Mac OS X: How to combine RAID sets in Disk Utility

This article applies to Mac OS X 10.4 or later and Disk Utility version 10.5 or later (included with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger).

RAID sets can be combined in a variety of ways to increase their usefulness. For example, you can create a RAID 10 set by combining a mirrored RAID and a striped RAID. This would allow you to combine the fast disk access of a striped RAID set (RAID 0) with the data protection features of a mirrored RAID set (RAID 1).

To combine RAID sets:

1. Create three blank RAID schemes in Disk Utility (two mirror and one stripe, or two stripe and one mirror).
2. Drag two of the drives to the first set.
3. Drag the other two drives to the second set.
4. Then in the RAID window drag the first and second set into the third scheme.
5. Click Create.