn't heard a lot of good things about them at all. They seemed like nothing but trouble from what I've read on them.
Is firewire 800 even fast enough of suitable for this? or would esata be better? I'm trying to look for something that will last me in the long run that I won't have much problems upgrading for the future as well as something that's relatively fast.
How long have you had your time capsules for? are they reliable? ever had any problems or the drive fail? I was considering a 2tb and was gonna split my time machine backup on that and my 2tb drive in bay 4.
You say the mercurypro is sufficient enough for backup? what about just a dump storage drive as well?
Is firewire 800 even fast enough of suitable for this? or would esata be better? I'm trying to look for something that will last me in the long run that I won't have much problems upgrading for the future as well as something that's relatively fast.
How long have you had your time capsules for? are they reliable? ever had any problems or the drive fail? I was considering a 2tb and was gonna split my time machine backup on that and my 2tb drive in bay 4.
You say the mercurypro is sufficient enough for backup? what about just a dump storage drive as well?
If you have spare PC hardware available, look into FreeNAS. you can build a ZFS time machine backup destination with it.
I wrote a blog post about speeds a while back. Check the second table:
http://www.biscade.com/2011/11/mac-pro-ssd-sas-esata-fun/
I claim for backup FireWire 800 is ok. A Sonnet esata card is about $45 on Amazon though, and is a lot faster, so if you have an empty slot, it's an easy choice.
http://www.biscade.com/2011/11/mac-pro-ssd-sas-esata-fun/
I claim for backup FireWire 800 is ok. A Sonnet esata card is about $45 on Amazon though, and is a lot faster, so if you have an empty slot, it's an easy choice.
eSATA and either a Port Multiplier based enclosure or one with an inexpensive RoC (RAID on a Chip), such as the Mercury Pro Elite Qx2 would do (can do up to a RAID 5), and is also cost effective.
The reason for the cost effective aspect, is that you'll be able to use an inexpensive controller as well as consumer grade drives (Green variants in particular), since speed isn't critical for a small backup volume.
The reason for the cost effective aspect, is that you'll be able to use an inexpensive controller as well as consumer grade drives (Green variants in particular), since speed isn't critical for a small backup volume.