factory-built RAID array?

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
9,558
0
76
This just occurred to me and it's probably impossible or exceedingly difficult and not worth any research, or just would be stupid. Why not make a RAID setup at the factory? Connect two hard drives with some sort of frame that spaces them the way they'd fit in a standard 3.5inch bay (only one would need to be mounted with adapters for 5.25inch use). Put a little PCB behind them with a controller mounted going to each drive's IDE connector or even SATA connector, and another to connect to the main controller. The array would connect to the standard IDE controller and the OS would only ever see the single array, with the RAID chip actually handling the IDE transactions as if both drives were masters, but the main controller would only see a single master drive, or the chip could also simply set the two drives as master/slave for the main controller to handle and the RAID chip be bypassed.

The two drives would have to be connected so that they could be swapped if there was a failure of course. And maybe the RAID chip would end up basically bridging IDE to IDE and cause performance issues. But if that issue could be resolved, I'd think it'd make for cheaper RAID arrays if the manufacturers didn't attempt to overprice them. Smaller PCB, single package so users don't have to buy multiple parts and wonder about compatibility. Direct support from the maker for the entire setup instead of two companies blaming each other. No hassles of making the system boot to the array rather than the main IDE ports. No PCI bus limitations on modern chipsets.

The configuration program might have to be used on a boot floppy or something though, since the RAID BIOS couldn't be accessed.
 

GnomeCop

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2002
3,863
0
76
hahah that would definitely be something interesting.

it would be like selling pankcakes, syrup, eggs, and bacon; seperate breakfast items in a compact single sierving form.


....wait they already do that at McDonalds
 

sharkeeper

Lifer
Jan 13, 2001
10,886
2
0
It's already being done...well sort of.

500GB external IEEE1394/USB2.0 drives are available now! These are composed of a pair of 250GB ATA disks with a simple controller running JBOD. I suppose one could run them striped as well for faster STR. (Although unless you're up to FW2, the point in doing that is moot and makes recovery of the data MUCH harder if one drive fails!)

-DAK-
 

AgaBoogaBoo

Lifer
Feb 16, 2003
26,108
5
81
Originally posted by: shuttleteam
It's already being done...well sort of.

500GB external IEEE1394/USB2.0 drives are available now! These are composed of a pair of 250GB ATA disks with a simple controller running JBOD. I suppose one could run them striped as well for faster STR. (Although unless you're up to FW2, the point in doing that is moot and makes recovery of the data MUCH harder if one drive fails!)

-DAK-

I thought they would have put that 500GB firewire drive in a Raid 0 setup or something, but I can see how JBOG would be used.

LordEvermore, that would be a really neat idea. You should maybe submit it onto WD or Maxtor or Seagate, or even IBM. That actually seems like something feasible in my mind, they should be able to do this but the only concern I see is heat. I'm sure this could be solved with one or two relatively small fans.
 

ProviaFan

Lifer
Mar 17, 2001
14,993
1
0
Originally posted by: shuttleteam
It's already being done...well sort of.

500GB external IEEE1394/USB2.0 drives are available now! These are composed of a pair of 250GB ATA disks with a simple controller running JBOD. I suppose one could run them striped as well for faster STR. (Although unless you're up to FW2, the point in doing that is moot and makes recovery of the data MUCH harder if one drive fails!)

-DAK-
I seem to recall seeing some SCSI setups where an external rack of drives had an integrated controller of sorts, which made it all appear as one big SCSI drive to the controller. However, from what I've read around here, you know much more about SCSI than I do, so take the above statements with a few 50lbs bags of salt. ;)