Mac Pro shuts down after setting up RAID (HELP!)

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macboy2000 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mac Pro shuts down after setting up RAID (HELP!)

So, I recently purchased a rev 1 Mac Pro and decided to setup a RAID using 4 750gb WD drives. I am not using a RAID card, simply using Disk Utility.

I first combined drives in bays 1 and 2 (striped) and then combined drives in bays 3 and 4 (striped) to give me essentially two 1.5tb drives.

I then created a mirrored RAID using the two striped raids so that I would have the speed of a striped RAID with the safety of a mirrored RAID.

Once I did this, it showed up as one hard disk on my desktop (I was booting with an external). I then cloned my external drive to the new RAID disk on the desktop, and did so successfully.

However, now when I try to boot from the RAID, it chimes, the Apple appears, and then the Mac Pro shuts down. I tried holding down option and all 4 drives appear. I tried booting from a different drive, and the same thing happens. I should also note that the firmware bar flashes on the screen before shutting down (looks like a really long pill).

Any ideas? Does it sound like I did something wrong? I hate to start from scratch, as it takes all night to clone my external drive to the Mac Pro. Thanks for any help.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 14, 2009 10:07 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Nov 14, 2009 10:51 AM in response to macboy2000

Those things, 0+1, are really not a great or good idea. As you found out. Some work, some don't. And for what?

you could easily have a 3-drive mirror with striped reads, and 4th drive for backup.

Not all drives take to RAID, WD has RE2/3 series along with their Black and standard Blue Caviar.

For system, try WD 10K V-Raptor, then put your media files on 2 x 750s as an idea.

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Answer 2

macboy2000 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 14, 2009 11:03 AM in response to The hatter

Hello, Hatter. Thanks so much for the information. I went with the information from the Macworld article (I believe) "RAIDing the Mac Pro" and according to it this setup was supposedly a great idea. But, yes, it's not working out so perhaps not in this case.

So, I have four brand new 750gb Caviar Black drives installed. If I understand you correctly, I should stripe 3 disks together, then use a 4th as backup (using Time Machine?). So, if I use the drives I have, I'll have a striped configuration that gives me 2.25TB of space, and a 750gb hard drive for backup. That technically would work for now, as I have about 660gb of data on the system (although in the future I'd need to swap out that 4th drive for a 2TB.

So, if that is what you're suggesting, would you mind telling me exactly how I do that? I think I understand, but just want to make sure as this is my first Mac Pro and first time setting up a RAID. Thank you so much for your response.

p.s.: I'm guessing I'll need to do a fresh start and clone my external drive all over again, correct?

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