OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual?

[dr_daw]

Anyone get their hands on one of these yet? Running in 'independant'? Looking to get one to use as a bootable test/backup drive, the other drive as a session backup/iMovie drive.

[Philthy]

Originally Posted by dr_daw

Anyone get their hands on one of these yet? Running in 'independant'? Looking to get one to use as a bootable test/backup drive, the other drive as a session backup/iMovie drive.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Mercury-EliteAL-Pro-RAID

I've been using one of these for several years now. My drives are independent, not raid striped. I use them as audio recording drives. It has worked fine. Never tried to boot from it. Been using OWC enclosures for many many years now without trouble.

[dr_daw]

That's a way cheaper option! How did you set that enclosure as independent?

[nst7]

Dr. Daw,

The one he linked to is cheaper because it's not Thunderbolt, it's firewire and USB. On the new Pro Dual, you're paying for the Thunderbolt technology, and whatever benefits that might include.

You might also be interested in their new Thunderbay, which is similar, but holds 4 drives. Info is here:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thund.../ThunderBay-IV

[dr_daw]

nst7

Thanks, I saw that drive was USB and FW. Still on the fence about the t-bolt version. I'm looking to use the drives for backup and boot test drives. Comparing the cost to USB 3 drives, I can get 4 drives for that price. I do understand that I can swap the drives out in the OWC. With the Merc Elite Pro raid (USB/FW) I havent been able to see in the user manual how you would set that drive to independant. It only shows span, Raid 0 and Raid 1.

ANy thoughts?

[nst7]

I couldn't even figure out how to download the manual.

But based on the description, it looks like it ships ready to go in independent mode. So you don't have to do anything if you want to use it like that. If you want to set it up for RAID, there's some software involved.

If you're using these for backup, it probably would be overkill. For a boot test drive, probably the same thing. If you were using it for audio/samples, then it might be worth getting the Thunderbolt version.

[dr_daw]

Sweet, thanks nst7. I guess their isn't much price difference between buying WD black drives to stuff in the OWC enclosure and USB 3 drives (except the speed in the drives I have is 5400). They are just as backup for OSX/PT, Session backups, and iMovie.

Looking more like just getting some more Seagate Backup plus drives (have 6 now). They need to go on sale again I only have 9gigs left on my iMovie drives :/ So I need the drives ASAP :P

Thanks for the help. If anyone else can chime in on how to put the OWC USB/FW Mercury Elite Pro RAID into independant mode that would be great.