On Dec 4, 2006, at 5:38 PM, Mike Hamilton wrote: > On 12/4/06, Michael Chan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> On Dec 4, 2006, at 3:33 PM, Mike Hamilton wrote: >> >>> My current setup for image storage is as follows: >>> >>> working images on my internal hard drive (Powerbook) (60gb hard >>> drive) >>> occaisional backup on a 160gb external hard drive and, >>> also on DVD+R. >>> >>> I'd like to improve that by setting up a RAID 1 system with two >>> external hard drives. The laptop is normally plugged into the >>> external drives, but on occaision i take it travelling, without the >>> external drives. >>> >>> Is this practical with a RAID 1 system? Does anyone have any >>> experience with this setup? Other recommendations? >>> > >> I'm not sure what you mean what is "practical" regarding a RAID 1 >> system. Do you mean portable, convenient, or something else? > > I will elaborate more on that, and also post a couple more questions > in the process. > > If i made a mirror of my system disk on one hard drive (external > firewire), then wipe the internal disk (using the external to boot the > computer temporarily), could i link all three hard drives in a RAID 1 > array? Alternatively, could I simply use the externals as the RAID 1 > array, having the system disk independent? > > My main question is regarding the feasability of RAID with a laptop > and external drives. What happens when i disconnect the laptop from > the RAID, do some work, then reconnect them?
Apologies if I mis-characterize, but I do not think that you are fully in comprehension of what a RAID 1 storage scenario implies. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) has many possible permutations. The one to which are referring, RAID 1, describes a situation where what appears as a single volume to the operating system is actually multiple disks wherein an identical set of data is written to each drive in said array. Example: two 40GB drives are set up as a RAID 1 array. To the OS, it appears as one single, 40GB drive when actuality it is two (or perhaps more) drives where each write operation is committed in effective tandem to each drive. The transport layer can be accomplished in software or hardware, but in essence, if one drive fails, the data is complete form on the other drive; in the event of a failure the failed drive can be replaced (sometimes in real-time, sometimes after reboot) to restore the redundancy of the data. The short answer to your question is no, laptops can not practically from an end user standpoint establish what you are talking about which is an flexible array within their own operating system environment (it can be done, but it's not really practical for the a laptop environment). You say a mirror of your system disk; I think you are actually thinking of a copy. A mirror, hardware or software, is constantly maintained. My comments were that as an external backup medium, RAID 1 affords you another level of protection over a straight disk-to-disk backup. Michael Chan -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
