
Chaining USB drives - 6ren
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/23/modular-usb-flash-drive-concept-offers-a-new-way-to-sort-your-da/
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andrewflnr
How would files on different segments be presented to the OS? Would the
directories on each disk be merged together into one root directory, would
each one get its own directory, or something else? To make the "just pull out
the one with the vacation photos on it" use-case work, you would have to be
able to see and control which segment a given file is on.

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scq
> Would the directories on each disk be merged together into one root
> directory, would each one get its own directory, or something else?

Due to the way most modern filesystems (including all filesystems that windows
supports) work, the only clean way to implement this is to have each segment
appear as a separate drive. The operating system only sees the drive as a
block-level device, so the drive doesn't know anything about folders or files.
It just sees binary data.

You could implement a virtual block-level device on the device, and read files
from that to write to each segment, but that would be a major performace hit,
and push the cost up significantly as each segment would need a processor and
a few megabytes of ram.

The only other way I can think of would be a custom driver.

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potatolicious
A solution looking for a problem. My regular machine is a MBP, so I'm no
stranger to the "damn I wish I had more USB ports" problem.

But I have never, ever, _ever_ , thought "dammit! If only I could plug more
USB memory sticks into this infernal machine!"

In fact, the only time I'm ever using a USB stick is to sneaknet some files to
someone else (because in the year 2011 we have yet to figure out quick,
painless filesharing with people you're physically near by. though Dropbox is
starting to get ubiquitous enough...), and that hardly requires more than one
USB port.

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nialo
Complete tangent, but:

You can share files with Dropbox without the reciever having a n account, and
as far as I can tell without installing software on either computer. Just
login to dropbox.com, upload, and move the file to a public folder.

I really wish I understood why people don't do this generally, it's quite
painless if you have an account already.

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potatolicious
For small files when you're working with someone it's easy. For large files
though it's a pain - you have to wait for it to upload from your end, and then
for it to down on their end.

This is pretty annoying if they're sitting 10 feet away, and you can get it
done faster if you just pull out a USB stick and do it that way.

There really needs to be a solid way to share P2P with someone on the same
network.

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D_Drake
I don't see this as useful. Using USB drives to share pictures with friends
was never popular, and with social networking is utterly dead. Sharing of
larger files is already marginalized by the likes of dropbox and upload sites,
and becoming more so over time.

USB flash drives aren't used for everything anymore. I don't know anyone who
regularly uses one and would find it acceptable for the only thing holding 3/4
of the drive to their person to be the static friction of one USB plug, which
is the only thing holding one of these combo drives together. If you're using
a flash drive for a file today, chances are the file is too essential or too
sensitive to depend on one of those plugs never coming undone, over a multi-
year daily use lifespan.

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emi420
And what about chaining USB servers?

[http://blog.laptopmag.com/usb-stick-contains-dual-core-
compu...](http://blog.laptopmag.com/usb-stick-contains-dual-core-computer-
turns-any-screen-into-an-android-station)

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renownedmedia
What a simple/awesome idea... I'm surprised nobody else has thought of this
before!

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dangrossman
For it to work, each of the drives would have to be both a mass storage device
and a USB hub. Can USB hubs be this small? If each segment has to be 3 inches
long to accomodate the dual functionality, a foot long chain of USB drives
sticking out the side of your laptop is a bit less elegant than the concept.

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dangero
There's also the problem of power. I doubt these devices could be usb spec
compliant since what is essentially happening here is an endless chain of bus
powered usb hubs.

It is pretty though.

~~~
miahi
It's not even the first time it was "dreamed" by some designer, with no
technical consideration. You cannot actually do that in a standard way. Dan
has a nice article on this: [http://dansdata.blogsome.com/2010/03/23/for-
suitably-small-v...](http://dansdata.blogsome.com/2010/03/23/for-suitably-
small-values-of-infinite/)

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resnamen
Is that a terabyte, or are you just happy to see me?

