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Purchase a RAID for MacPro and MacBook Pro
I’m new to the whole eSata and RAID game, but have some basic knowledge on it…but would love some advice.
I’m trying to decide on external storage I can use with my Mac Pro (purchasing this week) as well as my MacBook Pro (bought this year) for projects I do when I’m in the field. I want something that I can use for both systems, so i can just buy a card for my MacPro and an Express card for the MBP….assuming I’ll decide on those cards when I decide on the storage.
The drives I’ve been using the last couple of years are your basic FW800 G-Tech and Lacie external drives. I was thinking of getting some eSata RAID system, possibly like a Cal Digit VR mini,since it’s portable (but is it good for a variety of HD formats?)? Something eSata so it’s faster than FW800. Would you recommend that system or anything else that might be good for portability, speed, good with a variety of HD formats, cost,etc?
Second question, I’m also going to order a couple of extra internal SATA for the MacPro and was planning on creating a software RAID0 with those, so I can use those for an internal capture scratch (and have one drive dedicated as my boot drive), when I definitely know I won’t be going portable/on location. Do you think creating a software RAID0 is ok instead of getting the Apple Raid card? I will do backups to an external drive, when needed.
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5 Replies
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Bob`s well deserved favorite answer (He came up with it.) is that the sensible way to hitch Dobbin Horse to the wagon is to use a gigabit networking hookup between the MacBook and an external hard drive set, in this case, you wanting a Raid 0 setup. When you then hook the same hard drives set to your main Mac, you might or might not use the same cable as available or convenient. Using the Firewire 800 port on your MacBook is not a good idea as while the external hard drives will work into the MacBook just fine, you`ll have no Firewire 800 or other good port left to exchange high speed juice such as a camera input. You`ll have taken the creative part out of the creative cow, you. Your software for both preparing the internal boot drive, and Raid setting up of the external work space boosters of either Mac is the OS X install disk. Putting Final Cut Pro or similar software suites with the destination of the Raid set is my own way of making sure that work data goes directly to the Raid set.
-And did I notice that you said that you`d like to migrate the data from the Raid boosted set of the MacBook into a second boosted, boosted Raid box on the Mac Pro? This works fine. Earliest posts on this Forum as well as later ones, tell users that the Apple Raid Card is practical and reliable for no uses at all, not even running hard drives with Raid turned off. Good card choices are already inhabiting your computer display. Your same Raid card on the Mac Pro is likely to prepare, format, and work, tape backup, restore, drives if wanted. -
On your internal Mac Pro RAID set, can I recommend this?
https://www.raidon-usa.com/stardom/pro_drive_feature.html
We offer a RAID 0 X 2 SSD or 2.5″ drives with FW 800 & USB 2.0 so the drive module can be pulled & used off-site, pretty nifty eh? We’re the only manufacturer doing this kind of thing.
We also offer a RAID 1 variation although it can’t be used in a portable off-site setting.
Either product features hardware RAID in the product.
There’s a product review over at LAFCPUG
https://www.lafcpug.org/reviews/review_Stardom_ProDrive.html
Jon Schilling | Vice President of Sales & Marketing
RAIDON-USA Technology
STARDOM Storage by RAIDON
15356 East Valley Blvd., Suite B
City of Industry, CA 91746
Tel: 626-333-7888
http://www.stardom-usa.com -
Awfully nice, Jon, 2-1/2 inch hard drives to give speed without excess power, but where`s the gigabit networking hookup to run it on a MacBook Pro practically?
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Sorry Fred, I must have missed seeing that on your initial post. If you’re talking about is 1000 Mbps Ethernet, we don’t offer that capability on that product, I just thought we’d offer an option we did have.
Jon Schilling | Vice President of Sales & Marketing
RAIDON-USA Technology
STARDOM Storage by RAIDON
15356 East Valley Blvd., Suite B
City of Industry, CA 91746
Tel: 626-333-7888
http://www.stardom-usa.com -
Jon, read the top few posts and you`ll see why the gigabit hookup should go into your lineup of sales features immediately. Good luck!
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