Making Use of Terabytes of Unused Storage

kernspaltung writes "I manage a network of roughly a hundred Windows boxes, all of them with hard drives of at least 40GB — many have 80GB drives and larger. Other than what's used by the OS, a few applications, and a smattering of small documents, this space is idle. What would be a productive use for these terabytes of wasted space? Does any software exist that would enable pooling this extra space into one or more large virtual networked drives? Something that could offer the fault-tolerance and ease-of-use of ZFS across a network of PCs would be great for small-to-medium organizations."

Comments

Porn

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the obvious choice.

Re:Porn

[tristian_was_here]

obviously not gay porn... its not my thing anyway.

Re:Porn

[linzeal]

You can save on compression though. Especially if it is hot gay twin porn.

vista?

[stillb4llin]

install vista on them, that would fill up that space and give you something to manage your time a little better than wondering about what you could manage..

Re:vista?

[Mantaar]

No, Vista is useless. Here's something that makes a lot more sense:

http://www.uniquepeek.com/viewpage.php?page_id=1517

:-)

easy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Does any software exist that would enable pooling this extra space into one or more large virtual networked drives?

Absolutely! Just hook them up directly to the internet before you update the machines, wait a few minutes, and voila! They'll be filled up with extra files in no time! Hey, you didn't say anything about wanting to be in control of what gets put on the machines...

Download and mirror the Internet...

[SiegeTank]

...just in case your connection fails.

Send them to our troops in Iraq

[kipin]

I had a drive fail on me last year and I wanted to take my frustration out on it so naturally I did what any good American would do. I shot the shit out of it. Surprisingly it seemed to make for a pretty good piece of bullet proof armor. It stopped multiple rounds of full metal jacket 9mm rounds and managed to get a couple rounds lodged inside the casing. (None appeared to penetrate fully)

Re:Send them to our troops in Iraq

[dlapine]

Well, I know that .45 ball ammo won't penetrate a maxtor 40 GB drive casing- just makes a nice big dent with a nicely mushroomed round. Fired the round myself. Try it out. we had a guy with a .44 magnum and his shot punched clean through the spindle. We had a tachometer at the range that day, and the .45 was doing about 900fps. No holes in the drive though.

Now, that doesn't mean that a .45 doesn't have more stopping power than 9mm, just that it wouldn't penetrate the aluminum casing of a hard drive. Fortunately for us, the bad guys don't use old drives as armor.

Re:not enough info

[BeanThere]

100 computers in his mom's basement? That's a big basement.

Re:Slashvertisement for wuala?

[imsabbel]

Acutally, this sounds nothing like that thing you link to.
More like your post being a slashvertisement.

Re:Not without heavy *use* of other resources

[fretlessjazz]

Well, you sound like a troll. I seriously doubt anybody misunderstood what he meant because he used the word "utilization". Or, should I say he utilized it? UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE Does it hurt yet?

Re:not enough info

[Anonymous Coward]

and a big Momma

Re:Not without heavy *use* of other resources

[Dogtanian]

Read George Orwell's essay on this topic. Going by his dislike of overused, cliched phrases expressed in that essay, today's "businessspeak" (mindless repetition of words and phrases that have long since been driven into the ground by thoughtless, banal, stupid repetition) would have him spinning in his grave so much that we could use him as a form of renewable energy.

The solution is obvious. We need to think outside the box and raise the bar when it comes to language... someone needs to step up to the plate and bring something new to the table. I'm thinking of someone I have synergy with, not just the type that goes for the low-hanging fruit.

Ooh.... he's spinning nicely. Another couple of Orwells and we'll have enough electricity to power the world :)

Re:Not without heavy *use* of other resources

[dreamchaser]

I think what you're saying is we need to leverage a new paradigm in order to take things to the next level. Am I right?

JFGI

[SEMW]

Now, I could go and read through Microsoft's webpage about DFS, and speend a few minutes paraphrasing it into a post for your edification; or maybe you could, I don't know, go do it yourself...?

Re:you need a better gun

[Anonymous Coward]

gun people are creepy... technophile gun people are super creepy.

Re:It's been done by Microsoft: DFS NameSpaces

[Spokehedz]

Even a blind squirrel will find a nut every once in a while.

Re:Not without heavy *use* of other resources

[NMZNMZNMZ]

today's "businessspeak" (mindless repetition of words and phrases that have long since been driven into the ground by thoughtless, banal, stupid repetition)

Kids! That word, meaning "trite" or "unoriginal", is pronounced "ba-NAHL". If you say it the wrong way like I did in an interview, it sounds naughty and you sound stupid.

Re:Grog likes it simple

[cammoblammo]

No. You should never use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice.

Re:It's been done by Microsoft: DFS NameSpaces

[RobFlynn]

A rolling stone gathers two birds in a bush.

Re:Not without heavy *use* of other resources

[Profane MuthaFucka]

You've toolized the language!