RAID 1 using USB drives under XP ?

**Ardesco** · 13 July 2007, 13:13

I belive an ASUS M2N32 SLI-Deluxe Motherboard has something along these lines, although it might have been as external SATA connector rather than a USB connector (My memory is a bit fuzzy).

Have a look at the Asus webby for the spec it should tell you what you need to know.

**Kyajae** · 13 July 2007, 13:41

Originally posted by bogeyman

Anyone set up RAID using XP striped partitions?

Yep, XP will support basic stripping but it's the worst setup for fault tollerance. Mirroring would be the minimum fault tol. I'd go for.

**n5gooner** · 13 July 2007, 13:43

Originally posted by Ardesco

I belive an ASUS M2N32 SLI-Deluxe Motherboard has something along these lines, although it might have been as external SATA connector rather than a USB connector (My memory is a bit fuzzy).

Have a look at the Asus webby for the spec it should tell you what you need to know.

fairly sure its a SATA controler.

USB could be good though...

**Paddy** · 13 July 2007, 13:44

Originally posted by bogeyman

I think this is possible using XPs native support for striped partitions but what I was really after was a hardware solution.

With the amount of >= 500GB USB/Firewire external drives around I'd have thought someone would come out with a sort of USB/Fw hub thingy that acted as a RAID controller. Beggared if I can find any such thing. Gap in the market there maybe - or perhaps it's a daft idea. Seems like a winner to me tho given the amount of people out there with tons of irreplaceable photos, music etc.

Anyone know of anything like that? Anyone set up RAID using XP striped partitions?

Why RAID 5 or similar?

Any hardware solution would be transparent to the OS but for XP a mirrored pair would work well and give cheap solution.

**bogeyman** · 13 July 2007, 13:51

Originally posted by Paddy

Why RAID 5 or similar?

Any hardware solution would be transparent to the OS but for XP a mirrored pair would work well and give cheap solution.

RAID 5 would be fine, but does require an extra disk.

I had in mind the simplest config that would provide fault tolerance, i.e. mirroring.

Would like a hardware solution but can't find one!

You can get USB RAID units complete with (expensive) drives, but I had in mind a hub type of device with the RAID logic built in. RAID 1 for 2 drives then maybe RAID 5/6 if you added more USB drives to the hub.

It seems nobody makes it!

RAID 1 using USB drives under XP ?