OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro User manual
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Bay
Assembly Instructions
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
1.1.1 Mac® Requirements
1.1.2 PC Requirements
1.2 PACKAGE CONTENTS
1.3 ABOUT THIS MANUAL
1.4 PORT VIEW & CABLE CONNECTIONS
1.5 DETAILED VIEW
1.5.1 Front Activity Light View
2 SYSTEM SETUP
5 APPENDIX
6 CUSTOMER SERVICE
6.1 BEFORE CONTACTING CUSTOMER SERVICE
6.2 CONTACT INFORMATION
2.1 COVER REMOVAL
2.2 DRIVE INSTALLATION
2.3 RAID CONFIGURATION (FW/USB/ESATA MODEL ONLY)
2.4 FINAL ASSEMBLY
3 FORMATTING
3.1 MACINTOSH FORMATTING
3.2 REMOVING AN EXISTING GUID PARTITION
3.3 WINDOWS FORMATTING
4 TROUBLESHOOTING & TIPS
4.1 TROUBLESHOOTING
4.2 USAGE TIPS
5.1 FAQ
5.2 ABOUT DATA PROTECTION
Thank you for purchasing the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual!
We’re condent that it will provide years of high performance
service for your storage and backup needs. This manual contains
information on how to install the drives of your choice into the en-
closure, set the desired RAID level (0, 1, Span or Independent (quad
interface models only), format and connect your new storage solu-
tion to your computer.
Should you require additional support after reading this manual
along with helpful tips and FAQs, please see the inside back page
for OWC customer support options.
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 1 - Introduction
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 System Requirements
1.1.1 Mac Requirements
•Minimum PowerPC® G4 CPU, 128MB RAM
•eSATA interface, Mac OS X 10.3 or later
•FireWire® interface, Mac OS X 10.2 or later
•USB 2.0 interface, Mac OS X 10.2 or later
1.1.2 PC Requirements
•Minimum 500MHz Intel® Pentium III CPU, 128MB RAM
•eSATA interface, Windows® XP / Vista® / Windows 7
•FireWire interface, Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / Windows 7
•USB 2.0 interface, Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / Windows 7
1.3 About This Manual
Firmware, images, and descriptions may vary slightly between this man-
ual and the unit shipped. Functions and features may change depend-
ing on the rmware version. Please visit the product webpage for the
most recent specications.
Item
➀ OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual
Enclosure
➁ FireWire 400 Cable (*1)
➂ FireWire 800 Cable (*1)
➃ eSATA Cable (*1, *2 (includes 2))
➄ USB 2.0 (A-B) Cable (*1)
➅ Power Supply
➆ Power Supply Cable
➇ Screws for Hard Drives
➈ Software CD Bundle (*4)
➉ Assembly Instructions
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Bay
Assembly Instructions
➀
➁
➂
➄
➃
➅
➆
➇
➈
➉
(*1) Included with Quad Interface Model
(*2) Included with eSATA Passthrough Model
(*3) Included with some bundled items only ; see website for details.
1.2 Package Contents
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.4 Port View & Cable Connections
1.5 Detailed View
1.5.1 LED Indicator
The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro has a single cool blue LED at the front of
the hard drive enclosure. It will illuminate blue when powered on, and
ash on drive activity (both reading and writing).
➂ ➃ ➄
Cable Connections:
The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro family has multiple interfaces to work
with any computer system.
➀ FireWire 400 (1394A) Port - Connect one FireWire 400 port to your
computer using the included cable.
➁ FireWire 800 (1394B) Ports - Connect one FireWire 800 port to your
computer using the included cable and have an extra FireWire 800 port
to add peripherals with!
➂ USB Port - Connect one of your computer’s USB ports to the OWC
Mercury Elite-AL Pro here using the included cable.
➃ eSATA Port - The utmost in speed. If you’re trying to make your OWC
Mercury Elite-AL Pro the fastest it can be, attach an eSATA cable to this
port.
➄On/O Switch - Turn the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro on and o here.
➅ DC IN port - Connect the include external power supply to the OWC
Mercury Elite-AL enclosure here.
➆ Security Lock - Attach a security cable to your OWC Mercury Elite-AL
enclosure here and tether it to your desk for theft prevention.
➀ ➁ ➅ ➆ ➃➄ ➅ ➆
Remove the 2 Phillips screws from the bottom of the enclosure
From the rear of the enclosure, push forwards on the interior to slide the
chassis out of the outer shell.
Once the chassis is
removed from the outer
shell, you can begin
installing your hard drive
mechanisms or edit the
settings on your RAID.
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 2 - System Setup
2 SYSTEM SETUP
2.1 Cover Removal
(Versions with FireWire & USB)
Begin drive installation by
setting your hard drive into the
chassis, towards the front of
the chassis and slide the drive
onto the black connector on the
green logic board.
(Versions with eSATA ONLY)
Connect one of the multicolored
power cables to the hard drive
you are installing in the lower
drive position, and connect one of the red SATA cables to the hard drive
you are installing in the lower position, and place the hard drive into the
chassis.
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 2 - System Setup
2.2 Drive Installation
MODE SW#1 SW#2 SW#3
RAID 1 --- OFF OFF
RAID 0 --- OFF ON
SPAN --- ON OFF
INDEPENDENT --- ON ON
2TB MODE ON --- ---
To change the RAID settings on your FireWire & USB equipped enclo-
sure, there are jumpers located on the bridge board inside the enclo-
sure that need to be adjusted. To do so, you will need to remove the
outer shell of the enclosure.
INDEPENDENT - Each hard drive will appear as a separate volume. You
can use dierent models and sizes of hard drive with this mode. NOTE:
Only FireWire and USB connections support independent mode.
SPAN (JBOD) -The drives show up as one large single volume. The total
size will depend on the drives installed, you can use drives of dierent
capacities. Spanning is an array (not RAID) that is written sequentially to,
across the hard drives. By itself, it does not provide any performance or
redundancy benets.
RAID 0 (STRIPE) - The drives show up as one large (single) volume. It is
highly recommended to use identical hard drives for this RAID method.
However, you can utilize drives of dierent capacity, but realize that the
RAID size will be based on the smallest capacity total of the drives used
in the RAID set.
RAID 1 (MIRROR) - The drives show up as one volume, but only 50% of
the total capacity can be used. It is highly recommended to use identical
hard drives for this RAID method. However,while you can utilize drives
of dierent capacity, the RAID size will be based on the smallest capacity
total of the drives used in the RAID set. RAID 1 creates an exact copy (or
“mirror”) of a set of data on the second drive. This is useful when reliabil-
ity and backup are more important than capacity. When one drive fails,
it can be replaced and the data rebuilt.
2TB MODE - When Switch #1 is in the ON position, the total capacity of
the drives (either in INDEPENDENT or any other mode) are limited to a
maximum of 2.2TB for compatiblity with older systems.
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 2 - System Setup
2.3 RAID Conguration (FW/USB/eSATA Model ONLY)
Secure the 2 hard drives into the chassis by inserting the 8 Phillips
screws (4 each side) through the black rubber anti-vibration grommets,
and into the hard drives. You may have to lift up a bit on the drives to
get them into position. Firmly tighten the 8 screws to secure your hard
drives into the chassis.
Slide the assembled chassis back into the enclosure from the front to
the rear.
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 2 - System Setup
2.4 Final Assembly
Place the enclosure on it’s side and insert 4 Phillips screws into the holes
in the bottom of the enclosure to complete assembly of your new OWC
Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Bay.
Time to power up your new OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Bay!
Turn the drive so you can see the rear ports. Connect the power cable to
the back of the drive, and whichever drive interface cable (FireWire, USB,
eSATA) you plan on using to connect to your computer. Plug the power
brick into the AC power cable (not shown), and power the unit on. You
should hear the drives spin up, and click a couple of times. After about
15 seconds, the drives will be ready to use.
You now need to initialize your drive. If you’re using a Macintosh, the
next pages walk you through that procedure.
If you are using Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista:
You will need to initialize the hard drive before it will show up in “My
Computer”.
For instructions on how to initialize the hard drive please use the link
below. Click on the link that corresponds to the version of Windows you
are using:
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/formatting.cfm
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 2 - System Setup
Select the device with no volumes attached to it; in this picture, that
would be the 465.8GB OWC Mercury drive, your drive may be of a dif-
ferent size depending on the mechanisms you use. Click once on the
picture of the drive icon next to the text.
Once you’ve selected the OWC Mercury drive, you’ll notice the above
change in the Disk Utility program. Click on the “Erase” tab, next to the
highlighted blue “First Aid”tab in this picture.
3.1 Formatting your OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual on a Macintosh
with Mac OS X
Open the Disk Utility application, which is located in /Applications/
Utilities
IMPORTANT NOTE: This procedure will erase all data on your hard disk
drives in the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual. Back up any important
data before proceeding!
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 3 - Formatting
3 FORMATTING
➀
➁
Once on the Erase tab, you need to name the volume you want to
format, and erase it. Name the volume as you want, choose the Volume
format type, (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is default), and click the
Erase button.
Conrm that you want to erase the volume by pressing the Erase but-
ton.
After a few moments, the erase command will complete, and the vol-
ume will mount on your desktop. You can quit Disk Utility, and you’re all
set!
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 3 - Formatting
➂
➃
➄
➆ Type exit and hit enter.
➇ Close the command prompt window.
You may now proceed with formatting the drive.
If your OWC Mercury Elite-AL Dual was formatted for use on a
Macintosh, it will not be readable by Windows without special
software. If you wish to use your storage solution on a computer
running Windows, you will need to repartition and reformat using the
following instructions.
➀ Go to the DOS command prompt by
selecting “Run” from the Start Menu.
➁ Type in cmd in text box, and hit
the“OK” button.
➂ Type diskpart and hit enter.
➃ Type list disk and hit enter.
➄ Type select disk xreplacing xwith the number of the disk you want
to reformat. (Typically, you will see an asterisk (*) under “GPT” for the
disk requiring formatting.)
➅ Type clean and hit enter.
WARNING: The clean command will destroy ALL data on the disk you run it on!!! Be sure there is
nothing you need to keep on your drive before running any of these commands.
3.2 Removing the GUID Partition Scheme
Only for XP, 2000, ME and earlier. (XP 64-BIT, Vista & Windows 7 can continue to the next section)
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 3 - Formatting
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 3 - Formatting
3.3 Formatting your OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual on Windows
2000 and later
Instructions for other operating systems can be found at http://www.macsales.com/format.
➀ With the drive connected to the computer and
powered on, right click on the “My Computer” icon
and select “Manage” from the menu. The “Initialize
and Convert Disk Wizard” window should appear.
If the Wizard does not appear, expand the Storage
menu by clicking on the plus (+) sign. Then, right
click next to the disk number of the drive that
you have just connected and
click Initialize to bring up the
Wizard.
➁ In the next window, there
should be only one drive
listed. That will be the drive
that you connected via eSATA,
FireWire or USB. Make sure
the box next to the drive
name is checked and click
“Next.”
➂ The Wizard will perform its
tasks, and you will get the fol-
lowing screen. You may click
“Finish.”
IMPORTANT NOTE: This procedure will erase all data on your hard disk
drives in the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual. Back up any important
data before proceeding!
➃ Your drive will
appear similar to
how Disk 1 does
below. Notice that
the space on the
lower right reads
as “Unallocated.”
Right click in this
space and choose
“New Partition.”
➄ The “New Partition
Wizard” will launch.
Click “Next” to con-
tinue.
➅ Specify your partition type as
“Primary,” and click “Next.”
➆ The wizard will display the maxi-
mum partition size for your drive.
It is strongly recommended that
you do not change the default
value. Click “Next”
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 3 - Formatting
➇ If you like, you can specify the
drive letter designation for your
new drive. Otherwise, one will
automatically be assigned. Click
“Next.”
➈ Before you can use the
drive, it must be format-
ted. On most systems
running Windows 2000
or later, it is advisable to
specify the le system as
NTFS. Leave the Alloca-
tion unit size as “Default,”
and feel free to give the
drive whatever name you
prefer. Be sure to check
the box“Perform a quick
format”.
If you do not check the“Perform a quick format” box, it will take
several hours for your drive to format. Click “Next.”
➉ At the end of the
Wizard, you will see a
summary of the infor-
mation that you speci-
ed during the previous
steps. Click “Finish.”
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 3 - Formatting
➀➀ Once you have
nished with the
formatting wizard,
you will see that
your new drive (rep-
resented as “Disk
E” in this case) will
display a message
of “Formatting.”This
should only take a
couple of minutes if
you chose the quick
format option.
➀➁ After a moment
or two, the drive’s
status will change
from “Formatting” to
“Healthy.”
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 3 - Formatting
Using your new Storage Solution on both Macs and PCs?
MacDrive™ takes the guesswork out of sharing les. Whether you are transferring
les between home and the oce, a class room lab and your dorm room or even
on the same computer, MacDrive makes it painless.
In fact, you’ll hardly know MacDrive is working.
Once installed MacDrive will automati-
cally give you access to any Mac disk you
pop into your computer. MacDrive even
puts an “apple” icon on the Mac disk, just
to keep things clear.
You can access les on the Mac disk just
like you would with a Windows format-
ted disk. Open les from the disk or from
within a program. Mac les automatically
get the right icons and le name exten-
sions under both Windows and Mac OS.
Works great with software from Microsoft,
Adobe, Quark, FileMaker, Avid, Digidesign,
Corel, NewTek and more.
You can nd MacDrive at:
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/macdrive
➀➂ At this point, you may close the Computer Management window.
Your drive is ready to use and can be found in“My Computer.”
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 3 - Formatting
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 4 -Troubleshooting & Tips
4 TROUBLESHOOTING & TIPS
4.1 Troubleshooting
Some of the most simple problems can be traced to power, or connectiv-
ity issues. Verify that your cables (both ends!) are properly plugged into the
computer and storage solution. If one connection type does not work, switch
to another interface and try the solution again. If these suggestions do not
work, try the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual on a dierent computer, if avail-
able to you.
For further troubleshooting tips, visit our FAQ section online at:
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/FAQ/index.cfm
4.2 Usage Tips
To properly unmount any connected hard drives from your com-
puter, you need to follow a few simple steps.
• For Macintosh systems:
There are multiple methods to umount disks with Macintosh systems.
Either drag the icon for the hard disk you wish to dismount to the trash
can, or you can click the eject icon next to the hard disk name in un-
der the “DEVICES” tab in the sidebar in any nder window, and nally
another method is to right click on the hard drive icon on your desktop
and select “Eject”.
• For Windows systems:
1. Go to the System Tray (located in the lower right corner of your
screen). Click on the Eject icon (a small green arrow over a hardware
image).
2. A message will appear, detailing the devices that the Eject icon con-
trols. i.e. “Safely remove...” Click on this prompt.
3. You will then be given the following message. “Safe to Remove Hard-
ware”. It is now safe to unhook the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual.
Backup Software
For Mac OS X, we have included Prosoft Engineering’s Data Backup™.
Data Backup makes it easy to backup to FireWire and USB drives, net-
work drives, CDs and even DVDs. Make schedules so you don’t need
to ‘think’ about backing up… It does it for you. Your drive is also fully
compatible with Apple’s Time Machine if you are running Mac OS X 10.5
“Leopard”.
For PCs running Windows 2000 and later, we have included Novastor’s
NovaBACKUP™. Built-in support for hundreds of the most popular stor-
age devices and a step-by-step backup and restore wizard makes Nova-
BACKUP extremely easy to use.
To install and use the included backup software for either OS, please
insert the included CD and follow the installation and operation instruc-
tions on the disc.
Cloning your hard drive (making an exact copy of it):
If you want to make an exact duplicate of a hard drive, we highly rec-
ommend Mike Bombich’s donationware “Carbon Copy Cloner™”. It’s a
great tool and is included with the bundled software CD provided with
this storage solution.
Custom OS X Icons
If you wish to replace the custom OS X icon for your new hard drive, you
can nd instructions and a download link on our Web site:
http://eshop.macsales.com/hdicons
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 4 -Troubleshooting & Tips
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Chapter 5 - Appendix
5.1 FAQ
Q: How do I format my storage solution?
A: OWC has detailed instructions online for most popular operating
systems, located at: http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/fwhdd.cfm
Q: What le system should I choose when formatting my drive?
A: This will depend on how you want to use the drive, but in general we
recommend:
• Mac OS X : HFS + (Mac OS Extended)
• Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 : NTFS
• For cross-platform compatibility, FAT32 will work, but single le sizes
are limited to 4GB. Other options using 3rd party software exist but are
not covered here.
Q: Will the hard drives spin down when my computer goes to sleep or
into stand-by mode?
A: Yes, they will spin down to save energy. It will take about 30 seconds
to access your data after being in sleep or stand-by mode.
Q: One of my drives failed and I replaced it. Do I need to connect it to
the computer to rebuild the data?
A: No, the rebuild will occur without being connected to the computer
as long as the power is turned on to the enclosure.
5.2 About Data Protection
To ensure that your les are protected and to prevent the loss of your
data, we strongly suggest that you keep two copies of your data: one
copy on your OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual, and a second copy on
either your internal hard drive or another storage medium, such as an
optical backup, or on a second external hard drive. Any data loss or
corruption while using the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual is the sole
responsibility of the user, and under no circumstances will Other World
Computing be held liable for compensation or the recovery of any lost
data.
5 APPENDIX
Other manuals for Mercury Elite-AL Pro
7
Table of contents