Manage RAID

RAID stands for redundant array of independent disks. RAID contains the word array, and the two terms are often used interchangably. An array is a combination of two or more physical disks that are presented to the operating system as a single volume.

Disks are combined into different RAID configurations known as RAID levels. The RAID level you choose depends on which storage attributes are most important to you:

Your LaCie 2big RAID can be configured as RAID 0 or RAID 1. Each RAID level has its own advantages:

RAID 0—Data is not duplicated on both hard drives in RAID 0. This results in faster transfers and more storage, since the full capacity of both drives can be used to store unique data. However, RAID 0 lacks a very important feature: data protection. If a hard drive fails, all data in the array is lost.

RAID 1—RAID 1 provides greater safety since data is duplicated on each disk in the array. If a single disk fails, the data remains available on the other disk. However, this comes at a cost—since the same data is written to each drive, copying data takes longer and overall storage capacity is reduced by 50%. RAID 1 is a good choice when safety is more important than speed or disk space.

To summarize, each RAID level has its own advantages:

RAID setup as part of a new Toolkit installation

You can quickly configure the initial RAID level and formatting for 2big RAID as part of a new Toolkit installation.

Toolkit will not launch the RAID setup wizard in the following circumstances:

• Toolkit was previously installed on your computer—for example, for use with another Seagate or LaCie device.
• The RAID level and/or format for your device were changed from their factory settings.

Comprehensive RAID management

If you’ve made changes to your RAID configuration or Toolkit is already installed, you can manage RAID levels and formatting using LaCie RAID Manager, a comprehensive tool for all of your RAID-compatible devices.