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Software Raid with USB flash drives


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#1
Anomaly

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So I did a little thinking, and thought about changing the "I" in RAID back to "Inexpensive" (for those who know it used to mean that, rather than "Independent"). I was thinking about getting 4, 8, or maybe more cheap (but not too cheap; they should be reliable) USB flash drives, forming a software RAID array with them, and running games and other random things off them. I would keep my OS on a standard HD.
My problem is that Windows's disk management console does not have the capability to software raid removable drives (although I know it is possible in Linux, so it may be possible in Windows). Is there any workaround for this? This could come in the form of using a third-party tool to make the array, or fooling windows into thinking the usb drives are regular drives rather than removable, or something else that I'm not thinking of. Does anyone else have any experience with such a situation?

I don't have all the required USB drives, but I have a few I can test with. I want to make sure it's possible so it don't end up with a bunch of extra USB drives and nothing to do with them

OS is Vista Business
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#2
Neil Jones

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In theory this is possible, in practice I fail to see what benefit this is going to bring you. USB drives are slow, have a finite life and can suck an obscene amount of power off the USB bus in a fashion you'd never seen before. Because of the finite lifespan, your RAID would break quite regularly. I mean to get a decent amount of space you're going to need a lot of flash drives. You can get 500Gb external hard drives quite cheaply now and for the same price you'd only get probably about 20 flash drives at a tenth of the capacity plus all the hubs you need to run them.
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#3
Anomaly

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The space issue is not a problem; I don't need a lot. 20 GB would be more than enough for my purposes. 4x 4GB drives was what I was thinking about starting with, and that's plenty. Just wanted enough space to install a game or two to.

I'd rather not debate the pros and cons, but instead pick someone's brain as to how to do it
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