Resolved need strategy for data transfer to RAID system

[zimv20]

the use case here is i'm moving music production from my old tower to my new laptop.

the purpose of this thread is to figure out how to transfer a bunch of audio and related data to a new RAID enclosure.

my tower is a circa 2012 6-core. i have various audio projects spread across 4 internal drives, including the boot drive. that's the source data.

the destination will likely be a 2-disk RAID 1 TB3 enclosure. possibly this one:

OWC Gemini - 8TB

With dual drive bays, seven connectivity ports, and a SD 4.0 card reader, the OWC Gemini is the do-it-all tool for your digital life.

eshop.macsales.com

that will be ultimately be attached to a newer, i7 MBPro w/ TB3 capabilities.

the obvious issue is that the tower doesn't have TB3, so i cannot plug in the RAID drive to the tower and transfer data that way. so i had to come up with something else.

here are the steps i thought of to make all this happen, and i'm hoping someone w/ such experience can confirm these steps are good:

1. change the enclosure from RAID 0 config to RAID 1 config
2. format those drives to... something, not sure what what yet
3. on the tower, copy all data i want to keep to the largest of the internal drives (the data will fit). we'll call it DATA drive.
4. pull a blank drive from the enclosure and insert the DATA drive
5. plug in the enclosure
6. wait for the data to copy to the other blank drive
7. power down
8. yank the DATA drive from the enclosure and restore the original drive
9. power up
10. wait for the data to copy to the first blank drive
11. ????
12. profit

can anyone confirm this will work the way i want?

does anyone know a better way to accomplish this?

 

[zimv20]

my option #2 is to do a final backup to an external drive that has USB. then connect that drive and the RAID enclosure to my laptop and xfer that way.

there's a couple TB involved, so i reckon that would take a long time.

 

[zimv20]

fwiw, i jumped on support chat w/ OWC and i was told:

Regrettably, we can not guarantee that would work. If the RAID is configured into the RAID setting with the drives installed, swapping the drives may lose that data on the drive.

 

[justashooter]

The OWC RAID you linked to also has USB 3. I would just connect it via the USB 2 on the tower, select all the files on a drive, copy them over and let it chug away overnight, etc.

 

[zimv20]

The OWC RAID you linked to also has USB 3. I would just connect it via the USB 2 on the tower, select all the files on a drive, copy them over and let it chug away overnight, etc.

yes indeedy. i don't know how i missed that the first time i looked.

excuse me while i go back to facepalming...

 

[justashooter]

After rereading the specs for the OWC RAID the USB3 ports on the RAID may only work as a hub (not allowing direct USB connection to a computer). The description is not clear to me. So you may want to check with OWC. Of course the other option is to remove the drives from the tower, install them in an inexpensive USB3 enclosure and then copy the files.

 

[zimv20]

i ordered the drive(s) today so soon i'll be able to try it.

plan B is to simply copy from the USB backup drive that i ensured was up to date today.

 

[zimv20]

i have the drive(s). the USB is just a hub, cannot connect w/ it. copying from my backup drive now...

boy is this thing noisy.