Making a Good Thing Better

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Samsung Spinpoint F1

I heard so many good things about the Spinpoints that I ordered three 750 gig drives from Newegg (along with a Western Digital 640 gig...and 8 gigs of RAM...and a Pioneer 115D); all of which arrived before my Mac Pro did. I have two of them (Spinpoints) set up in a software RAID 0 in bays 2 & 3 for media storage. The Western Digital is the new boot drive.

Without a doubt, the drives are quiet. Heck, they're already quiet when running; and they're completely silent when they spin down. But be aware that they do indeed spin down when idle for a few minutes. And if I have to access them from an idle state, I get a spinning beach ball while the one in bay 2 winds up (I can hear it starting up), then I still have to wait for the one in bay 3 to start up before an app can open the file (the dock icon just keeps bouncing in the meantime) or write to the array. It's not a big deal for me. I just want to make everyone considering the 750 gig Spinpoints aware that you might have to wait a few seconds from time to time when accessing a file or writing to the drive. For me this usually happens when I'm surfing for a while and come across something I want to save to the array or access a file on the array. The drives have spun down and I have to watch the beach ball for a few seconds (like...I don't know...10-12 seconds max) before the file will open or I can save something. If I didn't have them set up in RAID, it'd be 5-6 seconds. Again, not a big deal for me.

I'm actually trying to decide if I want to keep the RAID setup. I think the drives are fast enough on their own that I could keep everything on individual drives without the risk that comes with RIAD 0.

Keeping on topic with the spirit of the thread, I'm sure I also made my Mac Pro better with the addition of the Western Digital boot drive...and the Samsung Spintpoints...DEFINATELY with the Samsung 202N and Pioneer 115D DVD drives (the original "superdrive" was riplocked); I just didn't play with the computer for very long before I started upgrading given that I had parts waiting for its arrival;D.

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents.


James
 
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This is curious - is there a way to disable the spin down behavior? You are actually defeating a RAID 0 (the point of it is speed) if the drives spin down and you have to wait for them to spin back up. Does Samsung provide a way to disable this feature?
 
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This is curious - is there a way to disable the spin down behavior? You are actually defeating a RAID 0 (the point of it is speed) if the drives spin down and you have to wait for them to spin back up. Does Samsung provide a way to disable this feature?


You could click on preferences >> energy saver

Then just above [Restore Defaults] there is an option "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible", just untick this!
 
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Thanks cowasaski - that much I was aware of. However, jamesdmc seemed to be suggesting that the drive was doing this by itself, perhaps yet another "green" functionality, but this one unwanted.

jamesdmc, can you clarify? Does the drive spin down by itself, or is this something you have set up in your Mac's preferences.
 
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jamesdmc, can you clarify? Does the drive spin down by itself, or is this something you have set up in your Mac's preferences.

Actually, it's both. They definitely spin down by themselves. I can hear them go to sleep and wake up. They make a whining noise when they wake up...just like me:D. However, I was unaware of the whole "put the hard drives to sleep" setting. And yes, it was checked. Must have been by default becuase I never messed with it (then again, my Mac Pro is a refurb; don't know if that has anything to do with it). I'll bet that's why they spin down. I just unchecked that box.

But you're right, mac57, it does defeat the purpose of RAID 0 if you have to wait for the drives to wake up before you can access them. I'll keep an eye (and an ear) on this and report back if they spin down after unchecking the energy saver function. I have a feeling that they won't. Thanks for the tip, Cowasaki.


James
 
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I'd like a slider so that you can set WHEN they power down. If I leave my computer for 2 hours I am quite happy for them to power down after 20 mins.
 
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Thanks jamesdmc. Do report back and let us know if the drives now run consistently. I would hope that this is the case.
 
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Thanks jamesdmc. Do report back and let us know if the drives now run consistently. I would hope that this is the case.

The drives don't go to sleep any more. Funny how that works: I uncheck a box that says "put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" and they don't go to sleep:eek:. So all is well with the spinpoints. Quiet. Fast. And a good deal from Newegg.


James
 
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Excellent, thanks!
 
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Hey - I've just got a spinpoint f1 (working thanks to bryphotoguy) and after reading this thread I'm interested in making it my boot drive - How does one go about doing this? I've got the default 250gb that comes with the older mac pro's and it's nearly full and of course the spinpoint will be faster. Any links will be incredibly helpful.

Thanks.

James
 
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You'd have to install OS X on the new Samsung drive to make it the boot disk. Drop in the OS disc and install the OS. You would make the destination drive for the install the new drive. Once it's loaded and all good, go to system preferences and boot disk. Change the boot disk to your new HD and you're all set.
 
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Bry's advice is sound but there is an alternative that you might want to consider too. If you are happy with your current setup and just want to transfer everything from that to your new drive you can simply duplicate it.

Here's how:

  • Stick your install disc in your BOOT drive
  • Boot the disc (either go to preferences>>startup disc OR hold down [C] whilst booting)
  • Once your Tiger/Leopard disc has booted goto Utilities at the top of the screen and run "Disc Utility"
  • You should see on the left hand side of the screen your two drives (plus any other drives you may have)
  • Click on the spinpoint drive (the drive itself not any partition inside)
  • Click on "Partition" which should be the middle tab
  • Select 1 partition (or more if you want)
  • And accept this so that disc utility creates your partition
  • Click on "Restore" which should be the right hand tab
  • You will see two input boxes "Source" and "Destination", Click on your newly created partition on the left side of the screen and drag this onto the "destination" box and let go.
  • Now click on the corresponding partition from your original drive and drag this to the source drive.
  • Click [RESTORE]
This will copy the contents of your original drive onto your new drive. I personally would now physically swap the F1 in the computer so that it is drive 1 and leave the other drive out. Make sure everything is running just as expected before you do anything to your original drive. You can now wipe it and use it for time machine or whatever.

There are other ways of doing this which some would consider easier. I think the disc utility is easy enough to use and its free and included so you might as well use it!
 
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wow - thanks guys!

I'll get to it over the weekend. I've been thinking of copying everything onto the spinpoint and selling my other two drives - a 250 and a 500 and then using the money to buy another 750 spinpoint as I should be able to sell the others and make at least £60 for another spinpoint.
 
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wow - thanks guys!

I'll get to it over the weekend. I've been thinking of copying everything onto the spinpoint and selling my other two drives - a 250 and a 500 and then using the money to buy another 750 spinpoint as I should be able to sell the others and make at least £60 for another spinpoint.

I doubt it, have you seen the price of 250Gb etc drives! You can buy new ones for £20 now from Aria, they had new 500Gb for about £40 last week. I would just buy a couple of external drive boxes for about £6 each on ebay and use them for backup.
 
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yeah that's a really good idea. I might just have to get another spinpoint as well haha.
 
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Also - regarding the whole swapping boot disks thing. Would I complicate things if I wanted to upgrade to leopard whilst doing it? Would I have to reinstall everything again?
 
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Also - regarding the whole swapping boot disks thing. Would I complicate things if I wanted to upgrade to leopard whilst doing it? Would I have to reinstall everything again?

You could either install the new drive and install leopard on it and just go from there OR copy the drive as I explained earlier and then upgrade the copy giving you both OSes and the ability to go back if you wanted.
 
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It would be safer to start from scratch when switchin to Leopard. There are a few issues with upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.
 
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It would be safer to start from scratch when switchin to Leopard. There are a few issues with upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.

Although I have upgraded about 8 machines without any problem.
 
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Wouldn't it be simpler just to use SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner to exactly replicate your current set up onto the new drive, and then boot the new drive? You can set your boot volume from your System Preferences. At least in Leopard there is a System Preference called Startup Disk. This is pretty much what I did to install the OS on my new disk.
 

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