Purchasing Western Digital My Book

[Cory Mckechnie]

Hmm, I’d never heard of the G-RAID. It looks like a very nice product. The data will be very sensitive so I think this might be a better way to go. Although I can’t go with the 2TB solution, I think I might go with the 1.5TB in redundancy to ensure data protection. Thanks for the heads up Ben.

[Cory Mckechnie]

Ben, I actually just checked and the G-RAID2 only provides RAID 0 and I’m looking specifically for RAID 1 (which the Western Digital does). Haven’t checked the Lacie drives yet though. The search for a high capacity, financially viable drive system continues. 🙂

[Walter Biscardi]

[Cory McKechnie] “Ben, I actually just checked and the G-RAID2 only provides RAID 0 and I’m looking specifically for RAID 1 (which the Western Digital does). Haven’t checked the Lacie drives yet though.”

Quite honestly, RAID 1 is pretty useless. Might as well run RAID 0 and have a backup drive also connected.

I would never use the MyBook for editing, we only use it for storing our DVD projects. The G-Tech makes good drives, WiebeTech makes good drives as well as LaCie.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Arnie Schlissel]

Walter is right. Raid 1 may be useful at an enterprise level, but it offers no advantages for an individual or a small shop.

You get much more flexibility, and even better protection, by doing nightly backups to a separate drive.

With a RAID 1, if one of the pair fails, you need to crack open the case to replace it. Not so easy with a lot of these solutions. Also, if you accidentally erase a file on a RAID 1 volume, it gets erased from both the main & the backup at the same time. With separate drives, replacing a dead drive is much easier, and if you accidentally delete something, it’s still on the backup. Using 2 separate drives also allows you to take one on the road while the backup sits safely at the office.

Backing up can be as easy as making a finder copy at the end of the day, or you can use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to automatically synch the drives every night.

Arnie
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[Cory Mckechnie]

So a RAID 1 isn’t good to use? I thought just to have a constant backup it would be recommended.

So if it’s not advisable, I’m really liking the G-Technology G-RAID2. I’d only be able to afford the 1.5TB, but I guess this more expensive option is really that much better than the WD MyBook’s. I’ll also have a look at the Lacie’s and WiebeTech’s, but that G-Technology looks like a really slick solution.

[Cory Mckechnie]

Thanks Arnie, I’m definitely seeing this differently now.

[Ben Holmes]

Can I say that I don’t work for G-Tech, but if you want a raid 1 solution the G-Sata will do that as well as giving you a much faster drive that will work on a Mac Pro or Macbook pro.

However, all these comments about Raid 1 in a single chassis are valid. Still, if you’re on the road and one fails I suppose it could help. But I’ve never had a G-raid fail….

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

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[Cory Mckechnie]

Hi Ben, I was actually looking at the G-SATA. I’m only working with DV footage and I believe the SATA option is actually faster than Firewire (confirmation on this point would be helpful). I read that you can set the G-SATA up as either Raid 0, RAID 1 or even treat the drives independently. From a cost standpoint, I’m even wondering if I treat the drives separately (again, only using DV footage I think this would be fast enough in a non-RAID 0 setting) and I’ll increase my storage from 750GB to 1TB (as I believe the G-RAID2 MUST BE set up as a RAID 0).

Also, I’m assuming that the G-SATA option would work with my newly ordered Mac Pro, but I should probably clarify that before ordering.

Walter, I read your review on the original G-RAID and was wondering if you liked the G-RAID2 or the G-SATA equally?

Thanks again for everyone’s help. I’m glad I didn’t order the MyBook before posting as I relieved that I’ll end up getting a much better solution for my needs.

[Ben Holmes]

Cory

The G-Sata comes with a SATA card for use with your Mac Pro. Used with SATA it is significantly quicker than a firewire array, although that speed will fall using RAID 1, as will your capacity (it will obviously halve). The speed will still be sufficient for DV (which I think was the point, wasn’t it?).

Couple of points:

1) The G-Sata only comes in capacities up to 1Tb (don’t know why) and that’s a RAID 0 figure. For RAID 1 it will halve to 500Gb – which may not be big enough for you.

2) G-SATA ships with a SATA card that doesn’t support Leopard at this time. Don’t know if that matters to you.

3) If you want 1Tb of RAID 1, you would need to go to the G-Speed ES – which is an excellent product supporting hotswap drives, and supporting RAID5 – a better compromise of speed and safety. There are other well recommended solutions from Caldigital and others of a similar nature – which I have not used, but others recommend.

4) If you only need storage for a Mac Pro, put some internal 500Gb drives in for a cheap and very fast solution. We use 3x500Gb drives in one of our systems for Uncompressed SD, and I don’t even bother mirroring – It’s very reliable being internal. Great not to have to carry an external array when I take the system somewhere. Don’t know how this suits. Both the G-products will be useable with a laptop for mobile work.

Just a little more for you to mull over.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live broadcast.

OB Server 1 HD – Mobile FCP editing done right.
https://www.editecuk.com/OBServer2.html

[Ben Scott]

I have a western digital my book amongst other drives

they are cheap and data seems ok on them

however I would warn you away from them if doing serious editing as they are very bad with the firewire bus and take over and unmount other drives (total nightmare)

if you only need one drive mounted at a time then they are fine, probably ok for quick cheap backups, amazon has cheap deals on them

the western digital raid edition SATA drives are another ball game though and from the supplier of my sata seritek raid box in London they have tested and say they prefer western digital RAID edition. These get good reviews on the barefeats site

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