Where Can I find USB Thumb Drive RAID Array Software?

[Sword_Of_Truth]

Just as the title says.

I was wondering if someone has written or released any such software and if any of you know where to find it?

[Ducky]

Err. wha?

Why are you creating a raid array out of thumb drives? Or do you mean SSD drives (of which making a raid array out of is perfectly cromulent.)

[Sword_Of_Truth]

I'm talking about something like this (http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/thumbraid_1) only with all the hard work already done and all one needs to do is install some software and start it up.

The article is 4 years old, I figured someone might have released something by now.

[drainbread]

lol wut

You can try using diskpart(start>run>cmd>diskpart) in Vista or 7(iirc XP wont let you set a USB drive as logical drive) to finangle a raid out of 'em, but it would still suck a floppy(disk that is):p

[Ducky]

Ok while I understand what you're asking for now, I fail to see why. This isn't a set up that would get you a very reliable drive array (hence the raid, I guess?)

Write limitations on SS thumb drives would see failure pretty quickly. While the latest generation of SSD internal drives shows a great improvement in reliability, I wouldn't invest the time to create a thumb drive raid array.

Is this an academic excersize or something you want to do for "production" reasons (ie. you have data/drives and a need and you're prefer to do this rather than buy an external or another drive?)

[Zax63]

I'll admit it would be a neat hack but it doesn't really seem practical. RAIDs are used for speed, safety or capacity. Speed doesn't apply because the USB speed is the limiting factor. 64GB flash drives can be had for around $150 so I can't imagine that capacity is the issue. For safety I would think some type of backup or file synch program would do the trick. I carry an 8GB flash drive on my key chain. I have Cobian backup setup to copy it to my hardrive at 11:30 each night. If it is plugged in Cobian does the backup, if not it just skips it.

[Ducky]

I'll admit it would be a neat hack but it doesn't really seem practical. RAIDs are used for speed, safety or capacity. Speed doesn't apply because the USB speed is the limiting factor. 64GB flash drives can be had for around $150 so I can't imagine that capacity is the issue.

This is the crux of it, really.

Just because you can do something does not compel you to have to do it.

Neat hack? sure. Practical? not really.

[Ian Osborne]

This is the crux of it, really.

Just because you can do something does not compel you to have to do it.

Neat hack? sure. Practical? not really.

Yeah, I got the impression from the linked article it was more of an intellectual exercise rather than a means to an end. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. Crosswords or Sudoku puzzles have no intrinsic value, but no one considers them silly. But as you say, a thumb drive array doesn't serve a useful purpose.

[jmercer]

Yeah, now someone please explain why FIREWIRE doesn't work with Windows servers... and I'll be all set. :p

[Gilmar]

How about a RAID array of floppy drives?
http://macblender.com/35-floppy-disk-raid-array-provides-nearly-4mb-of-usable-space/

[Wudang]

I'd like to help but I'm really full time on implementing raid on vdisks. I need the reliability as that's where I put my swap space.

[RussDill]

This would be a pretty straightforward exercise under Linux. (see mdadm). I don't even see an issue with booting from it.