Windows 7 RAID via USB?

[luke662]

Hello Folks,

I've been reading the information on this site for some time now and think it's an amazing tool for when your stuck with a problem. This said i have a problem that is yet to be solved by any one (as best i can tell).

I would like to setup a RAID for windows xp or windows 7.

Now i have read of a number of people getting it done in linux but this just doesn't tick my boxes. I have also read this article where its been given a bash before to no avail.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/244193-14-windows-raid-portable-desktop-ultrafast-boot-times

Has any body come up with a working way of doing this yet?

I understand that windows is not a fan of using external devices as a platform to install on to however I have read that people have been successful in modifying a windows ISO image to allow USB instalation.

I wondered, if this method was implemented could you not then just attach a hub to your PC and install across say 4 drives. Though i imagine that you would need some sort of utility to set up raid so the drives are as a single drive in the first place.

Any ideas,input or comments would be appreciated. Also I know i could get a SSD drive to achieve the desired performance but where is the fun in that?

Ta,
luke

 

[amnotanoobie]

[strike]The lag would kill performance, also the bandwidth with USB 2.0 would also kill performance.[/strike]

[strike]There is a delay with USB, and I don't think that RAID Controller can issue all commands through the USB port. Then there's the 30MB/s~ usual limit on the transfer rate on the USB port. Also sometimes the USB controller is tied to the performance of the cpu.[/strike]

Modifying a Windows 7 ISO image to allow USB installation would just usually require modifying the bootloader or maybe modifying or moving files. (Which is a whole different thing to want you want to do)

Scratch that, you could maybe try this:
http://itexpertvoice.com/home/usb-flash-drive-raiders-of-windows-7/

Though, I'm not sure if you could boot off of that one.

 

[luke662]

This is great thanks. it gets me half way there by having a single visible drive. the next step would be to install a copy of windows on to it. do you think this possible?

 

[amnotanoobie]

This is great thanks. it gets me half way there by having a single visible drive. the next step would be to install a copy of windows on to it. do you think this possible?

I'm not sure, the only way to know is to try to install Windows onto it. Then tell us here if it works