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Mac Pro Drive Configuration - Home User

Hi all

I'm trying to determine the 'best' drive configuration for my needs... I'm not a pro-user (although, I do use DVDSP and Motion for some DVDs I make from EyeTV) and so I don't think I want to set up a RAID or anything like that... here's a little background

I was recently having my MP operate really slowly (in terms of disk paging) because of my boot drive (a Seagate ST3500630AS at 3.AAC) was

1) Rather full - < 100GB free - lesser impact, I think
2) Some directory corruption - drive stopped booting from diskarb error

I was able to resolve the issue by wiping out the drive and it's working much better now.... but the whole thing got me thinking about my config... I had pretty much just been 'slapping' drives in as I needed drive space (I have the shipping 250GB, my old 200GB Seagat, a new ST3500630AS and a FW800 500GB Maxtor)

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I've been doing some reading and it seems that it's optimal to not have one's boot drive have anything but the OS (w VM swap files too, right) and Applications... it seems that the two best options are either a WD 'Raptor' (either 74GB or 150GB) or a Maxtor Maxline III to serve as the boot drive... I understand why the 'Raptor' is a better option (compared to my ST3500630AS - faster RPM) but why is the Maxtor (laying aside the firmware issue on the ST3500630AS)? Is it because the Maxtor's are supposed to be better at handling small files (the OS and the swap files are that, right?)? It seems to me that the 'Raptor' isn't the option I want to choose because I don't think I actually 'need' it... 74GB seems a little small to me (but perhaps not) while the 150GB seems a bit expensive when considering if I even 'need' the 'Raptor'

I'm anticipating that the Maxtor MaxLine III will be what I want to get for my boot drive... how would I want to back that up? Does it really matter if it's external? Someone had mentioned that you can do it to a disk image but then how do I boot off of that if I have an issue? Or is that just for the purpose of 'snapshotting' the system?

As I mentioned, I have the ST3500630AS and the external FW800 500GB Maxtor... they're a perfect match in size and I like having access to all of my home data on an external drive... that way if my MP dies (as my old G5s did), I can simply connect my FW drive to my old PBG4 and I'm up and running without a hitch... but I'm a little peeved about the whole firmware thing and the handicapped performance (is there anyway I can address this or should this drive be relegated to a backup status?)...

Another question - the Seagate's have the new perpendicular technology... it seems to me that people aren't that concerned about it - I thought it was supposed to be a really good thing?

What would people do in my shoes? If a solution needs more than one additional drive - I am game for ditching my smaller existing SATA drives.... Any and all suggestions would most appreciated...

Thanks!

Mac Pro 2.66, 2.0 GB RAM, 23 Apple Cinema HD Display, Mac OS X (10.4.9), EyeTV 200, Powerbook G4/667, 512 MB RAM

Posted on Apr 29, 2007 5:05 AM

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Posted on Apr 29, 2007 8:53 AM

The only real answer to your question is to do what you want. There is no such thing as an "optimal" configuration or "best" drive because what's optimal is dependent upon what you do and need. The best drive depends upon what you want from the drive.

The Raptors are very fast but also very expensive. About twice the cost of a Maxtor Maxline Pro. However, if you feel the need for speed on your startup drive, then the Raptor is what you want. If you would rather compromise between speed, storage space, and noise then the Maxtor is a good choice. However, Seagate purchased Maxtor some time ago. The Maxtor Maxline Pro drives are being phased out (in the 300 GB and larger sizes) so as not to compete with Seagate's line of products.

You can find useful benchmark tests on hard drives at http://www.barefeats.com/ and http://www.storagereview.com/.

Personally, I would configure the system in such a way that you have sufficient storage space on one or two separate drives that can be used to backup the rest of the system. As an example, in my system I use three 300 GB Maxtor Maxline Pros (this system was setup last September.) One drive is used as my main startup drive. The other two are configured as a mirrored RAID. I use the RAID as the backup for the main startup drive. The mirrored RAID provides both backup and redundancy for added data protection. I use backup software (Synchronize! Pro X) to perform automated backups on a daily, weekly (entire Users folder,) and monthly (entire drive) basis.

Of more importance than drive configuration is maintaining your system for optimal performance:

Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance

For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.0 is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.2 is Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. The current version, 1.5.1, is Intel Mac compatible.

OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.

OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.

I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.

For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline.

When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.

Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):

1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)

The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:

1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync

Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.

Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.

Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.

Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.

Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.

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42 replies

Apr 30, 2007 12:41 PM in response to infinite vortex

You're probably right on the course of action...

The RAID 0 option is interesting... it's approx the same cost as the Option 1 (2x$73 plus $399 for 750GB FW800 backup) I listed BUT I get a spare bay and the performance is considerably better, right?... granted, I have 200 less GB...

Just so I have it straight... I'd want to keep this RAID 0 with >=90GB free space, right?

Apr 30, 2007 12:54 PM in response to Justin Surpless

I'd want to keep this RAID 0 with >=90GB free space, right?

The same rules apply to RAID volumes as any other… the greater the free space the better the performance and try not to stray past 2/3 full. For best result have a 1/2 or less drive usage. I don't know wheere you get the 90GB number from but yes, lots of free space is good.

Just to give you an idea, my 3 drive 900GB RAID 0 volume is 85% free (you read right - "free") and goes like that brown stuff off a shovel regardless of what I do as there's a mountain of free, contiguous, space and I'm always using the fastest 1/3 of the drive.

May 1, 2007 4:49 AM in response to infinite vortex

Hmmmm... as appealing as the speed of a RAID is, I'm not sure how likely I am to do that... especially since it will be my User drive as well... if it were just a 1x300GB volume, I could definitely keep it fairly empty...

BTW, Kappy had quoted 15% for minimum free space (600GB => 90GB free space)

Question - if your RAID is THAT empty... what do you use it for? Do you only have it that large so you can keep the system on the fastest 1/3 of the drive(s)?

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 1, 2007 6:33 AM in response to Justin Surpless

MicroMat (and others) came up with 15% free due to limitations in the directory structure imposed by Mac OS Extended format, effect of what can happen if you have a lot of files that are fragmented and the directory doesn't have enough entries and space to track all the files.

May 1, 2007 7:29 AM in response to Justin Surpless

BTW, Kappy had quoted 15% for minimum free space (600GB => 90GB free space)

Right… fair enough. I find that 15% is the minimum free space one should have to maintain good system and file structure stability. While this percentage does actually go down the larger one's volumes get it's a good place to start.

if your RAID is THAT empty... what do you use it for?

Simply speed. The way I see it, there's simply no point to spending a whole chunk of change of a system unless you're prepared to make it all go as fast and as balanced as possible. HD I/O is usually the biggest bottleneck in any system.

It's like skimping out on tyres for your Ferrari and opting for less than the Pirelli P Zero. No point having all that grunt under the hood if your tyres can't keep you on the road nor can they help keep the driving experience pleasurable.

Do you only have it that large so you can keep the system on the fastest 1/3 of the drive(s)?

Yes. While I don't retain a lot of data I do move a lot of data. So by having such a huge amount of free space I really don't care as to the "state" of my drive to attain maximum performance. For instance, I recently had to process 150GB data for a client (which is an extreme case for me). No biggie but in the middle having all that on my volume I need to move around some of my own stuff. However, with that chunk of data on there anything that was put on my volume after that was put further down the drive. Given the free space though… so what.

This sort of thing would have an even greater impact if for instance you're doing a large software update, like going from Adobe CS2 to CS3 or maybe Final Cut Studio, even Mac OS X. So when you install CS3 where exactly on your drive is that going to go? What about your software updates for Mac OS X?

By having a mega-percentage of free space I really don't care what goes where and my efforts for maintaining is kept to a minimum. Less effort to me is worth money.

May 1, 2007 2:55 PM in response to infinite vortex

Let's assume if I choose the RAID 0 option that I won't be keeping the array as empty (%-wise) as if I were on the 1x300GB boot option...

Let's say that MacOS X and my apps take up no more than 150GB... and I have another 350-400GB worth of personal data... on the non-RAID, I'd have a 50% full boot drive and on the RAID, I'd have a nearly 90% full boot drive...

Which will be faster then? Will the benefits of the RAID overshadow (even if it's full) that of the empty non-RAID?

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 1, 2007 3:22 PM in response to Justin Surpless

It would be nice to have 2 x 150GB Raptors. Or 2 x 300GB for boot drive. Does your boot drive have a lot of non OS type files, things besides applications and such?

Then RAID two 500GB or larger for media. Or there are always a couple $460 Hitachi 1000GB drives 😉

4 x 500GB (460GB each formatted capacity) would be interesting.

May 1, 2007 4:04 PM in response to Justin Surpless

Which will be faster then?

No boot volume, RAID or not, should be at 90% fill. There's no way I would recommend such a situation. If you're talking about such a fill on a 600GB RAID volume then there would be no way a single 500GB drive would fit your situation either.

Whichever way you look at it, at approximately 500GB of total data you should realistically be looking at a 1TB total storage if performance and stability are at all important to you. Even if you go with a 300GB boot plus a data drive you're still looking at a 750GB for the data drive. Otherwise, a 2 x 500GB RAID would suit.

What are you thinking?! 😉

May 1, 2007 4:41 PM in response to The hatter

Well, presently... my boot drive has my entire User directory on it...

May 1, 2007 5:02 PM in response to infinite vortex

When you say, "if performance and stability are at all important to you"... I understand your POV where you keep the drive barebones to get out every bit of power (since time is literally money for you on your MP) but is it really applicable to someone such as myself? Someone who isn't moving huge streams of data (i.e, video)?

I bought my MP because I wanted something more powerful and expandable than an iMac, basically... I predominantly use it for the internet, some games, as a DVR (both current and archiving) and some DVD work... I don't want to "cripple" my machine but I'm just a "home" user...

May 16, 2007 5:59 AM in response to Justin Surpless

Hi all

I ended up going with the 300GB Maxter Maxline III boot drive and a 500GB Maxtor MaxLine Pro for the User directory... also got the extra 2x1GB RAM from OWC... I ultimately decided that I didn't need more drive space for my EyeTV so that kept the costs down for me while leaving me room to expand that in the future without throwing out this purchase at all...

I'm very impressed by it - my MP is still lightly loaded as I am working on identifying the cause of my sleeping problem (on idle, something stops it from sleeping and I can hear the drives spinning up/down repeatedly)... but on the whole, I really think it's a significant improvement...

Thanks again for all your help...

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 16, 2007 6:15 AM in response to Justin Surpless

Good choice in drives and setup. The 2GB definitely helps a lot as well.

I rarely ever find the need to reinstall a system or even go back and restore from an earlier point in time, but I do keep system images (20GB as just OS and Apple apps) but I have had to at least three times now with Mac Pro.

Printer issues. A driver or extension conflict. A "startupitem" that had a problem. Printer issues again. A "bad RAM" experience where files were getting corrupt and affecting system stability.

The cost in time, troubleshooting, and frustration level - as well as dealing with exchanging RAM and printer. I also had to stop using a PCIe card that prevented sleep and caused a freeze on waking (both, at different points in time).

But your system's performance can also be affected by seemingly small tasks. A memory leak, or it runs under Rosetta and eats up more cycles and memory than it should.

Mac Pro Drive Configuration - Home User