Re: thunderbolt storage

Hello Ken and All,

I am working on a big project and need to totally re-haul my storage solution by Monday! I need to get at least 20TB for both storing media and editing on FCP. I need to have thunderbolt connection. I have looked at pegasus and saw many not-so-great reviews. Also looked at a "thunder bay" from OWC with 20TB in four drives with software raid. They also have a new 20TB thunder bay with software Raid 5. Are the OWC raid drives reliable?

Are these my best options? Are there other solutions I have not considered? And how is the best way to set up these big raid drives for both storage and editing?

Thanks!!

Larry

Hi Again, I just researched some more and discovered the Lacie "5 Big" 20 TB raid drive. Does anyone have any experience with this one? It has f drives and can be set up as raid 0 or 1. Would a good set-up of a mating like this be to use one drive as raid 0 for editing in FCP and then the other 4 drives as raid 1 for storage with the mirroring backing up the files?

Thanks!

Larry

Hi Larry,

I am running a Pegasus R-6 and never had any issues. I know others who love their Pegasus RAIDs.

OWC has an excellent reputation and I always recommend them. BTW, I like RAID 5, speed and redundancy.

My 2 cents.

--ken

Thanks Ken!

Hey Ken,

OK, I want to go with the Pegasus but I watched a review on it and the reviewer showed that it will shut down if the computer goes to sleep and you have to actually pull the power out of the wall to re-start the whole array to boot up. Is this true on yours?

Thanks!

Larry

I also have the Pegasus and I got mine right after my friend Ken recommended it to me. I also NEVER put my mac to sleep so I haven't had that problem. There were a few times when my mac wouldn't shut down and I had to do a hard shut down, but then my Pegasus would always shut down on it's own. Hope this helps,

eric

Eric and Ken,

Just got word right from Pegasus. The new Pegasus 2 will actually sleep when the mac goes to sleep and wake when the computer wakes. It also @#$%& down when you shut down the mac and powers up when you peer up the computer. So, no issues. I am going to get the 18TB Pegasus 2. I don't have thunderbolt 2 yet but will soon and for now it works with thunderbolt one as well.

Thanks Ken and Eric!

Larry

Hi Larry,

Tha's good news.

What did you mean when you said

"It also @#$%& down when you shut down the mac "

--ken

Thanks Ronny, happy to hear another good report on the pegasus. There is a new LaCie 20TB with thunderbolt 2 and hardware raid that is much less expensive then the Pegasus, but I keep hearing reports of failures on LaCie drives.

Hi Larry,

Drives will fail, some do it after 5 years and some after 3 months and there is no real reasoning behind this. But when a RAID drive fails it is imperative that the restore utility in the RAID system works well so you can recover your media without any problems when you replace the drive. And that's one good thing about the Promise systems: they restore very well.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Ronny,

Thanks again.

Question...

I can get the Pegasus 2 with thunderbolt2, 18TB for $2650.00 -or- the Pegasus 1 with thunderbolt1 and 24TB for $3000.00. So, $350.00 more for an extra 6TB. I have read that even with Thunderbolt 2, you can't really even use the extra speed unless you have Solid State drives. What is your take on this. I have Thunderbolt 1 now on my Macbook Retina but plan to upgrade the computer when the new Macbook Pros are released. Would I be wise to have the Thunderbolt 2 now for future proofing or go for the extra 6TB of hard drive?

Thanks !!

Larry

as I said in earlier post...

"that was supposed to say that the pegasus "shuts" down when the mac shuts down."

Also, I did learn that the new Pegasus works just time with sleeping and shutting down, so, I ordered the 18TB Pegasus 2 today. Thanks to all for the feedback and advice!

Larry

Please order one or 2 for me as well, thanks! :)

I have Promise Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 arrays and I have no issues with them at all. Last month one of the drives of a 12 TB Promise RAID 5 failed. I put in a new drive and was able to restore all data within a few hours. All in all very happy with the Pegasus systems.

You have to hold the power button on a Pegasus for a few seconds before the unit powers up or down. They do this to prevent accidental shutdowns. Maybe that reviewer just had no patience (-:

Best wishes,

Ronny