[dawgisht]

I've been Googling around for a week and still haven't found a definitive answer... maybe someone here can help.

Basically, I've got a Quad on the way ( ) to replace my "souped up" Digital Audio 466/G4 (anyone wanna buy a GigaDesigns 1.47GHz G4 7455 card?). I've got two internal IDE drives in here that I'd like to hang onto for extra storage, and I'm looking to drop them into FW enclosures.


So here's my question: Can I use a Dual Drive FW800 Enclosure that's marketed as RAID-0/1 to run two separate mis-matched IDE drives? (No RAID wanted or needed at this time.)

Here's my reasoning:

1> I want it to be on the FW800 port as I need the FW400 ports to run a MOTU 828 (audio interface) and connect my iPod (3G). I know I could chain the iPod off a FW400 enclosure (as I'm doing now), but I figure might as well put the FW800 to use.

2> I've read that the G5's FW800 isn't all that great, but speed isn't important to me in this case. (Just want to recycle the old drives for back-up and media storage purposes.)

3> Of course I could get two separate enclosures and chain 'em, but if it's possible, I'd really prefer one dual-drive case. (Neat freak. )



Okay... so after searching around, I've found a few cases I like, but they all say RAID-0/1. Here's the ones I like at the moment:


A>OWC Mercury Elite Pro -AL FireWire 800/400 -- First choice since it's made for Mac, but was told by a service rep:

"When you install two drive inside the OWCMEFW912AL2 they must be the same GB size and same model. When you install these drives make sure there is no data on the drive because it will erase it."

... is this correct, or just extra cautious "don't kill us for fragging your drives" disclaimer-speak? And to make it more confusing, their "Setting Up a RAID" doc (site's down, will add link later) says something like "... if you want to keep the individual drives separate, skip the Disk Utility RAID set-up step and you're done." So who's right?


B> "Cool Gear" @ www.cooldrives.com -- Like the looks/simplicity of this one... says "user selectable RAID-0", but not sure if that means it can be disabled and run in "two separate drives" mode. Plus: it has USB 2.0 also.


C> "Combo FW800 Drive Enclosure" @ www.drivecase.com -- Looks the same as the one above, just in black and with no branding... also slightly cheaper.



Here's the specs on the drives I want to use:

Manufacturer: Maxtor
Model: 6Y120L0
Capacity: 114.5 GB
Inteface: ATA/133
Rot. Speed: 7200 RPM


Manufacturer: Hitachi
Model: Deskstar 7K250 (HDS722516VLAT80)
Capacity: 153.38 GB
Inteface: ATA/100
Rot. Speed: 7200 RPM



So... am I nuts for pursuing this? Thanks for any info!

[mduell]

Any of the enclosures should let you use the drives without creating or using a RAID array.

Something else to consider is that for less than the cost of one of those enclosures plus the value of your drives on eBay, you could get a 250-300GB hard drive in a FW800 enclosure.

[dawgisht]

Thanks a bunch for the advice... and good point on just dumping these old drives on eBay/CL and going for something bigger and newer. I could even just skip on the FW for now and grab a 2nd internal SATA instead.

Take it easy.

[mduell]

Hey, why didn't I think of going with an internal drive. The enclosure would be $110 to $170, and the value of the old drives is $40-50 each. For under $200 you can get a 400GB internal drive.

To answer your terminal question ("So... am I nuts for pursuing this?"), I'll say yes.