Does RAID make my system more vulnerable?

[Richard Harrington]

No, not really.

[Jay Wolf]

You sure?

G5 Quad, 3.5 Gig RAM, OS 10.4.10, FCS 2

[Todd Gillespie]

While Richard’s post may not have been lenthy, he’s exactly correct. There’s very little difference in having a RAID attach to your system.
You should be very aware by now that Mac’s don’t get viruses. They just don’t. Having a RAID doesn’t change that.
Is it going to be as stable? probably, but adding any card, drive, device-anything to your system makes it slightly less stable, due to the fact that more devices now need to boot up and run correctly. No matter if it’s an iPod or a JBOD, devices need drivers, software, etc to run, sometimes that doesn’t goes as smooth as you’d like and it MAY affect your system.

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Jay Wolf]

[Todd at UCSB] “Is it going to be as stable? probably, but adding any card, drive, device-anything to your system makes it slightly less stable, due to the fact that more devices now need to boot up and run correctly”

This is exactly what I had in mind when I asked the question- yet another device hooked up to the Mac that can cause conflict. I had read some story about a RAID not showing up after a software update and then I thought that the whole reason I want a RAID is to have a more solid and safe editing system and I felt perhaps bringing in this RAID-tower was like welcoming a Trojan Horse…

Just curious to hear how it may affect my system. Thanks for the response.

G5 Quad, 3.5 Gig RAM, OS 10.4.10, FCS 2

[Tom Meegan]

The fact that the Quadra is a RAID as opposed to a single external hard drive will not effect the stability of the system.

The RAID part of things is all taken care of on the side of the Quadra. The Mac just sees one drive.

In this case the risk of instability is very small, and if there is instability it will have nothing to do with the Quadra being a RAID.

One tip:

If you plan to use it as a firewire drive, and you also capture video via firewire, buy one of these:

https://store1.sonnettech.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_37&products_id=55

or similar.

Built in FW ports on the mac ALL share the same bus. Adding this card separates the data flow of the deck from the data flow to the drive

[Jay Wolf]

Thanks, Tom. Just got back from the shop where I picked up the Quadra, in addition to a LaCie SATA II 3Gb/s card.

Leave the firewire for capture! I feel very rich…

G5 Quad, 3.5 Gig RAM, OS 10.4.10, FCS 2