Installing ICYBOX IB-RD2262 USEb on a MacBook Pro
329 words, 2 minutes
I got an ICYBOX IB-RD2262USEb RAID Enclosure for 2.5" HDDs to plug some of my spare SATA disks into my Mac.
This enclosure has two main benefits. It enables me to plug my external 2.5" disks using Firewire-800, which is faster and less CPU consuming than USB2, and it enables me to plug the two disks using a single cable. Another nice feature is that is also has an eSATA plug so that I may later connect it to my Synology.
So what I did is plug a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500GB and Western Digital
WD5000BEVT 500GB inside the box. Then use the Firewire-800 cable to connect
them to my Mac.
First good new : the Firewire-800 cable gives enough power to bring both disks
on. No need for additional power supply.
Then, by default, after a partition wipeout on both disks, here’s what the MacBook sees:
From the provided CD, you get a software named “RAID Master”. The installation will require a Mac OS X reboot. Here’s what it looks like when RAID_MASTER_Mac v1.6.8g is installed:
I create a RAID0 device, using the “RAID 0” option and “Create RAID” button. After a few seconds, the “The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.” message appeared. I clicked “Ignore” and had a look back at RAID Master. Here’s what it looks like in RAID Master and Disk Utility:
Creation of the partition is then done as usual.
I’ve booted my rescue USB live OSX, without RAID Master software, and the disk is still recognized but that system. This means, once created, you can read the RAID from any Mac. Quite nice:
/dev/disk5
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk5
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk5s1
2: Apple_HFS ICYBOX 999.9 GB disk5s2
The RAID disk is even seen as a single disk by the Lion recovery partition.
All in all, I’m really happy with that box!
Full details about the enclosure can be found here .