[SciFrog]

My search was so far inconclusive,

can you create a bootable raid on an iMac G5 with one drive being the internal one, and the other external connected with firewire? Using Disk Utility or Softraid?

Of course I could by a firewire raid with two external drives, but they cost a lot more, and then buying a Powermac makes a lot more sense.

I really like the idea of my mirror raid in my current Powermac dual 1.25, as I can be lazy doing backups, and you can still loose your data between two backups.

[SciFrog]

Nobody tried this? Whao... Maybe I shouldn't even think getting an iMac.

[mduell]

Despite thinking you were slightly insane when I read the topic, yes, I think you can do this. The performance may be wonky.
External drives shouldn't be more than $30 more than an internal drive. I'd recommend using the internal drive for your system and apps, and a pair of external drives for data (in RAID1).

However I would caution you that RAID is not a backup. Remember that.

[SciFrog]

Raid mirror (1?) is backup, both drives would need to go down at the same time to loose data.

I am trying to use the internal drive plus only ONE external drive in a RAID setup.
Speed over Firewire 400 would be very sufficient.

Still no answer though.

Thanks for the reply.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by SciFrog

Raid mirror (1?) is backup, both drives would need to go down at the same time to loose data.

I am trying to use the internal drive plus only ONE external drive in a RAID setup.
Speed over Firewire 400 would be very sufficient.

Still no answer though.

Thanks for the reply.

My answer was "yes, you can do this" although I have reservations about the performance.

RAID mirroring is not a backup. If you accidently delete a file, you can't get it back. If your RAID controller starts spewing garbage, you can't get your data back. Real backups allow you to recover data, not just from single drive failure.

[SciFrog]

Thanks, I will then try to get a Firewire enclosure and do some test with one of my Cubes.