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HELP!! Formatting, drive, RAID etc
Please help! And apologies for my lack of technical expertise….
We got our new MacPro last week. It has 4 drives, 700gigs apiece. The IT guy made them into a RAID 5, but from that he created one big volume. He then spent days installing all the software we use.
When he happily showed me his handiwork, I recoiled in horror. As I mentioned, he had made everything into one RAID and one volume. WIth trepidation, I told him that we need the data files to be on a separate drive from the OS and FCP. Correct?
If that is correct, it seems we will have to reformat the drives completely. Since it took him days to format the drives and install the software, we really need to know how to do this properly.
Please advise on the best way to format these 4 drives. Do we leave one drive separate, as the os/fcp drive, and RAID the other three drives into one volume?
Again, I apologize for my idiocy when it comes to this stuff (striping, formatting, RAIDS, drives, volumes, etc).
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6 Replies
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I’m sorry to say but you answered your own question. “WIth trepidation, I told him that we need the data files to be on a separate drive from the OS and FCP. Correct?” Just make sure that when he raids the remaining 3 drives that he does it OS Extended, not journaled. So to recap… 1 system drive, 1 raid volume for your media. Good Luck.
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[peskypesky] “The IT guy made them into a RAID 5, but from that he created one big volume.”
How did your IT guy stripe your internal drives on the MACPro as Raid-5? Unless he installed a hardware raid controller card in your system I think you’ve got a serious misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, to fix this issue without reinstalling everything all over again, see if your wonderfully creative IT guy can create a 2nd partition for most of the free space on the raid he created, the clone the boot/system partition to a firewire drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. After testing to insure that clone boots, he can then go about properly configuring your drives and internal raid, before cloning the firewire system drive back to the internal system drive.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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No misunderstanding. THe MacPro came with a RAID controller card.
Question: What problem(s) would we run into if we kept the MacPro formatted as it is, one big volume on one RAID? In other words, why shouldn’t we have the OS, the apps and the media files all residing on the same volume on the RAID? Is it a question of performance?
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Simple answer….yes!!!!
You don’t want the same drive to be accessing everything needed just the run the computer, then have to configure and run Final Cut, THEN have to manage, configure and run the massive amount of data that is media content.
You will no doubt run into huge slowdowns if you leave it as is.
I’ve never done it that way so I can’t be 100% sure, but if you want to try it, please let us all know how it works out. It would debunk a largely understood principle if it did work. -
I would leave the four drive raid as is and add another 250 GB drive as the boot drive. Do a clone to a FW drive of what is installed as OS and apps on the raid, then apply the clone to the new fifth drive, Delete what is on the raid after you are sure the fifth drive has it all and it boots. You can mount the fifth drive in the extra DVD position (unless you have two DVD installed).
Gary G
Mac Pro Intel Quad, 2GB RAM, 30″ Apple Display
MacBook Pro 17″ matte screen, 2GB RAM -
[GaryAlan] “You can mount the fifth drive in the extra DVD position (unless you have two DVD installed).”
though there are several lugs that run up to this place make sure that it is an ide drive (also known as parallel ata or PATA) you can get adapters as well as trays that help the drive be a bit more snug. But unless you are moving your computer a lot, there is no need.
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