first post, newbie questions.
 

as a first time user, i'm uneasy that i get this right. i only think i know what i'm doing. any pointers, criticisms, or instruction are sincerely appreciated.

1.what is the 'correct' procedure to get the files initially onto raid-1?
2. is my setup correct? on drive4, am i correct with the single partition, or does drive4 need to be partitioned with two partitions to mirror drive3?

TIA! best...skip

my setup:

drive-1 (2) partitions: boot 40G, projects 120G
drive-2 (2) partitions: scratch 8G, photography 242G

mirrored raid-1: }

{drive-3 (2) partitions: sandbox 40G, backup-1 280G
{drive-4 (*no) partitions: backup-2 320G

what i want to do:

1. smart backup and schedule, drive-1, boot partition to sandbox partition on raid-1.
2. smart backup and schedule, drive-1, projects partition to raid-1.
3. smart backup and schedule, drive-2, photography partition to raid-1.

OK -- first, let's not call the "sandbox" partition on Raid 1 a "sandbox", because your intention is to make a "backup". So, it's best to call it "Boot - Backup" or something. A Sandbox is a specific thing that isn't really a backup.

In general, you just set these backups up and click "Schedule...", there's no real "trick", but you seem to have three volumes getting copied to Raid 1, and there are only two partitions... as far as I can tell.

hura! if i understand correctly, i need three partitions on raid-1 to backup three volumes.

do i have to partition both disk in the mirrored raid alike?

the combined total of the three volumes is 415G and raid-1 (disk4 and disk5) is 320G. is that a problem, like i should have bought 500G disk?

disk1: boot: 52G
disk1: projects: 135G
disk2: photography 250G

best...skip

The partitions have to be large enough to hold the most data you ever plan to put on them - and, especially when dealing with larger files, you need some extra space too...