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Internal RAID
I have a MacPro Quad Core Intel with 5GB ram and three 500GB internal SATA drives in a RAID array. Is it possible to remove those drives and place them into an external RAID enclosure (eSATA) without reformatting the discs. I want to replace them with three 1.5TB drives.
Thanks in advance.
Phil -
12 Replies
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Yes, I’ve done the exact same thing. I took my 3 internal raid drives and installed them in a Sonnet Raid enclosure. Worked fine.
Ernie Santella
Santella Productions Inc.
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
You can remove and replace multiple sets of RAIDed drives with no problems – I’ve frequently swapped 3 drive internal arrays between systems. Very useful…
Edit Out Ltd
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FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer -
Ben, have you swapped them between manufacturers too? I need to swap out a Apple Raid card to a Caldigit card and didn’t even think that was possible, at least Caldigit said it shouldn’t be.
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[Philip Lucero] “I have a MacPro Quad Core Intel with 5GB ram and three 500GB internal SATA drives in a RAID array. Is it possible to remove those drives and place them into an external RAID enclosure (eSATA) without reformatting the discs. I want to replace them with three 1.5TB drives.”
Yes.
Sean
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[Elijah Lynn] “Ben, have you swapped them between manufacturers too? I need to swap out a Apple Raid card to a Caldigit card and didn’t even think that was possible, at least Caldigit said it shouldn’t be.”
You can’t change hardware-RAID cards (CalDigit, ATTO, etc.) but with software RAID (Disk Utility) you can. A RAID created with Apple RAID card might work in software mode as well, not sure.
Sean
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What was your initial internal raid built on? Disk Utility or a Hardware raid and which MFG?
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Absolutely correct – I am talking about RAID 0 internal arrays created with disk utility – sorry if that wasn’t clear.
Just think it’s a useful and little known benefit of software RAIDS. I’ve never used the Apple RAID card, I hear about endless problems with them. I’d prefer to use an external array, so they can be swapped as required.
Ben
Edit Out Ltd
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FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer -
So if you created a software raid with Apple DIsk Utility and then swapped the array with no problems to a 3rd party mfg hardware raid?
That is pretty interesting!
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No – I said I had swapped sets of drives in an internal array, not into an external array. I would think that would be impossible, as generally the external array contain their own RAID hardware, or are larger SCSI/FC systems requiring PCI RAID cards in the Mac.
Edit Out Ltd
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FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer -
I’ve swapped my internal 3 raid drives into an external Sonnet drive enclosure with no problems. They came up fine.
Ernie Santella
Santella Productions Inc.
http://www.santellaproductions.com
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