Formatting Western Digital My Book Studio II - 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) for large files in RAID 1

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

This may be a crazy question, but…

I’m looking at getting a My Book Studio II (2x1TB) to attach to a media PC (running Windows XP) which is accessed by both Macs and PCs. (I’ve looked at adding more drives inside in a RAID 1, but I don’t have room for it.) I connect via SMB from the Mac, so the formatting for the Mac is not important, I don’t think.

Since I’m storing large video files (some several GB in size) and since FAT32 has a limitation in the largest file it can save (I think), I was looking at NTFS as the possible format. If I were to do this and format them NTFS, would the RAID 1 still work? 

The main goal here is to get a device I can mirror, attach to this PC, and store large files on.

Thanks in advance.

\frank

2

I don’t know about RAID. For format you want NTFS. Then go to the Apple site and download NTFS-3G that will allow the Mac to write to the NTFS drive http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/WD-My-Book-Elite-Using-on-a-Mac-amp-PC/m-p/92308#M1894

Check out post 6.

Joe

3

Thanks. I am familiar with this, which is why I had mentioned it’s not so much about being able to access it directly from the Mac.

My bigger question, and maybe I didn’t pose it well, was:

Can I create a RAID 1 using NTFS formatting on this device?

Thanks.

\frank

4

Love answering my own question. I ended up e-mailing the WD tech support and have learned this:

Yes, you can format this drive NTFS and set it up as RAID 1 to store files bigger than 4GB

Please see the link below page 22 for more information.

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/UM/ENG/4779-705010.pdf

5

The 4 gig file size limit applies to FAT32.

Joe

6

Don’t be so sure on Raid 1 mirror configuration on My Book. “Don’t put all eggs in one basket”. If your China made power adaptor get screwed up you’ll end up both drives fried. This is just a publicity stunt only. Raid 1 is only suitable for enterprise grade drives with top notch redundant power supply units.

Raid 0 is the best for My Book; (Original Configuration) so you’ll keep you data backed up elsewhere.