iPod Shuffle RAID

[arcy]

Creative talaga ang mga Mac users

http://www.wrightthisway.com/Articles/000154.html

[ayrton senna]

arcy, im actually new to mac & so i hope you dont mind me asking a few questions. what does the shuffle raid actually do? why do you need to do it that way?

AS

[arcy]

I think it was more a proof of concept of being able to configure a RAID using 4 iPod shuffles.

Depending on the RAID configuration, what typically happens is that if one storage device (in this case a shuffle) crashes, the files stored will still be intact. The Mac can just function normally retrieving and saving files from/to the RAID drive. When the broken shuffle is replaced, the RAID drives will sync with the new one.

[Henjie]

Originally posted by arcy
I think it was more a proof of concept of being able to configure a RAID using 4 iPod shuffles.

Depending on the RAID configuration, what typically happens is that if one storage device (in this case a shuffle) crashes, the files stored will still be intact. The Mac can just function normally retrieving and saving files from/to the RAID drive. When the broken shuffle is replaced, the RAID drives will sync with the new one.

That's true if they created a Raid 1 array (mirrored), where data in one Shuffle are automatically "mirrored" or backed up onto the other three.

But in this case, they decided to make a Raid 0 array (striped). It basically means that the 4 iPod Shuffles are "combined" to make one 4GB hard drive. If one Shuffle goes kaput, all the files will be gone since bits and pieces of each file are spread across all the Shuffles. Raid 0 is meant for faster throughput with absolutely no data redundancy.

It's more a proof of concept alright, seeing they only achieved 2.88MB/s with the setup (slowww). :-)


~Henjie

[arcy]

Thanks Henjie for pointing out the RAID 1 and 0 difference.

Can we just connect two 1GB Shuffles via their USB port and have 2GBs worth of storage? One shuffle will act as the master controlling 2GB worth of songs. Hmmm.....