2 x ext laCie mirror drives

Elliotjnewman · #1 July 29th, 2007, 03:54 PM

I would like to buy this and setup using disk utility so that they are mirrored, and use the machines internal drive as the boot drive and keep it quite empty, for apps etc.

The thing I was wondering is how would I setup the two external drives, I presume they would both have to be connected to my mac via firewire 800 - but I only have 1 800 port, or can I just connect 1 to the mac and connect 1 laCie to the other?

**Giaguara** · #2 July 29th, 2007, 04:03 PM

You cound connect one to FW800 and one to FW 400.
Why do you plan to mirror them? :-/

jbarley · #3 July 29th, 2007, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elliotjnewman

or can I just connect 1 to the mac and connect 1 laCie to the other?

Yes!.

jb.

Satcomer · #4 July 29th, 2007, 09:29 PM

You could just buy something much cheaper at your local big box store. Just shop around and make sure the external you buy is large enough (for the price) and has the connection speed you want. FW8000 will be the fastest connection on a modern mac, FW400 has a better sustained output over USB2. Also check the brand you buy has the cables included, this will save you money.

Then download and buy the shareware SuperDuper. This will set a schedule any way you want it to back up only the changes you have made (once you complete a full backup).

Now if you want to "mirror" in the true sense than you are going in the territory of RAID systems.

Elliotjnewman · #5 July 30th, 2007, 01:46 AM

I work with quite big files in photoshop, sometime 1gig I also do the occasional comp work and editing which can be 2K, HD or SD so I would like to have the ability to use firewire 800 at least. I will also be doing this all on a macbook pro 2.4.

I was looking at this drive too so I can go raid 1 with it, but I was reading its noisy and hard to setup with raid 1, plus its quite big and unportable... but its still something I am considering.

I want to mirror the hdd so that I have an automatic backup setup, and am looking at using the two laCie drives as a way of doing this via disk utility, or an app like superduper.

Its good to know that I can connect the two laCie's to each other and just 1 of them to the mac...

Satcomer · #6 July 30th, 2007, 03:19 AM

Well have you looked at the Drobo yet?

Elliotjnewman · #7 July 30th, 2007, 04:13 AM

looks like its usb2 I dont have that on my macbook pro... its also hard to find a uk dealer... and its expensive! but does look cool.

Elliotjnewman · #8 July 30th, 2007, 09:19 AM

also, something I just thought about, I want to have the flexibilty to take the external hdd onto location shoots, and one of the bigger, raid setups probably will be too big for this. Also if it gets stolen then thats it! but at least, if I have two seperate drive's I could take 1 on location and still have the other safe at home. Use the laptop drive as primary on shoots, backing up on the external at night and then move everything onto the two externals when I get back home.

I think one of those laCie's will be ok as a portable, at least to keep in the hotel for evening backups, thing is if I setup a software mirror, and I try and run just 1 of the drives (and not the mirrored one) will this cause confusion? Or will it just mirror as soon as I plug the second external back in?