It had become obvious that the MacMinis internal HDD was going to run out pretty soon. So where next? I had already purchased a Western Digital My Book (160gb) as a backup device. The My Book works fine, however as the Mini is running out of space I need a Raid 1 device (mirrored drives). I could simply just get another My Book and chain them to together. Mac OS X I think allows you configure this as raid. It would probably work, but still went in search of an all in one solution.
A number of devices are available, but nothing really seemed to offer Raid 1. Most were Raid 0, which simple spans the data across 2 drives for speed reasons. This method has no redundancy built in. Loose a disk, loose the data. After a little bit of searching I found a device by an American company called G-tech. This seemed to fit the bill, however it wasn’t available here. Then by accident I stumbled across Iomega’s website (them of Zip disks!). In the product list was the UltraMac 1TB. Found it in stock online, ordered and waited for despatch. Subsequently found that the store in question did not have it in stock. Cancelled the order and bought it direct from Iomega-Europe.
2 Days later, it’s arrived.
Quite a heavy unit, solid. It has a Mac Pro look to it, which is incidentally the market it is aimed at. The volume comes with the usual minimal manual, cables, CD, PSU and is preconfigured as Raid 0. So dive into the manual to find out how to change raid version. Not the easiest of manuals (html manual) to figure out. Eventually found the page. Quite easy to change as it’s via Dip switches at the rear of the unit.
Now I think it’s working as a Raid 1 volume, mainly cos the capacity is now 500gb rather than the full 1TB. Seemed not to be initialising when first turned back on. Pressing the rebuild button appears to have done the trick.
Eventually all is well, image data secured and working well.
Now down to the negative side.
Noise – It’s quite a beast but fairly quiet, with 2x 7200 pm disks I’d expect some noise.
The cooling fan slows and speeds up when required. This is probably the worst bit of noise.
Security – Wot no loop or kensington laptop lock.
I’m really surprised that they haven’t included this. Though the loop on the feet is fairly substantial so you might be able to get away with a security wire cable passed through it.
I haven’t had a chance to see if the USB hub (built in) works when connected as well as Firewire. I have read on the Iomega website that this is possible.
Overall, pleased with the unit. Though would still prefer some clarification about raid. I’d assume that the R1 light would come on when using raid 1. Still will drop Iomega an email monday.
/Edit
Decided to send the unit back. The constant spin up and down of the fan was partly annoying. Sent it back as I couldn’t really see if the raid was working due to poor manuals and indicator not working. I’ve requested an RMA via Iomega, so will wait to see what happens.
/Edit 2
Got the RMA, they expect me to post it holland. I’ve contacted them to effectively say fuck off. Especially as they were quite happy to send me a pre-paid return label for the exchange unit. They will contact me, I will be contacting Barclaycard.
/Edit 3
Got fed up of waiting and called back. Seems they are arranging TNT to collect the drive from me. I’ll have to wait and see then.