APPLE RAID QUICK TIP

AUGUST 24, 2014 BY CHRIS BARCZYS

I received a call from a client who was having a terrible time reformatting a G-Raid Array.  For those of you who aren’t aware, the G-Raid drives are setup using the Apple Disk Utility.  These drives are usually configured as a  “Software”  striped RAID array (RAID 0).  When connected to a Thunderbolt or ESATA interface these striped drives provide an array with transfer speeds that are easily fast enough for most users needs.  My client found himself in the enviable position of having an extra 8TB array.  He decided that the best use for this extra drive was to turn it into a Time Machine backup.  In addition he wanted to change the drive from a striped array to a mirrored array.

THE PROBLEM

My client opened the Apple Disk Utility and clicked on the array.  He them clicked on the Delete button in the lower right corner assuming that this would delete the array.  Instead he got a message stating that the array can’t be deleted while it is online.  So my client unmounted the array and clicked Delete again.  Much to his annoyance he got the same error message.  No matter what he tried the same message kept popping up.  It turns out that as long as a drive in the array is connected to the computer the system considers the array as being online and un-deletable.  With his sanity hanging by a thread, he called me.

THE SOLUTION

The solution is simple, but totally un-Mac like.  You have to damage the array to the point it goes off-line.  One way to do this is to disassemble the array, remove a drive, reboot, and reformat the remaining drive.  This is WAY too much work for my taste, and in this case would have voided the warranty on a new device.  I prefer the simple way.

THE SIMPLE WAY

All you have to do is erase the hard drives that make up the array.  Once the drives that make up the array were wiped the array disappears and the system allows you to create a new array out of the erased drives.  In case you are the visual type, I have created a quick 4 minute video showing the exact process.

PMG TV: DELETING AN APPLE RAID ARRAY

 https://www.personalmacgeniuses.com/2014/08/24/apple-raid-quick-tip/#.VjnCAX7hCUk