Raid Recovery Tips

The Maxtor Onetouch III Turbo drive will be released as a 600 gigabyte (GB) RAID 0 model, and a 1 terabyte (1 TB, 1000 GB) RAID 0/1 model.  
RAID 1 can now be used with the OneTouch III Turbo 600 GB models with updated installation software.

Highlights

• User-configurable RAID solution
• Use RAID 0 for high performance disk striping or RAID 1 for automatic mirroring
• Up to 1 TB storage capacity
• FireWire® 800 for fast data transfer
• Oxford 924 chipset
• Pre-formatted for Mac; easily formatted for Windows®
• Available in RAID 0 only, and RAID 0 / RAID 1 (user configurable) configurations.

What does this mean?

Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo drives are shipped with 2 drives inside the enclosure. These drives are configured in such a way that the drive letter or volume spans both drives to make one large drive. This is known as RAID 0 or RAID Striping.

When data is written to this large volume, the data is "striped" across the two drives.  The stripe size is 64 KB. What this means is that a file written to the array is split into two parts, one for each drive. This translates into significant improvement in reads and writes because two drives can do the work of one in roughtly half the time. This usually means throughput of 30-40% higher than a single drive, and sometimes can be nearly 50% higher.

The file splitting is automatically handled by the operating system so it makes it a simple and robust solution for adding speedy storage or backup.

RAID is an acronym which stands for "Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks" which is not entirely accurate for the way RAID 0 is used because there is no redundancy. A RAID 0 volume needs to be backed up but is extremely fast.

The following illustration shows how data is arranged on the two drives in RAID 0 and RAID 1:

RAID 0
Pros:

• 1 file is stored on both drives.
• Significantly improved throughput because two drives are being accessed to read or write the same file.
• Large capacity volume.

Cons:

• RAID 0 is not redundant. Files need to be backed up in case of drive failure.

Note:  Stripe size = 64 KB.

RAID 1

Pros:

• 1 full file is written to both drives simultaneously.
• One drive is a mirrored copy of the other in case of drive failure, automatically.

Cons:

• The capacity is cut in half in favor of reliability.

RAID 0/1 drives support both modes, requiring a reformat to switch the mode. The RAID 0/1 version of the OneTouch III Turbo is expected to ship within a few weeks of the RAID 0 model.

Specifications

RAID 0
RAID 0/1

Capacity
600GB
1TB

Model
G01Y006
G01W010

Hard Drives
(two) 3.5-inch ATA

RPM
7200

Integrated Interfaces

• Firewire 800, IEEE 1394b, iLink, Up to 800Mbits/sec.
• Firewire 400, IEEE 1394a, iLink, Up to 400Mbits/sec.
• USB 2.0 and 1.1 – up to 480Mbits/sec.

Cache Buffer
16MB (each drive)

Platform
Mac and PC

Average seek time
9 ms

Sustained Transfer Rate (maximum)
Firewire 800 – 91MBytes/sec
Firewire 400 – 43MBytes/sec
USB 2.0 – 33MBytes/sec

Operating Temperature
5°C to 35°C (41°F to 95°F)

Dimensions
5.4" x 3.9" x 8.5" (136 x 98 x 217mm)

Weight
5.8 lbs (2.6 KG)

Box Dimensions
6"H x 11"W x 8.5"D (152 x 279 x 216mm)

System Requirements

Mac

• FireWire 800 requires Mac OS X 10.2.8 or
  higher and FireWire 800 (9-pin) equipped
  computer
• Apple G4 processor or greater
• Mac OS X (10.2.8 or later): 128 MB (256
  recommended) RAM or more as required by
  operating system
• CD-ROM drive
• Internet connection (for system updates)

PC

• FireWire 800 requires Windows 2000 or XP
  operating system and FireWire 800 (9-pin)
  equipped computer
• Pentium III, 500 MHz equivalent processor or
  higher
• Windows 2000 Professional, XP Professional,
  or XP Home Edition
• 128 MB (256 recommended) RAM or more as
  required by operating system
• CD-ROM drive
• Internet connection (for system updates)

Kit Includes

• External Hard Drive

• EMC® Retrospect® Express HD backup software

• 9 to 9 pin FireWire 800/1394/iLink cable

• External AC power adapter

• Installation CD with backup software and

• User Guide

• Quick Start Guide