{"id":83533,"date":"2022-08-19T11:13:49","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T16:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=83533"},"modified":"2022-12-20T13:51:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T19:51:51","slug":"how-to-swap-and-archive-hard-drives-with-a-forever-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/83533-how-to-swap-and-archive-hard-drives-with-a-forever-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Harness the Deep Archival Power of the Forever RAID OWC Thunderbay 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Loren S. Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Author’s Note<\/strong>: For this article, I was educated by ever-patient Cynthia H., Tim E., and Liz at OWC\u2019s Technical Experience and Sales sections respectively. Jeff J. in Product Marketing also helped, and included SoftRAID\u00ae founder Tim Standing in the investigation. Tim\u2019s a driver builder since 1986!\u2014 and leads a crack engineering team. Their patience, clarifications, and wisdom are everywhere in this article. I\u2019m nominating all involved for Life Achievement Awards.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maybe your OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID is getting full, passing 15% free space. Or, maybe a series job is done but may return within a year or so. Or, maybe a new assignment has surfaced and will need its own storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wouldn\u2019t you like to unload a RAID set and park the actual disks on a shelf, for a particular client or project for several months? Then load a fresh bunch of disks into the box for a new client or project? And archive a bunch of these sets in loud color-coded cases, to reload when you need them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sure do! It\u2019s pretty simple, and goes smoothly, if you follow a procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I live for this.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shelving must be sturdy; these spinning 4-drive sets get heavy- roughly 15 pounds per set. NVMe blades are much lighter, but spinners hold their data for much longer, without powering up. An NVMe charge depends on its use<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big surprise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some popular RAID products are dead-end RAID boxes\u2014DERBS! Some even have drive doors and multi-disk slots\u2014you might think these enable you to cycle out a RAID set and archive it, but try to reload it? Nope. You\u2019re locked out, because they offer no persistent disk key or other disk cycling mechanism. Load it in and it\u2019s overwritten with a new key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TeraBytes of data could be gone. Utter disaster! Some sellers don\u2019t tell you this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might have happened to me. But something told me to first reread the docs. Saw no reference to reloading <\/em>sets. Emailed the maker\u2019s tech support dept. and got the bad news. The doors are for swapping out failed disks and rebuilding a RAID- that\u2019s it. Doors to nowhere. Cheaper, but thin thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter OWC’s ThunderBay series<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Feel the lights! ThunderBay 4 in action, under my desk for years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A ThunderBay 4 box, bundled with SoftRAID\u2014the hidden magic which binds a bunch of hard drives into a speed demon, backup beast, or both\u2014met my expectation: follow procedure, and I could pull, shelve, <\/em>or reload a RAID kit <\/em>and spin it up, (or replace a failed disk).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me this describes a Forever RAID system\u2014FRS. <\/em>Let\u2019s set the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s required for well-organized swapping and archival of drives with a ThunderBay 4 RAID?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n