Hello.
I have a 2009 Mac Pro that doesn't have a RAID card. I have a spare 500gb hard drive that I would like to set-up in RAID with my other 500gb HDD that's already in my Mac. Do I need the Apple RAID card to set up RAID? I have set up a RAID configuration on my MacBook Pro before and that doesn't have a RAID Card? Thanks.
You don't need a RAID card for RAID-0 (Striped) or RAID-1 (Mirrored).
You don't need a RAID card for RAID-0 (Striped) or RAID-1 (Mirrored).
Use Disk Utility to create a software RAID. You will need two drives, preferably the same make, model, and capacity. The drives will be erased when you make the RAID, so if you have data you want on either, then back it up to a third drive.
RAID Basics
For basic definitions and discussion of what a RAID is and the different types of RAIDs see RAIDs. Additional discussions plus advantages and disadvantages of RAIDs and different RAID arrays see:
RAID Array and Server: Hardware and Service Comparison.
Hardware or Software RAID?
RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
RAID is a method of combining multiple disk drives into a single entity in order to improve the overall performance and reliability of your system. The different options for combining the disks are referred to as RAID levels. There are several different levels of RAID available depending on the needs of your system. One of the options available to you is whether you should use a Hardware RAID solution or a Software RAID solution.
RAID Hardware is always a disk controller to which you can cable up the disk drives. RAID Software is a set of kernel modules coupled together with management utilities that implement RAID in Software and require no additional hardware.
Pros and cons Software RAID is more flexible than Hardware RAID. Software RAID is also considerably less expensive. On the other hand, a Software RAID system requires more CPU cycles and power to run well than a comparable Hardware RAID System. Also, because Software RAID operates on a partition by partition basis where a number of individual disk partitions are grouped together as opposed to Hardware RAID systems which generally group together entire disk drives, Software RAID tends be slightly more complicated to run. This is because it has more available configurations and options. An added benefit to the slightly more expensive Hardware RAID solution is that many Hardware RAID systems incorporate features that are specialized for optimizing the performance of your system.
For more detailed information on the differences between Software RAID and Hardware RAID you may want to read: Hardware RAID vs. Software RAID: Which Implementation is Best for my Application?
Mac Pro 2009: Is a RAID Card necessary?
