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

If you could install it

[TheKidWho]

What would the boot times be like?

Wait, anyone know of any flash hard drives for PCs/Macs that work via SATA? This would be interesting to do, almost instant boot.

Look...

[Realistic_Dragon]

...if someone did it with floppy drives OF COURSE they would try it with iPods. How could steve be proved wrong about the inferiority of the floppy drive as a mass storage device?
<br><br>
<a href="http://ohlssonvox.8k.com/fdd_raid.htm">Link. </a>

A Thumb Drive Raid Array

[MankyD]

I really don't want to be a troll, but this seems rather inane to me. They made a RAID array from a bunch of thumb drives - so what? If they had installed OSX on it, then maybe, but for now, can't we limit slashdot to innovative and never-before-seen things?

Very James Bond

[Idimmu Xul]

doing this with 2 normal usb key drives, a raid array with the striped data on them, you could save all kinds of secret stuff on them which would be useless unless you had both drives!

It could replace those security systems where 2 people have a key and there are 2 locks which must be opened at the same time for it to work.. just have 2 usb keys stripped, with a pgp key on them, which must be then inserted in to the security system at the same time for it to work or something

i dunno, im just spouting things!

Re:Very James Bond

[iJames]

Actually I think it's a very clever idea. Not for a conventional RAID implementation, sure, but it'd be very simple to write an encoder/decoder that would stripe at a word level (or byte, or bit) and spread data across two flash drives for security. Now the information's only retrievable if two people agree to cooperate. Add a third drive with parity data, and you've got error resilience and a "democratic" security system where any two out of three people can retrieve the information.

Granted, I can't see an application for this that couldn't be managed simply by having two people encrypt the information with separate keys. But it's about as cheap as you could get with a hardware solution, and it does have a spyish sort of coolness to it.

Re:Very James Bond

[David Leppik]

Striping the data makes it hard to use, but not particularly hard to decypher, if someone is just interested in the gyst of the message. In fact, with a few heuristics (e.g. assume that the most important data is alphanumeric text) it may be possible to pull out a whole lot.

With two key drives (or two disks of any kind) it's possible to do perfect (uncrackable) encryption pretty easily using a one-time pad. You fill one key drive with random bits (the pad). The second drive contains the XOR of your data with the pad. (XOR=eXclusive OR, a fundamental binary operator.) With both key drives, you can read your data. With only one, you just get random bits.

A nice thing about the one-time pad is that it is easy to extend. Add another pad, and you just XOR against another pad. Then you require all three to read the data. The only disadvantage to a one-time pad is that it requires the secure transmission of the pad, which must be at least as large as the secret message. The Amazon.coms of the world can't afford to mail you a CD-ROM of random bits just so you can order online from them.

Re:Awesome Hack!

[geoffspear]

I'm guessing the idea of a RAID of iPod Shuffles began with alcohol too.

It's probably unlikely to end with a Darwin Awards entry, though, unless there's a mjor design flaw.

A RAID of 40GB iPods would be orders of magnitude more useful, but if you've got that kind of money you'd be better off buying an Xserve RAID; you can get a 1 TB unit for the price you'd pay for a 600GB iPod RAID, without the rats nest of firewire cables (not to mention the really slow performance).

Mirrordot Mirror

[tijmentiming]

http://mirrordot.com/stories/b810b5b7bf18eb8d82adf 1137dae0587/index.html

Btw, Why not automatically create a mirror on mirrordot and link it here? Why do we need a nerd to search for the mirrordot link if we have enough nerds to fix a small problem like this?

Re:Instead of OS X...

[biglig2]

Yeah, man, we don't want to hear about insane and pointless misuse of hardware unless Linux is involved!

Heh, OK, let's get round that by thinking of a use for this... in fact I know a good one.

RAID 5 your very sensitive data onto say 5 shuffles. Then unplug them and all five people take one each.

You then can't access the data on those sticks unless you are quorate - 4 or more people needed to mount the volume.

Hmmm, I was trying to think of an example of what to put on this and all I could think of was terrorist plans. Does this make it a bad idea?

iPod Shuffles to be carried at Circuit City

[HeighYew]

http://www.betanews.com/article/Circuit_City_to_Ca rry_iPod_Shuffle/1107889065Link to a BetaNews story about it...
No, I've never linked before. :\

Not the coolest RAID

[b1t r0t]

The coolest RAID ever was the five USB floppy RAID. Using a Devo MP3 as a test file increased the coolness factor.

Oh, and you can't boot OS X from a USB RAID. I'm pretty sure you can boot from an IDE RAID (I mean an OS X software RAID, not a hardware RAID where the computer never sees the individual drives), and maybe even from a Firewire RAID, but USB is right out.

Re:Cluster Computing For Better Sound?

[b1t r0t]

They're already about the size of a piano key, so just paint a couple dozen of them black and presto! An iShuffle synth!

Re:Awesome Hack!

[Bilestoad]

Among geeks the only insipration you need is "because it was there!". Witness cheap RAID on Mac that works, driven by a Mac mini:

"The Mac mini Maxi"
http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/index.php?a rt icle=4433

Wow...

[jmcmunn]

I'm seriously not trying to troll or anything, but I remember when I used to hear Kevin Rose (of the Screensavers) talk about stuff he read on Slashdot. Now I read stuff on Slashdot that Kevin Rose talked about last week. No longer is it "news for nerds" it is more like "news nerds have already heard". Sad, truly sad.

On a happy note, congrats to Kevin Rose for doing a better job of sharing the news with me.

Re:Instead of OS X...

[jacobcaz]

• Hmmm, I was trying to think of an example of what to put on this and all I could think of was terrorist plans. Does this make it a bad idea?

How about corporate secrets? You know, like how the Coca Cola formula is supposed to be stashed in several bank vaults in Atlanta?

If you have 1/5th of the data (plus parity) you can even duplicate your iPod Shuffle as needed to keep the data intact.

Just make sure that 4 out of your 5 all fly on the same plane or travel in the same car (or really, attend the same conference) with their share of the data.

You can also scale it up and down (4 drives needing 3 or 25 drives needing 24).

The only downside with RAID5 is that you can only lose 1 device, so with larger numbers you need a higher and higher majority of your group to unlock the data.

Another idea is to RAID the data and form a tontine using iPod Shuffles. It worked for Abe Simpson.

Re:redundant redundant and again, redundant

[Herbmaster]

Yeah, really. If they were going to make a redundant RAID array they should have done it with the 60 GB iPod - you know, the one with the liquid LCD display. Just imagine how much advanced AAC codec encoded music you could fit on a BEOWULF cluster of 60 GB iPods with their HD drives assembled into a redundant RAID array! It would be expensive though; I might hit the limit on the automated ATM machine trying to pay for it, I might have to use my CC card.

Re:Spoiled kids these days...

[cosmic_0x526179]

Oh J.C.!

My first DP job was console operator on a Univac 9400 (IBM 360/30 clone). One night something went fubar on one of the channel adapters. I called for service and a sleepy-assed tech showed up about 2am. He loaded up his usual diagnostic tape and tried to boot the box (big iron, flashing lights and push-buttons all over the front). No dice. The channel was so fucked up he could not ever get his tape to boot. So, we kinda stared at each other for a few mins. I went into the other office and grabbed the Univac processor reference and started scribbling instructions and hex on a pad of paper. After a while, I went back in and started loading them via the push buttons on the front. Not all that much mind you, just enough to get the box to initiate an IO and store a CSW somewhere so we could see what kind of error the channel was returning. Strange night, but it actually worked. And he was able to diagnose the problem. They never did see fit to hire me as a programmer there... oh well ;)