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Best way to clone an existing drive, then clone back to a dual SSD Raid 0 setup?

Have a Mac Pro 5,1 (mid 2012) and want to install 2 SSD drives in a Raid 0.

Will attempt to use the Apple Disk Utility to set up the raid. any suggestions on this first part will be welcome!

But what is the best way to clone the existing SATA drive onto the Raid setup?

The 2 SSD are Samsung 84 Pro 256 GB units, installed on a Temp SSD Pro 6 Gb SATA PCIe card.

The OS is Mavericks 9.1.

Thanks !

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), New Mac Pro 3,2 Ghz,6 GB of RAM.

Posted on Jan 16, 2014 11:23 AM

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Posted on Jan 16, 2014 11:42 AM

Carbon Copy Cloner, but... an arrary on SATA II does not yield benefits, there ard better uses and configurstions, better served with a PCUe card. Use one for system, another for scratch, one ff Aperture (etc)

9 replies

Jan 16, 2014 11:52 AM in response to The hatter

I agree, but am not using SATA for the RAID. I just want to know the best way to move the OS from a SATA onto a RAID which is made upof 2 SSD on a Temp SSD Pro 6 Gb SATA PCIe card.

BTW: one of the SSD currently has Mavericks and a few apps such as Mail already setup.

If ai use Disk Utility to setup a RAID 0 using that existing SSD alonw with another identical but empty SSD, will doing so erase the existing OS and apps?

I understand that I must boot on a different drive other than the SSD containing the OS.

Thanks, Hatter!

Jan 16, 2014 12:04 PM in response to TomL100

you are using SATA for RAID.


You have to delete whatever is there and boot from another source to create and clone. And a must for using SSDs is to have anotehr system boot drive and image.


You can boot from the array, just not install to it, there is no real gains as the system does perfectly fine on the SATA II bus. The real gains are for data, scratch purposes for your Tempo Pro. The driver for it has to be reinstalled when you first install Mavericks which is another reason to install elsewhere and then clone.


the SSD should have all of the OS and all of your apps, and even ~/Library of your home user account to take advantage of the performance of SSD.

Jan 16, 2014 12:54 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks, Hatter !

I am almost there now, thanks to you.

A couple more questions:

1- You state:

"And a must for using SSDs is to have anotehr system boot drive and image."

Is the above just for booting and then creating the Raid?

2- And, if one cannot install to a Raid, what happens when Apple comes out with version 9.2 or 9.3?

Do you have to upgrade the spare system boot drive then clone yet again? Every update?

Then do the same to install a new application? ( install to the spare system boot disk then clone again?)

Sorry to be so obtuse, but I am breaking new ground here ! LoL

Thanks

Jan 16, 2014 1:17 PM in response to TomL100

Always no matter what, have a clone or three - clean, working image, last version before OS X 1.2.3 that you are about to install.


It is about INSTALLING OS X, not updating once you have it - though updates and security updates are known to be monkey wrenches too at times.


Never remove safety net, no matter how safe it seems.


Use a clone to run DU and repair the drive, the drive partition, it handles both (partition integrity was new to Lion), AND to invoke TRIM command when repairing (which won't happen in recovery partition mode of DU).


CCC does a smart update. You don't worry about applying updates to those, and in fact wait a few days before applying updates sometimes, or just make sure the clone is up to date so you can boot from and do a restore if needed. A system restore image is only as good as knowing it will work in an emergency should one arise.


Like to see people break ground on new projects and how to get more out of their systems. The 5,1 does not have the limitations or issues that even the 4,1 exhibited let alone even more for the Early '08 3,1s.


One good SSD alone should / would / make more improvement in performance for low investment than any I have seen. If you have the Tempo Pro card and 2 x 250GB 840's that is about $600 investment - throw in another system SSD and use the Tempo for scratch and/or Aperture and insure you have "more than enough" RAM and your workflow should be smooth. Even wtih that, which I call "best practices" the nMP 6.1 makes Aperture etc even smoother as everything is optimized better and the 1200MB/sec SSD and 4-channel 1866 DDR3 makes graphics smoother and respond instantly to your touch (sports car handling vs your sedan?)


After doing a lot of installs, upgrades, Migration Assistant; and then on a 2-4 week basis boot from another volume to run DU Repair.


OS X alone without the cache used and other things on the boot drive really only takes 40-160GB and makes it easy to create a DU sparse disk image for CCC to update and restore from and that can be kept anywhere. And have a small 200GB emergency maintenance boot volume that you can add to and create on any volume you have handy, shrink and add to that 2TB media drive or TimeMachine drive volume.


I would just set aside half an hour weekly or as needed to clone your system. Than clone again before you apply anything, system update or update to applications or new applications.


With all your personal data and media and projects not on the system you don't need a RAID0 array to hold as much data, no need for the added complexity or using two SSD devices, easier to maintain and restore. There is even a small added overhead to any RAID. With an 840 EVO 500GB just above $300 it makes a lot of sense to use those, and almost too big for a system drive. Fine if the system drive is not just OS and applications but media and stuff don't need to be there. Again, Aperture/Lightroom and other uses, yes and with t he new Mac Pro people are putting and using it for multiple purposes and uses that they would not have wtih the 2012 5,1 and earlier. But it is so fast it makes sense - and Thunderbolt 2 external storage has added more costs to storage.


Kind of got long winded, hope it proves helpful. And not confusing but may raise more questions and ideas.

Jan 18, 2014 10:16 AM in response to The hatter

Well shucks !

After buying Carbon Cloner and cloning my SSD to the built-in sata drive, I now find that pressing the Option key during boot-up only freezes the Mac Pro 5.1.

I now have to power down tro regain control.

The Startup Manager never comes up. BTW- I am using a wired keyboard.

The Preferences, startup disk, in the only way I can switch between startup disks. Eithere disk will start the computer.

Any ideas how to remedy this condition?


Update !

I just discovered that the sata drive that I cloned to, was not erased prior to cloning, All the other stuff that was on that drive is still there.

Could this contribute to my problem?

Maybe I should format that target drive and re-clone the SSD to it again?

Jan 18, 2014 5:55 PM in response to TomL100

Update Two !


I went back and formatted the SATA hd then created a RAID 0 usig two SSD drives.

CCC stated that the RAID could not be used as a boot drive without a Recovery partition.

Opened the Drive portion of CCC but it states that the selected drive cannot be partitioned because it has no partition .

Deleted the RAID and formated the two SSD drives with two partitions each (one large, one small)

Same results as original attempt.

I must be screwing up big time.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated !!

Jan 19, 2014 2:40 PM in response to The hatter

Final post on this subject of RAID.


I went ahead and made a Raid 0 without any Recovery partition just for testing.

It boots just fine. Then I ran Black Magic to see the Read/Write speeds.

The results were very strange !

The Write was about the same as testing with only a single SSD on the Temp SSD Pro 6 Gb card.(480)

Shoulld have been near double that.

The Read speed started at about the same as Write, but each time the Black Magic app counted again, the Read added about 70 Mb. per second to the first reading. And eachtime the app cycled, another 70 Mb were added until the reading stabilized at about 900 Mb/sec. Both Write and Read should have been at between 800 to 900 Mb/sec. Am afraid that I will never figure that out !


Giving up on RAID, I broke down the RAID array and now have two seperate SSD drives on the Tempo card,

Curretly using one as the boot and the other for whatever. Both test out at an average Write speed of 480 and a Read speed of 490 Mb/Sec.


It has indeed been an education, to say the least.

My mid 2012 (5,1) Mac Pro now boots in just about 27 seconds instead of the original 75 seconds. iPhoto opens in just under 2 seconds.

Both speeds are much better than my mid 2011 27 inch iMac.

My thanks for your assistance ! (I can see why you have so many points on the forum)

Best way to clone an existing drive, then clone back to a dual SSD Raid 0 setup?

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