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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."
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.
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!
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
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?
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Among geeks the only insipration you need is "because it was there!". Witness cheap RAID on Mac that works, driven by a Mac mini:
a rt icle=4433
"The Mac mini Maxi"
http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/index.php?
- 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.