Dynamic FakeRAID?

[thurstmw]

I have a HTPC which I would like to add storage to as needed without buying an expensive RAID card.

I looked into this before and was told there is some sort of fake raid I could do which I could add disks to without reformatting and resetting up the raid every time.

I am not worried about redundancy (though if it is possible that would be good) and the only real goal is to have it so that my multiple drives show up as one drive on the OS level (and of course to be able to add drives to it).

Anyone have any recommendations on how to do this?

PS drives are not all the same size

(And please dont tell me that I need redundancy and a back up)

 

[drescherjm]

I am not worried about redundancy

Then can't you configure your HTPC software to use individual disks instead of a single large storage? That is what I do with my linux based HTPC. I give it a list of storage locations and it manages where the recordings / videos / music are located in the storage I give it. I have been told on the "Home Theater PCs & Equipment " subforum that you can also do that with windows HTPCs as well.

 

[gjs278]

flexraid or drive extender can take a bunch of disks and present them as one drive to the os

http://www.mswhs.com/2010/12/flexraid-the-vail-de-alternative/

I'd go with flex and see if that covers your needs

 

[thurstmw]

flexraid or drive extender can take a bunch of disks and present them as one drive to the os

http://www.mswhs.com/2010/12/flexraid-the-vail-de-alternative/

I'd go with flex and see if that covers your needs

Thank you thats exactly what I was looking for and couldn't remember what it was called. Thanks for your help.