At 3:51 AM -0800 12/8/2008, darkey wrote:
>The unthinkable has happened; my home was burglarized and my OWC
>mercury elite was stolen.
Sorry to hear that. You had good insurance?
>Now I realize it's not enough; I can't afford it, but now I'm going
>to buy TWO drives and keep one out of the house as many others do.
Good.
Might want to burn some DVDs too.
>Should I buy RAID1 units?
Personally, I'm not fond of using RAID boxes for backup. As I
mentioned in another post, RAID is Fragile. Too many things can go
wrong with it. IMO, it's better to get normal sturdy drive/boxes
that won't mind being lugged about.
>"hardware" based RAID; this is preferred over software RAID?
Hardware-based is better, either in the controller in your Mac or in
the controller in the box.
Software-based RAID is... a waste of your Mac's CPU time and i/o bandwidth.
>I never seem to hear of any home users using RAID1 for their back
>up; what's the reason for this; doesn't a RAID1 unit constantly
>update your backup over two drives as you are using the computer?
Yes. It immediately copies your errors from your main drive to the
hot backup. Makes the backup useless for normal file recovery.
>where does Time machine fit into all this - and do most of you even use it?
RAID1 is a block-level hot copy of your primary drive. It instantly
reflects the data and file system errors on your primary.
Time Machine is a file-level backup mechanism that runs periodically.
It's new and it's not 100% reliable yet. That's why many folx don't
like it.
>When swapping drives weekly, what is the procedure to update the
>freshly swapped drive?
Just use CCC or SuperDuper to update the drive. It will replace only
the changed files, so the update won't even take that long.
Note that there is no such fast update for RAID1. Because it is
block-level, it will have to re-write the whole drive every time you
reconnect it. Some RAID hardware is a smart enough to read both
drives and compare the data and only write what's needed... but
still, it requires reading EVERY block on both the drives...
>Can an external drive safely be kept in a weathertight {detached!}
>garage during the week it's not
>in use in the NY winter?
I would not store a drive in very cold conditions. A friend's sock
drawer would be better.
- Dan.
--
- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth
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