Using Raid 1 on My Book Live Duo

[mjn999]

Hi,

I just bought the MBL Duo (4TB) and set it up in RAID 1 mode. I'm using the Windows 7 Back-up utility for back-ups since I wanted a system image I could recover from if my PC's hard drive ever completely crashed and I couldn't find a way to do this using the WD back-up software. It would only back-up the media/data files but didn't seem capable of creating a system image.

Q1: Did I miss something here and is there a way to create a system image using the WD back-up software?

When I'm in RAID 1 mode, I can only see one of the two drives (2 TB).

Q2: How do I view the data on the second drive so I know it is mirroring the first drive properly?

Thanks for the help and if anyone has any advice or tips on which back-up software to use and why, I'd appreciate it.

[TonyPh12345]

1)  No.  WD's SmartWare doesn't create a complete backup;  it pretty much only backs up "Data" files, not the applications or system environment.

2)  You don't.    Just look at the diagnostic screens on the Duo's Web UI to see the RAID health.

[mjn999]

Okay, thanks for the replies. They make sense based on what I could see when playing around with the system.

One further question: If my first Duo drive were to die (the one I see when I look at my back-ups), how do I access the mirrored back-up on the second drive since I can't see that?

Thanks again.

[WDTony · Accepted solution]

If the drive dies for some reason, you would contact our support group to arrange a replacement drive. Once you get the drive, you would power off the unit of course, then remove the failed drive, insert the new drive into the system. You would then power the Duo back up. At that point, the firmware on the unit would recognize the new drive, then go into what is called a RAID rebuild mode. It would begin rebuilding the drive array so that the contents of the second drive would be mirrored back into the new drive.

Hope that helps explain it.

[Chaos311]

When you see the 2TB you are actually seeing both drives, not just one. The two drives are exact copies of each other, so your data is 100% redundant... but it takes up twice the space.

If one of the drives were to die you would still be able to access all of your data, because both drives contain All of your data. (The beauty of RAID 1)

If you were in RAID 0 the you would have 4TB of storage space, but if one of the drives died you would loose access to it all. The trade off obviously is size vs. protection.

The Quick View would alert you that the RAID had failed, then you would just have to get another drive (like Tony described).

[Hardy]

Er, just a slightly off-topic question: what if both drives failed? Does putting in 2 new replacement drives cause a rebuild to the factory-fresh condition of a newly bought Duo? Thanks.

[TonyPh12345]

If BOTH drives fail, you're out of business, since all the internal OS is on those drives.

[nairb]

In which case making a backup of your backups isn't a bad idea!