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About the GT 062E and Drive Modes
The GT 062E enclosure contains two hard disk drives, which function as one single volume. Through the use
of the Glyph Manager software utility, it supports three drive modes: RAID 1 (mirroring), RAID 0 (striping),
and Spanning. Each drive mode has its own advantages, depending upon the application.
RAID 1 (mirroring) offers data redundancy and real-time backup by writing the same data to the
two hard drives at the same time. Should a drive failure happen, data is still available on the remain-
ing drive. In RAID 1 mode, the two drives are seen by the computer as one volume, but with half the
capacity. For example, a 1TB GT 062E will be seen as a 500GB drive. Reading and writing occurs on
both drives simultaneously so that each of the drives contains exactly the same data, mirroring each
other. If either of the drives should fail the other is there to seamlessly continue to provide operation.
RAID 0 (striping) increases the performance of the drive system by spreading the data across two
drives. RAID 0 is a proven technology for editing video, working with huge graphics files, sound
libraries, and streaming instruments that play hundreds of samples simultaneously. RAID 0 is the de-
fault shipping drive mode. In RAID 0 (striping) mode, the two drives are seen by the computer as one
large drive, and reading and writing occurs on both drives simultaneously. It is designed to increase
the performance and data throughput of the drive system. The GT 062E’s built-in RAID controller
splits each piece of data across both of the drives in segments and distributes the I/O burden. Since
data is written without any form of parity data-checking, it allows for the fastest data transfer of all
other RAID levels. However, if one drive becomes damaged, the data on both drives can become cor-
rupted. RAID 0 is not redundant or fault tolerant like RAID levels 1, 3, and 5, but the trade off is that
it’s the fastest of all RAID levels. MAKE SURE TO BACKUP YOUR DATA OFTEN!
In Spanning mode, the two drives are seen as one large drive and data is written sequentially across
them. When the first drive fills to the limit, data is then written to the second drive. This mode is use-
ful for applications requiring large volumes, but not requiring the speed of RAID 0. Spanning does
not provide any performance or redundancy benefits.
Using the GT 062E with Pro Tools® Software
The 3TB and 4TB GT 062E models only support Pro Tools® when they are configured in RAID 1 mode. This is
because RAID 1 shows to the operating system as half the total capacity (1.5TB for the 3TB, and 2TB for the
4TB). Currently, Pro Tools is limited to volumes that are 2TB or less in size. If you attempt to record or play-
back from any locations on the disk above 2TB, Pro Tools will give errors. If you set your GT 062E to Spanning
or RAID 0 mode, it will work until it is filled to 2TB, then it will give errors. This is currently an open issue that
we expect will be resolved in future releases of Pro Tools.
