I-O Data HDC2-U External drive - how to switch it to RAID 1??

Hi

A friend of mine has an I-O Data HDC2-U 2TB External USB drive.

It has 2x 1TB drives with are currently seen as two separate drives.

It has the facility to be used in RAID1 mode which we would like to use, but
we cant figure out how to switch it.

All the instruction manuals I've found on the web are in Japanese and I only
understand English.

There's a switch on the back marked RAID. I've tried pressing it in but
nothing happens. I've tried holding it in for various lengths of time to
see if that would trigger a response - but nothing. I've tried a
combination of these while also pressing the button on the front. Whatever
I've tried makes no difference.

Is anyone here familiar with this drive or can translate Japanese?

Thanks for your time and any info.

Ian

Ian R wrote:
Hi

A friend of mine has an I-O Data HDC2-U 2TB External USB drive.

It has 2x 1TB drives with are currently seen as two separate drives.

It has the facility to be used in RAID1 mode which we would like to use, but
we cant figure out how to switch it.

All the instruction manuals I've found on the web are in Japanese and I only
understand English.

There's a switch on the back marked RAID. I've tried pressing it in but
nothing happens. I've tried holding it in for various lengths of time to
see if that would trigger a response - but nothing. I've tried a
combination of these while also pressing the button on the front. Whatever
I've tried makes no difference.

Is anyone here familiar with this drive or can translate Japanese?

Thanks for your time and any info.

Ian

Using equipment you do not understand to get redundancy
is a bad idea. Especially since RAID1 needs monitoring
to be effective.

Arno

"Arno" wrote in message
...


Using equipment you do not understand to get redundancy
is a bad idea. Especially since RAID1 needs monitoring
to be effective.

Arno



Arno

Thanks very much for your wise words.

If I cant get to find how how to switch and manage it effectively we'll
simply use it
as two separate drives.

I'm curious about the RAID1 monitoring. Is there generic monitoring
software available or is it specfic to the RAID controller?

Thanks

Ian

Ian R wrote:

"Arno" wrote in message
...


Using equipment you do not understand to get redundancy
is a bad idea. Especially since RAID1 needs monitoring
to be effective.

Arno



Arno

Thanks very much for your wise words.

If I cant get to find how how to switch and manage it effectively we'll
simply use it
as two separate drives.

Probable the best option.

I'm curious about the RAID1 monitoring. Is there generic monitoring
software available or is it specfic to the RAID controller?

AFAIK there are not standards and hence there is no generic
monitoring. In addition, often the tools you get from RAID
controller manufacturers are less than well-designed. Many
do not support scripting and are therefore unusable for
server operation.

For this reason I personally use Linux software RAID whenever
possible. It is controlled and monitored by a single tool
(mdadm), regardless of what the underlying storage is.

Arno