Looking for a good External RAID 1 solution

[MrSandman]

Any ideas or recommendations for a good external RAID 1 enclosure? What is everyone out there using to backup their work? With the videos from the 5D2 and the RAW files i'm taking using external USB hard drives isn't going to work for much longer.

I've looked at the Drobo and thought it would be a very good solution but am looking for someone with experience with it.
http://www.amazon.com/Data-Robotics-FireWire-Storage-DR04DD10/dp/B001CZ9ZEE/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

Then I looked at these OWC enclosures but am not really sure about the Hitachi drives it comes with.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/MirrorRAID/

This will be used on a new iMac and I'm looking specifically for a firewire 800 since the iMacs don't have eSATA and i'd rather not use USB 2.0.

Any ideas?

 

[BlueCorn]

I'm using a WD Mybook. It works just fine but isn't a speed demon. The Drobo has a pretty good reputation but it isn't speedy either from what I've heard. You could just buy two FW800 drives and let OS X mirror them.

 

[BlueCorn]

FWIW - Hitachi makes the only guaranteed 99.999% uptime disk subsystem on the market today. A Hitachi drive wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

 

[MrSandman]

Thanks Doug. Are you using your Mybook purely as an external drive? Or is it mirroring another drive? Do you have the Firewire version? Not having much experience with Firewire, i just read that they could be daisy chained. Perhaps that is another option.
At this point i just need something simple. I currently have 4 external USB 2.0 drives and want to do away with all of them. The Drobo just seems very simple, especially when it comes to upgrading the drives. Plus, its on sale everywhere right now for 279.00 normally over 400.00. Which Drobo did you hear was slow? Thru USB or Firewire?

Oh yeah...that's nice to know about Hitachi.

 

[BlueCorn]

I've got the mirror edition (2 x 1TB). It's soley a backup device using Timemachine.

The Drobo, from my understanding is slow regardless of the interface.

 

[ADA33]

Also check out these drives. I picked one up last week.

http://www.g-technology.com/Products/pdf/G-TECH-Product-Guide-2009.pdf

 

[Jacob D]

I use a WD 1tb external drive and AJC Directory Synchronizer to handle back up tasks. I enabled my BIOS to turn my workstation on every morning at 5 AM, the backups are scheduled to start in AJC at 5:15. This was going to be a temporary step between getting a NAS type of set up... but it's worked so well that I'm not going to change it. The only thing I might do is pick up a second drive to keep as an offline backup (maybe backup once a month) and keep it in a fireproof safe.


BTW... I was busting my chops trying to find firewire drives and eventually just settled on the USB. The initial sync took forever, but the daily backups run very quickly, and of course could be scheduled to run while you're asleep. Unless you are shooting a TON of video and stills the speed shouldn't really be an issue... unless you're using it as a working disk (I don't / wouldn't).

 

[MrSandman]

Also check out these drives. I picked one up last week.

http://www.g-technology.com/Products/pdf/G-TECH-Product-Guide-2009.pdf

Another decent solution. Where did you get it from?

Also, for anyone thinking about getting a Drobo have a read here. It has some good info and good links. http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/24609792/m/750009293931

I've now shifted gears slightly and am looking for a RAID 1 external solution that i can work off of and not just use as a backup. Any ideas?

 

[ADA33]

Another decent solution. Where did you get it from?

Most Apple stores have them in stock.

 

[terahz]

I also hear the drobo has good reputation.

After I lost 1TB worth of data from a seagate drive I've switched to 2x WD 1TB my book drives in software raid 1. I store videos and photos there. Time Machine has its own 1TB mybook.