Buffalo Forums

   I'm not much of a computer guy, I bought a Linkstation Pro Duo I have the HD's setup as RAID1, my question is how can I tell if its backing up my information when I tell it to on the other HD. I am not sure if it matter my computer is a mac. I just want to make sure its backing stuff up, I'm assuming when I go to Drive properties and the disk structure say disk 1,2 and it says 20 percent used its talking about HD 1 and 2 which means both of them have the same space left. Also I'm not running the software it came with I'm viewing everything my information in a web browser. 

If the RAID Utility that comes with the unit says it is in RAID1, then it is!

RAID1 is not a backup, it is a mirror! This means that it doesn't perform backups, it is more simple than that... It writes to both drives at the exact same time, writing everything the exact same bit for bit. Your comp will only see it as one drive which is why you can't see this happening. 

   

Just to add to what Kevin said, all RAID 1 does is protect you from a 'drive failure'.

Nothing else.  If you accidently delete a file, Raid 1 will *not* allow you to recover it (you'll need other solutions or technologies to accomplish that).

 

If a file becomes corrupt, Raid 1 will *not* allow you to access a 'good' copy because both drives would have a corrupt copy.

 

Raid 1 doesn't provide any sort of version control either (can't schedule backups, can't restore files). 

 

Again, the only thing Raid 1 will do, is if/when Drive #1 fails, you will still be able to access your data through Drive #2 (should be transparent to your computer, the Storage Array/Device should handle it).  OR, if Drive #2 fails, you can access your data through Drive #1.  As far as your computer is concerned, it just sees the shares (file systems) and not @ the drive-level, so the Linkstation masks that level (abstracts it) from you.

 

Hope this helps.

Well put rinthos!  Kudos!