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macaframa · Jul 30, 2006, 03:30 PM

I picked up Powermac G4 733 off of CL a couple of months back with intention of replacing my Linux file server with it. However, I did not realize the HDD size limitation. My expansion card from my Linux box doesn't have Mac support, so I need to purchase another card. Problem is that Mac PCi ATA cards cost twice as much as windows/linux versions. So, for a home file sever (music/photo) is the extra $70 worth it for RAID mirroring instead of just backing up to the second HDD? I am thinking not, but thought I would seek advice.

SWFan · Jul 30, 2006, 11:42 PM

RAID is mainly useful in keeping the box running when an HD goes bad. RAID mirroring is NOT a backup solution. If you delete a file, mirroring doesn't help you, the file is simply gone. Personally, unless you're running a server that needs to be 100% operational 24/7 then I say go with a regular drive setup with scheduled backups to another drive.

kamina · Jul 31, 2006, 02:57 AM

I think mirroring is definatly worth it, as hardisks do die. This ofcourse only if you actually store stuff that you don't want to lose (or want fast recovery from disk failure). I've used osx disk utility to set up a mirror, and it works fine with me. Did'nt try to mirror the operating system though, just the data disks.

mousehouse · Jul 31, 2006, 08:02 AM

If memory serves me right, a RAID1 (mirrored) volume will give you faster reads than a regular disk volume, as reads are spread over two disks.

As the server is your primary storage server i'd definately go RAID1. Otherwise even if you backup daily you'd still loose a day of files, letters, music, etc. if one of these old rusty drives happens to fails.

As an alternative there is the Maxtor external firewire drive with built-in RAID1 , see: http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/en/catalog/OTIII_Turbo/ I *love* it

macaframa · Jul 31, 2006, 08:51 AM

I went with a standard expansion card. The redundancy would be be good, but for more than twice as much as the regular expansion I couldn't pull the trigger on the purchase. I have three Seagate 200GB, I will just hope to back up religously. As for Maxtor, I have sworn them off forever. I have had three fail on me in two different systems. All the same problem, they slowed to an unbearable crawl and then became unable to access. They make work for other, but three strikes and you are out in my book.

mousehouse · Jul 31, 2006, 09:13 AM

ouch

Same here for the famous IBM Deathstar 75GXP drives, taking with them a quarter of my life... Good luck with your purchase!

OreoCookie · Jul 31, 2006, 09:14 AM

You can still have a software RAID1 if you wish. Although I'm not sure what good it would do. As for the performance argument, the bottleneck is the network anyway.

macaframa · Jul 31, 2006, 04:09 PM

If I was going to do RAID0 then the performance gain would be enticing, but pretty much just redundancy/backup. If I come across another G4/733 with 1GB RAM for $140 I may have to get another and do a MythTV box. For now I am happy, the powermac will be so much easier to manage than the linux box.