About RAID-0 with 4 HDDs

Hi people, how are you? I have 2 HDDs (same brand, same model) and made software RAID with them. It's working very good, but for the future I am planning to put another 2 HDDs (same brand and model than the others two) and made RAID-0 again. But I don't have a dedicated RAID card, so I will run software RAID again, with RAID-0. This card for RAID it's only for more performance and more support for RAID (more types of RAID) or it's necessary for mroe than two HDDs? It's my question.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Oct 5, 2017 5:52 AM

Reply
10 replies

Oct 5, 2017 6:26 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT

I don't want to put a SSD as it's not officially supported and SSD is less space and much money, it don't want to spend so much. I prefer HDD as they're enough for me with 7200 rpm. I am happy with software RAID (RAID-0) it's very faster, but I want to know if only with two drives or if RAID-0 using the software solution supports 4 HDDs?

Oct 7, 2017 7:12 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

It's because I can't spend so much money, I also have plug-ins and equipment to buy for my studio and I need a lot of storage capacity and HDDs are enough, as they're 7200 rpm. I only want to know if I can use RAID-0 without any card for RAID using 4 HDDs. 2 HDDs are running fine with software-RAID, but I want to know about 4. Jimmy, I don't like to use softwares like SoftRaid, if Mac supports 4 HDDs for RAID-0 without a RAID card, because I prefer always something native, but thank you for the suggestion.

Oct 7, 2017 8:59 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Well, RAID, even the software RAID really boosts the data transfer, I can see it. But I want to know if I can or not to use 4 HDs with software-RAID being RAID-0, sure. It will crash or it supports, even being 4 and not 2 HDs? About fail about data, if I had only one HD and it fails I would lose data too, so RAID-0 isn't a bad thing about lost data, but I trust in HDs's brand, well, my doubt is about use 4 and not 2 HDs for RAID-0 using software-RAID, it works well?

Oct 7, 2017 10:00 AM in response to Mahzin

All those items you describe use ONE large file, and do not intersperse raids or writes to other files. Of course they were fast, because they are not a "Real-World" test of actual use for production.


You do not need Striped RAID for more space one logical drive.


Use "Concatenated RAID" for more space. It is also called "Just a Bunch of Drives" or JBOD. Its advantage over Striped RAID is that if a Drive fails, its files can still be saved with Data Rescue Utilities.


"Concatenated RAID" can be used with two or any larger number of drives. The drives can be very different from each other. It should be directly available in the version of Disk Utility you are running.

Oct 5, 2017 6:00 AM in response to Mahzin

Whats the advantage of two raid 0's in your device? FWIW the cost of two drives you could probably get an SSD, hat would be far faster and with RAID 0 if you loose one drive you effectively made the other drive dead as well. You are also dependent on a software solution - if it's Apple or 3rd party and you are running 10.7 and get into a mess no one is going to support your platform.

Oct 7, 2017 8:47 AM in response to Mahzin

This card for RAID it's only for more performance and more support for RAID (more types of RAID) or it's necessary for mroe than two HDDs?


Striped RAID requires frequent backups, because if EITHER Drive fails, ALL data is lost. Recovery Software can not deal with half the blocks being written to a different drive, and because Striped RAID has no redundancy, there is no way to recover that data.


---------

RAID gets its speed boost when reading the second and subsequent blocks from the SAME very large file. Allowing ANY intervening reads to or from any other files completely ruins that speedup.


You should not expect a speedup when you place both your Source and Destination files on the same RAID set. Each reference to a different file destroys the speedup from RAID.


You must not use a RAID set used for fast production data transfers for your Boot Drive, because the Boot drive is constantly reading and writing to dozens of different files all over the drive, and the RAID performance will be lost.


---------

There is NO performance advantage to Hardware RAID for Striped RAID or mirrored RAID. The RAID card is only required for RAID 5, and similar RAID versions that compute checksums and store them on the last drive in the set.


The Apple RAID card has a battery on board, so that once the data are delivered to the RAID card, the processor is signaled that the data are safe and it can continue. Then the checksums are computed and written to the drive. Without the battery, the processor must WAIT for the checksums to be computed and stored on the drive before proceeding, so performance will be lower. And the batteries on those cards have been hard to find and nothing but trouble.

Oct 7, 2017 9:10 AM in response to Mahzin

RAID really boosts the data transfer, I can see it.

How did you make that measurement? with ONE Large data file? or a disk test that uses ONE large data file?

But I want to know if I can or not to use 4 HDs with software-RAID being RAID-0, sure. It will crash or it supports,

It will not crash. But it makes NO SENSE. you need TWO RAID sets, not one large one RAID set to get performance. One is Source, one is Destination. Scratch, Libraries, and Boot Drive go on other drives.

I had only one HD and it fails I would lose data too,

The difference is that EITHER drive failing wipes out BOTH. Even with very reliable drives, you are cutting the Mean Time Between Failure in half with two drives, and cutting in 4 with four drives. You will need backups at least daily, or you will need to not leave ANY finished output files on these drives.


--------

You should add a USB-3 card in the PCIe slot on your Mac and use some Fast USB drives as well.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

About RAID-0 with 4 HDDs

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.