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nonhuman · Jul 14, 2008, 10:03 AM

I have a 500 GB software RAID that I created using Disk Utility and two 250 GB drives (just needed speed, not so much reliability as it's not particularly crucial data). The drives are SATA but are in a FW800/400/USB2.0 external enclosure.

Does anyone know if there's anyway that I could get the RAID mounted on a Linux box? All my Linux boxen are already set up to mount HFS+ block devices so the only real issue is the software RAIDyness.

mduell · Jul 14, 2008, 10:34 PM

As far as I know, OS X's software RAID is proprietary to Apple. Shoulda bought an enclosure with hardware RAID.

nonhuman · Jul 14, 2008, 11:12 PM

I figured that was probably the case. Oh well, I'll just have to put my new drive in an enclosure so I can connect it directly to my Mac and copy everything over quickly that way. Now if only I could figure out if the 1 TB WD MyBook Essential had a SATA drive in it or PATA without actually buying it and ripping it open...

mduell · Jul 15, 2008, 12:05 AM

Given the lack of 1TB PATA drives and the cheapness of SATA-USB adapters, SATA is a good bet.

But why not just buy a bare drive and separate enclosure? No sense in voiding the warranty on both when it doesn't save you much (if any) money.

nonhuman · Jul 15, 2008, 08:41 AM

That's almost definitely what I'll do. I can't actually remember the last time I bought a pre-assembled external hard drive. Although the 1 TB MyBook Essential is very well priced ($190 at Best Buy vs. about $250 for the cheapest FW800 one I can put together at Newegg or about $200 as the cheapest USB2-only)... Actually, at Newegg, I can get a pre-built FW800 1 TB external drive for just $156.75! (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16822101094R)