I just picked up a 2TB LaCie external with twin 1TB drives inside preformatted for RAID 0. I'd really like to set it up as RAID 1. Is this possible, or is there usually a "set" RAID controller in the external? No real info on LaCie's website. Definitely my bad in not reading the specs closely enough.
Factory RAID external HDD question
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It's set in the firmware of whatever controller they embedded into the enclosure. If it's not configurable, no soup for you.
Incidentally, it's very likely set to JBOD instead of RAID0. Very little reason to set an external drive to RAID0. While it's not as secure as RAID1, at least JBOD doesn't stripe your data across the drives so if one drive dies, you can still get whatever's on the other one.
Incidentally, it's very likely set to JBOD instead of RAID0. Very little reason to set an external drive to RAID0. While it's not as secure as RAID1, at least JBOD doesn't stripe your data across the drives so if one drive dies, you can still get whatever's on the other one.
And if it's set up JBOD you should be able to use your OS to mirror the drives...
I found it bizarre that a 2TB USB consumer external would be set to RAID0. That's a little more comforting.
I'd like to at least be able to set them up as two individual drives, but I don't think I can do it. Vista isn't seeing it as separate drives in the format utility...I've since formatted it and split it into two partitions.
Elaborate?
Does your operating system offer a "software RAID" package? What OS are you running?
It wouldn't. Just like a normal RAID, the RAID controller handles all of the drives and any striping/mirroring by itself: it is presented to the OS as a 2tb drive, the OS has no way of knowing what lies in the array.
A split partition software RAID is going to be a little sketchy, because you have no way of drawing the line between the two drives. So you can mirror two partitions in the software RAID but if a drive fails there's no guarantee that all of the data is present on either single drive. It's very likely that partitioning off 1tb will get the whole first drive but there's no way to be certain.
Find a way to get the enclosure to present your OS two separate drives. Then SW RAID mirroring will be... ummm... somewhat less sketchy.
If it can't do that just get yourself another one of those damn enclosures.
But this enclosure is pretty.
Find a way to get the enclosure to present your OS two separate drives. Then SW RAID mirroring will be... ummm... somewhat less sketchy.
If it can't do that just get yourself another one of those damn enclosures.
And that voids the warranty.
Just saw on LaCie's website that you're eligible for a year of online backups if you buy a new drive. Maybe I'll just do that.
A year? What's the price afterwards?
Carbonite is only like $50/year.
Carbonite is only like $50/year.
It's through Carbonite, so I assume the same?
A) I don't know. Doesn't make sense to me...USB doesn't have the transfer speeds to take advantage of a striped RAID. If I'd known, I probably wouldn't have bought it.
B) I figured it would be easier than two separate 1TB enclosures.