Could I set up flash drives in RAID 5?

[Chris Whitling]

I've seen people asking about setting up two usb drives in RAID 0, but I haven't seen anything about using more than two drives in another RAID format. I'm looking to put four 64GB flash drives in RAID 5 to get the added redundancy, and added storage space.

 

[kanewolf]

You could do this. But for the hassle of this, a single 250GB SSD and a decent backup is a much better solution. You are only going to have, at most, 180 GB of space. As a "science project" this might be useful, as your boot device, no.

 

[ss202sl]

I just read this. This is pretty specific for MAC, but the same could be done in windows.
https://fstoppers.com/product/convert-unused-usb-thumb-drives-your-new-favorite-live-work-ssd-12299

 

[Chris Whitling]

I just read this. This is pretty specific for MAC, but the same could be done in windows.
https://fstoppers.com/product/convert-unused-usb-thumb-drives-your-new-favorite-live-work-ssd-12299

This article looks good, but it's still using RAID 0..

 

[SortNVF]

Well you could, but less your getting free USB sticks its unlikely to be cost effective.

At one point i asked a few companies to create "dust cover" usb 3 readyboost units, but none picked up on the idea, thou quite a few actually replied. Im thinking the readyboost tech has come and gone again, but i really just wanted tiny USB sticks with rounded/rubber heads to cover all those open plugs in laptops and boost performance a little.

Anyways to run a raid5 USB stick array and get decent performance, you would need them plugged in each their own USB port on the MB or an addon PCIe-USB3 card.
If you just build the array on a USB hub and superglue it all with a fan on top for good measure, your never going to get more than regular USB3 speed.

Anyways your not the only one who considered creative use of USB sticks, but i dont like your idea.