iPod Shuffle RAID

ricercar writes "So, what do you do when you and some friends are all getting iPod Shuffles? You make a RAID array out of them, of course! The original intent was to actually install OS X on the RAID and boot from that, but the OS X (Panther, 10.3.5) Installer wouldn't allow it."

Comments

hackaday.com

[Unreal7000]

This and other hacks can be found at hackaday.com

Re:If you could install it

[bigtallmofo]

I tried this a number of years ago. In fact, there's an CF->IDE interface board that is very inexpensive that I purchased. Turned out that CF was much slower than my hard drive.

Might be interesting to try it again with today's professional flash memory, but with readily available CF memory from about 3 years ago, I was able to install a Windows OS on it but it was slower than my hard drive.

If you really want something like this, there are memory drives that use actual battery-backed up RAM (take your pick of varities) that are as you would expect lightning quick. Last I checked though Bitmicro's Site, they were very expensive.

Re:Write life of flash again?

[jnd3]

Most NOR-flash is rated for at least 100,000 erase cycles. And some of the newer AMD flash devices have a minimum 1,000,000 erase cycle guarantee per sector. Even erasing the entire flash 100 times a day would give you about 27 years of life.

Re:Injustice

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha ha! No, seriously, I (almost) feel your pain. I was in the same boat 24 hours ago. Had my mind made up I was getting the wife a 1 GB shuffle for V-day. Knew I'd waited way too long, as the initial buying rush had sucked up every shuffle in the known universe.

But this was one time I'm actually glad I live in the hellhole called southern California. 9 Apple Stores within an hour's drive, and 2 more within 100 miles. I started calling them one by one... "No, we're all out and we don't know when we'll get more in. We're not doing a waiting list because the supply is so scarce." Ditto. Ditto, ditto, "we have 512 MB but not 1 GB," ditto. Then the glorious answer I was waiting for... "We have both in stock. We'll hold one for you for 2 hours." Yes!!

It took me damn near 2 hours to fight traffic and get down there, but I got it. None on the shelves, but mine (er, my wife's) was waiting in the back for me. Thank you Apple Store South Coast Plaza! :)

So, like, if you have a lot of Apple Stores around you, keep calling. Or call other stores - I heard CompUSA has had some briefly, maybe Micro Center, Best Buy, etc. You never know!

Re:If you could install it

[b1t r0t]

Um, you don't have DMA on flash media because you address it just like RAM.

Um, actually you don't. Linear flash went out of style years ago, as any Newton owner can tell you. With the exception of flash cards for older Cisco gear, all flash cards these days use an ATA interface. Anything that uses a non-PCMCIA slot (CF, MMC, SD, XD, SonyStick) is 100% ATA.