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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Raid the System Harddrive?

dl33 - Dec 11, 2005 - 11:19 am

Hi,

lets say that I have two identical disks, which I want to set up as a Raid array (Raid 50 or something like that...not sure yet) On this Raid Set I want to install Tiger. How do I do this?

Thanks already,
Dominik

skapp - Dec 11, 2005 - 12:14 pm

Boot from the Tiger DVD. After the installer loads select Disk Utility from the installer's Utilities menu. After DU loads select one of the two drives you plan to use in your RAID, then click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click on the Erase button. Repeat for the other drive. Now, click on the RAID tab. Drag each drive into the RAID table, select the type of array you want (striped or mirrored), click on the Options button and set any desired options, then return to RAID window and click on the Create button.

After the RAID array is created quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed to install OS X using the RAID array as the destination.

I would caution that using a mirrored RAID for a startup system is not a good idea. If you develop a problem on one drive that problem will be mirrored on the other resulting in a complete loss of the OS. Mirrored RAIDS and RAIDs in general are intended to provide data redundancy. They are not intended as a backup for the startup drive. A better solution is to maintain a bootable backup on an external Firewire drive.

dl33 - Dec 11, 2005 - 12:49 pm

is there a program that backups all your settings programs, home folder etc , so that I would not have to use a raid set? I know of Carbon Copy Cloner, however, this does not backup settings.

skapp - Dec 11, 2005 - 1:00 pm

Carbon Copy Cloner will clone your entire system to another device. I don't know where you got the idea it doesn't backup settings. CCC will backup everything. If you check the Make Bootable option in preferences it will create a fully bootable clone on the other drive.

If you use Panther or Tiger you can do the same thing using the Restore option of Disk Utility.

Other utilities include LaCie SilverKeeper, Deja Vu, and Synchronize! Pro X (all can be found at www.versiontracker.com.)

dl33 - Dec 11, 2005 - 1:03 pm

sweeet....
thanks a lot