Testing Apple Raid with Clover

The title says it all... I've got a new build on the table so I'll start testing again. Everyone is welcome to jump in and post their efforts at trying making this work.

First test: This was quick and easy as I already had a fresh install on the MSI board. Created an array with 2 Sammung 850's 128GB and cloned my working install to it. Then installed Clover UEFI to an old OCZ SSD and moved my EFI folder to it and booted, I be damn it worked. I know I did this a few times last week without success, maybe I was under the influence. Before I bother writing a guide for a fresh install procedure more testing needs to be done.




Update: Have updated Clover twice with no problem but must remember to select the "Loader" drive when installing as the installer defaults to the array. If you're already UEFI booting with an SSD you won't see any changes in boot time but I'm sure you will in apps. Also for some people using a small m.2 drive as a boot drive might make sense, but on this board using the m.2 slot disables 2 of the sata ports and I can't give them both up.

Another Update: If you already have another drive in system there's no need for a separate "Loader Drive". For instance, I have a 840 EVO 750 that has 3 partitions that I use for various reasons (Clone, MacStuff, and Scratch). So I just placed the EFI folder in the EFI partition on that drive, put the drive on Sata Port 0, and in the config.plist set RAID-0 as the default boot volume. Works great. I must have been dramatically over-thinking this whole thing, duhhhhh

Good to have this thread going.

As I have noted, I can use a Clover USB boot stick to boot to my RAID 0 drive sets that were built with Chimera where the "Boot OS X" partitions hold the boot file and Extra folder.

In your RAID example do you do anything with "Boot OS X" partitions?

I love these SSDs in RAID 0 sets. They provide what I call "silly fast boots"!

Good modding,
neil

neilhart said:

Good to have this thread going.

As I have noted, I can use a Clover USB boot stick to boot to my RAID 0 drive sets that were built with Chimera where the "Boot OS X" partitions hold the boot file and Extra folder.

In your RAID example do you do anything with "Boot OS X" partitions?

I love these SSDs in RAID 0 sets. They provide what I call "silly fast boots"!

Good modding,
neil

Click to expand...

My OS X partition is a vanilla Yosemite install (created the raid during the install process), no boot loader, boot files, or kexts. Boot with Clover UEFI and have it do kexts injection, stupidly simple and fast... But that's not to say there aren't other considerations.

Clover updates and testing different config options aren't so straight forward simply because of how Clover's Installer works. I'll update this post as I investigate solutions.

kduvernay said:

My OS X partition is a vanilla Yosemite install (created the raid during the install process), no boot loader, boot files, or kexts. Boot with Clover UEFI and have it do kexts injection, stupidly simple and fast... But that's not to say there aren't other considerations.

Clover updates and testing different config options aren't so straight forward simply because of how Clover's Installer works. I'll update this post as I investigate solutions.

Click to expand...

I agree about the impact of updates and trying different things is a problem that we face as "hackers". If there is a "normal" user, I would think that user would not be impacted as they don't need the latest Clover and for that matter don't need the latest OS X.

To this point, I kick myself for wasting time updating all of my machines.


Good modding,
neil

Hello m8.

Sorry to contact you at this way - but i'm not able to contact you over PM right now. Missing some posts at the counter...

I'm building a new mini-itx, and i still need some hardware. My plan is to find a MSI 760 GTX, but it's hard to find the right informations, about with card you have ;-) And after all... About how you was able to install Yosemite with your MSI 760 GTX without (any) problems.

I already have the Z97N-WIFI, so i just need a case and the GFX for now.

I hope it's okay to ask here.

You can also answer at my personal email, if you like.
til (at) exeti.co

Thanks for this great thread!

I'm running a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5-TH with a 4xRAID 0 1TB drive, so I'm going to use this as the basis for my upgrade to Yosemite.

Great post, and simple to follow.

(Hopefully, I'm smart enough to actually FOLLOW it )

kduvernay said:

Another Update: If you already have another drive in system there's no need for a separate "Loader Drive". For instance, I have a 840 EVO 750 that has 3 partitions that I use for various reasons (Clone, MacStuff, and Scratch). So I just placed the EFI folder in the EFI partition on that drive, put the drive on Sata Port 0, and in the config.plist set RAID-0 as the default boot volume. Works great. I must have been dramatically over-thinking this whole thing, duhhhhh

Click to expand...

Hey,

I also have a RAID 0 using clover, 1 x Samsung 830 256GB and 1 x Samsung 840 250GB. I have everything working fine, however when I try to set the default volume, clover always goes to the menu. I don't have a separate Loader Drive (I have duplicated the EFI folder on both EFI partitions of my RAID set, as this is what is done when using chimera and thought it logical to do the same with clover). How do I know what my boot volume is called (just to double check Im not missing something very obvious)?

When I boot up, the boot partition is called "BOOT OS X". However, even when I set this as the default boot volume, I am still presented with the menu. Is this because I need to make my boot volume active through terminal?

Also, I do have a 1TB WD drive that I could use as a Loader Drive, however Im a little unsure how this will solve my issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, here is an attached copy of my Blackmagic results:

I have solved my issue, and now have clover installed onto a separate HDD drive, boot to that which in turn boots my RAID0 Array. Much more elegant than the original setup I had.

This is the same setup as mine. One ssd with Yosemite/Clover as the boot loader and a second set of ssd originally set up as a RAID0 (thanks Neil) under chimera.
I boot under UEFI/Clover and the default drive is set as the RAID0 set which is my day-to-day volume. From time to time I CCC to the clover ssd and keep this as my fail safe(?) backup (actually I also keep TM backups on an external networked drive as well).