Rory185

Q: How to set up RAID in El Capitan

Ive just upgraded to El Capitan but when going to Disk Utility to make a raid system it has seemed to have gone!

Does anyone know if it has been removed from Disk Utility or if it has been relocated?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Oct 6, 2015 9:20 AM

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Q: How to set up RAID in El Capitan

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  • by Redcat7,Solvedanswer

    Redcat7 Redcat7 Nov 5, 2015 3:33 PM in response to Raicya
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 3:33 PM in response to Raicya

    I just did it, successfully - quit & restart with Option/Command/R - open Disk Utilities & BINGO! there it is> RAID as in Yosemite - I dragged my 2 HDs into it & I was good to go on a restart - no Terminal No nothing - Apple did't even know about it

     

    Rock on!

     

    Al

  • by Ubisububi,

    Ubisububi Ubisububi Nov 18, 2015 5:34 PM in response to Redcat7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 5:34 PM in response to Redcat7

    Give Redcat7 a cookie!

     

    Ingenious solution; no terminal, no software to buy, and extra points for giving me the satisfaction of using Apple's own software to outsmart them.

  • by tonyrhap,

    tonyrhap tonyrhap Nov 19, 2015 3:28 PM in response to Ubisububi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2015 3:28 PM in response to Ubisububi

    Am i missing something. The link refers to the SoftRAID software that I need to buy. Is there another solution given that I missed?

    Thanks for the help.

  • by Ubisububi,

    Ubisububi Ubisububi Nov 19, 2015 3:55 PM in response to tonyrhap
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2015 3:55 PM in response to tonyrhap

    No, that is not the solution in this thread. Redcat7 posted an actual solution. Reboot your computer while holding down Option-Command-R. This will load Apple's web-based set of disk tools, which still offers RAID support.

  • by Ubisububi,

    Ubisububi Ubisububi Nov 19, 2015 4:56 PM in response to tonyrhap
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2015 4:56 PM in response to tonyrhap

    Additional: Don't make the same mistake I did. I used SoftRaid's demo period to create the RAID, thinking that I wouldn't need it after that. Unfortunately (but understandably) SoftRaid uses a proprietary driver that will expire along with the software after 30 days. I would have been willing to purchase the software as I found it to be excellent, but not for $300...

  • by tonyrhap,

    tonyrhap tonyrhap Nov 19, 2015 6:06 PM in response to Ubisububi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2015 6:06 PM in response to Ubisububi

    excellent, thanks for the help. yes, that boot up trick worked but it seems each of my drives is already a striped RAID and I'm having issues making them both into a mirrored RAID. Since you've been so helpful already, do you have any suggestions on that front?

  • by Ubisububi,

    Ubisububi Ubisububi Nov 19, 2015 7:17 PM in response to tonyrhap
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2015 7:17 PM in response to tonyrhap

    What I had to do was go back to the disk tools on my computer and format each of the drives individually (I wasnt able to do this in the web-based tools). Then, reboot (command-option-R) to reload the web tools. Once there, I selected the RAID option I wanted, then dragged the drives into the field. Don't try to drag the volumes; just the formatted drives. To make this a bit less confusing, I named each of the drives RAID 1, RAID 2, etc, when I formatted them.

     

    just a reminder that you will lose all data on the drives when you do this (I'm sure you know this. I'm saying it for other readers).

  • by tonyrhap,

    tonyrhap tonyrhap Nov 19, 2015 7:25 PM in response to Ubisububi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2015 7:25 PM in response to Ubisububi

    Excellent, thanks for the thorough description. I'll try it.

  • by tonyrhap,

    tonyrhap tonyrhap Nov 21, 2015 1:33 PM in response to tonyrhap
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2015 1:33 PM in response to tonyrhap

    So I found this on the LaCie site. It shows a simple way to create a RAID in Mac OS 10.11. I don't see why this wouldn't work for any brand of drive though. It worked very well for me.

     

    http://knowledge.lacie.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/007650en?language=en_US&wwwlocale= en-us

  • by Ubisububi,

    Ubisububi Ubisububi Nov 21, 2015 2:01 PM in response to tonyrhap
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2015 2:01 PM in response to tonyrhap

    Yout are absolutely right; the terminal option has always been available. Those of us who are not terminal savvy were looking for a drag and drop option. After following your link, I still feel that the web-based Disk Tooks solution is orders of magnitude simpler, but kudos to you for mastering what looks like alphabet soup to me.

  • by diablote,

    diablote diablote Nov 25, 2015 5:09 PM in response to Rory185
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 5:09 PM in response to Rory185

    Not all machines that can run El Capitan can run OS X Internet Recovery with RAID support as described by @Redcat7. (Apple describes which machines can be upgraded here, and my 2009 Mac Mini isn't on the list.) In this case, the command line option described by @tonyrhap (also described here) is the only way to go. Installing El Capitan on the RAID is also tricky; to do so you'll have to boot to OS X Recovery from a non-RAID drive (if not your primary drive, just hold down the Option key at startup to choose it). Worse still, you can't recover a Time Machine backup to the RAID volume (say, if you want to upgrade your primary drive to a RAID 0); you'll have to do a base install and then use Migration Assistant to do so. Finally, the installer won't install an OS X Recovery partition on your RAID volume, so you'll always have to maintain a backup drive to do recoveries. A PITA for sure, but worth the massive speed improvement IMO.

  • by spinningstill,

    spinningstill spinningstill Jan 29, 2016 2:38 PM in response to Ubisububi
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 29, 2016 2:38 PM in response to Ubisububi

    I didn't see the RAID support when I booted from the internet recovery.  Running current version, iMac (2015).

  • by spinningstill,

    spinningstill spinningstill Jan 30, 2016 7:27 AM in response to Ubisububi
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 30, 2016 7:27 AM in response to Ubisububi

    Hello, I am looking to do this too.  I don't see the RAID option, is there something I am missing?  Thank you.

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