Software RAID (Mirror) problem on new G5

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kenfab

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Advise please!

I'm setting up a new G5 with dual 500 gb HDs. I've used disk utility to configure the drives into a mirrored RAID with no apparent problem. Dropped the root of the drives into the box, named the RAID volume, and let disk utility do its job.

Boots to the Tiger install disk with no problem, sees the RAID volume, allows customization (I'm not installing additional languages or demo software), installs with no errors, says it is going to reboot, reboots, and HANGS!

Screen shows the MAC logo, but no spinning wheel. No errors...just hangs at the logo screen and goes nowhere.

I've reinstalled several times and have the same result. Any ideas? I am attempting to set the RAID as the startup disk--is this the problem? Should I set this up differently? Anyone have a config like this working?

Sorry, it seemed simple and direct enough, but I'm stuck!

Thanks in advance for your help & Happy Halloween!
 
AFAIK, you cannot boot from a RAID setup that's been set up with Apple's Disk Utility -- it would need to be a hardware RAID or a software RAID from a 3rd party that supports booting in order to be able to boot from it.
 
I'm trying to do the same thing but I bought a Sonnet Tempo SATA PCI card (it said it supported RAID). I was expecting a hardware solution similar to RAID cards I've used on Windoze machines, but no documentation came with the machine. I have Tiger 10.4 (haven't updated yet) on a "new" refurbished (she's beautiful) G5 1.8 single with 1GB Ram. Seems like you can boot to a mirrored array in Tiger no? Can I just plug in 2 disks to the built in sata or can I use my Tempo Card or ?????

TIA

Nick
 
The Sonnet Tempo SATA PCI card does not support a hardware RAID setup, but it will allow you to use Apple's Disk Utility to create a RAID -- albeit non-bootable.

SoftRAID will let you create a software-based RAID that you can boot from, apparently:

http://www.softraid.com/
 
Software raid booting does work using the Apple Disk utility method, I have used it many times.
One of the quirks with a software raid is that it sometimes needs an NVRAM reset in order to boot correctly. Do you know how to do this?
Here is the kbase article-
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
What 500gb drives are you using?
Regards
Ed
 
Ah, yes, after much Googling, it seems that Apple's RAID implementation since 10.2 is bootable with certain hardware. My mistake.
 
Ed thanks for that update. Well I goofed around with it again today. I have the 80GB Seagate HD that came with the G5 and 2 brand new 80gb 7200K Western Digitals. I guess I've been mistaken in thinking that the PCI Sata Cards I've been putting in my Windoze machines were hardware RAIDS. I only use them to mirror. In theory would the actually slow things down? I.E. use the processor more to run the double writes necessary. Or is it negligible.

Will I have to Partition the drives and load the OS on one small partition to boot and RAID mirror the rest? Seems like a non-ideal solution in that if the disk with the OS goes south I'll still have the data but have to replace the disk AND reload OS.

I can't seem to get the RAID utility to drag the HD with the OS on into the array.

Hardware RAID cards are about $300 just to mirror. Seems excessive.

TIA to all

Nick
 
I did get my G5 single 1.8 to boot to a mirrored RAID array. THe disks were formatted in HFS+ (journaled) format. Ordinarily, I think, you can turn thr Journaling off, but with A RAID array no go. Had to delete the RAID array and start from scratch. Particularly painful because the advertised "comes with Tiger" machine I got was loaded with panther and panther disks with a tiger upgrade - thus doubling my time.

I'm trying a striped RAID array in HFS+ (NOT journaled) to see if things will run faster on my FIlemaker Pro based software.



kenfab said:
Advise please!

I'm setting up a new G5 with dual 500 gb HDs. I've used disk utility to configure the drives into a mirrored RAID with no apparent problem. Dropped the root of the drives into the box, named the RAID volume, and let disk utility do its job.

Boots to the Tiger install disk with no problem, sees the RAID volume, allows customization (I'm not installing additional languages or demo software), installs with no errors, says it is going to reboot, reboots, and HANGS!

Screen shows the MAC logo, but no spinning wheel. No errors...just hangs at the logo screen and goes nowhere.

I've reinstalled several times and have the same result. Any ideas? I am attempting to set the RAID as the startup disk--is this the problem? Should I set this up differently? Anyone have a config like this working?

Sorry, it seemed simple and direct enough, but I'm stuck!

Thanks in advance for your help & Happy Halloween!
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