Cost Effective Reliable Backup and Storage

OWC just dropped prices again, so a 2TB RAID-1 mirror is now about $428. Use the GMax for a Time Machine backup or other backup, reliable main storage, etc.

No muss, no fuss, the NewerTech Guardian Maximus (GMax) offers RAID-1 mirroring in a compact all-metal enclosure with eSATA/Firewire 800,400/USB 2 connectivity. Read my review of the GMax.

RAID-1 mirroring is about redundancy— failure of one drive is a non-event in terms of functionality (though you will want to replace the failed drive). The resilience of mirroring comes from the fact that all drives in a mirror are identical copies, so that when a drive fails (all do eventually), the remaining drive is still operational and intact. The GMax has two drives internally, so one of the two can fail while retaining full access to your data.

The beauty of the GMax is that both the user (you) and the Mac see it as one drive. There is no special configuration, no special driver— just plug and play, knowing that your data is protected in the event of a drive failure. If a hard drive failure occurs, once the new drive is installed, the Guardian MAXimus will automatically rebuild the Mirror without loss of data to time using the remaining intact drive.

 

Speed is outstanding using eSATA on the Mac Pro and eSATA on the 17-inch MacBook Pro. Firewire 800 and USB 2 are inherently slow, this is not a GMax issue but rather the limits of those standards.