Boot Windows 10 from a raid of floppy disks?

[ItsDan]

Maybe have a bunch of pcie to sata adapters or something, slap a bunch of floppy disks and readers in the computer, get a raid card, get a raid going, and wam bam, got windows 10.

 

[thedangerine]

Are you suggesting someone try this? It sounds good on paper, but (assuming raid 0 for speed) it would be crazy unreliable and still not that fast if you were going to use old flops

[Bitter]

No?

[thedangerine]

2 minutes ago, Bitter said:

No?

My first thoughts too

[ItsDan]

I was wondering if it was possible, I was thinking of trying it, but couldn't find anything related to the topic, so I didn't want to waste money until asking around.

[Bombastinator]

theres so Much “why” here I don’t know where to start.  This is a bad idea even with something 100x as large and much faster. Like Zip disk.

[rares495]

Guys, can I run Windows 10 on my RAID 0 array of VHS tapes?

[ItsDan]

Just now, rares495 said:

Guys, can I run Windows 10 on my RAID 0 array of VHS tapes?

VHS : **Video** Home System I'm sure you could record yourself using windows 10 and watch it that way. Thanks for trying though!

[Bombastinator]

*waits for the “thousand dudes with abacuses” question*

[ViciousViper175]

Such a strange idea but it sounds very interesting.  I'd like to know how this turns out if it's actually performed.

[Bitter]

45 minutes ago, rares495 said:

Guys, can I run Windows 10 on my RAID 0 array of VHS tapes?

Actually I'm fairly sure you can store digital data on a VHS tape.

 

44 minutes ago, ItsDan said:

VHS : **Video** Home System I'm sure you could record yourself using windows 10 and watch it that way. Thanks for trying though!

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a27752/vhs-backup-hard-drive-90s/

Ah hem.

[Lienusmarriedaho]

58 minutes ago, rares495 said:

Guys, can I run Windows 10 on my RAID 0 array of VHS tapes?

Actually, there is a way to store data on VHS https://youtu.be/TUS0Zv2APjU it's basically just like storing data on LTO tapes.

[ItsDan]

18 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Actually I'm fairly sure you can store digital data on a VHS tape.

 

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a27752/vhs-backup-hard-drive-90s/

Ah hem.

I stand corrected, however, I believe pci(e) to isa might not be as stable as I would need, but that is an option.  I would still prefer to go the floppy disk route though..

[Bombastinator]

23 minutes ago, ItsDan said:

I stand corrected, however, I believe pci(e) to isa might not be as stable as I would need, but that is an option.  I would still prefer to go the floppy disk route though..

3.5” 5.25” or 8”?  Not that it will really make that much of a difference speed wise.  I’m under the impression this is about the Rube Goldberg aspect rather than the practicality aspect.   Have you thought about data connectors?

[ItsDan]

3 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

3.5” 5.25” or 8”?  Not that it will really make that much of a difference speed wise.  I’m under the impression this is about the Rube Goldberg aspect rather than the practicality aspect.   Have you thought about data connectors?

Looking at 3.5" options. I've actually been looking into Superdisk's but I'm not sure if that counts as a floppy disk, though it is technically the same technology if i understand it correctly. I'm thinking my biggest limitation will be the amount of disks i can have hooked up to one machine.

[Bombastinator]

8 minutes ago, ItsDan said:

Looking at 3.5" options. I've actually been looking into Superdisk's but I'm not sure if that counts as a floppy disk, though it is technically the same technology if i understand it correctly. I'm thinking my biggest limitation will be the amount of disks i can have hooked up to one machine.

I would worry about port connections.  There may be adapter weirdness required.  My memory is floppy disks had a very different port type than usb.

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, ItsDan said:

Maybe have a bunch of pcie to sata adapters or something, slap a bunch of floppy disks and readers in the computer, get a raid card, get a raid going, and wam bam, got windows 10.

 

This is not going to work. At best you could do this with LS120 drives. You would still need far too many SATA and power connections if you could pull that off.

 

The closest thing you might get away with are SCSI Jaz drives, you'd still need 8 of them.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, ItsDan said:

Looking at 3.5" options. I've actually been looking into Superdisk's but I'm not sure if that counts as a floppy disk, though it is technically the same technology if i understand it correctly. I'm thinking my biggest limitation will be the amount of disks i can have hooked up to one machine.

I would worry about port connections.  There may be adapter weirdness required.  My memory is floppy disks had a very different port type than usb.

 

another thing to think about is the issue Linus discussed in his 24 drive setup where he started running into weird issues.  Don’t know if they apply or not.

[Roswell]

You would literally need somewhere around 25,000 floppies to hold an image of Windows 10. So no, unfortunately that's not going to happen. 

 

...not to mention the 25k floppy drives and non-existent 25k connector floppy interface.

[cesh me inside b0z]

Well i watched Metal Gear Solid 2 on VHS.. unsure of same thing...

[SansVarnic]

-= Locked =-

 

I believe this has run its course.

The amount of Floppy disks you would need to install Win10 is enormous.

Attempting to boot Win10 from a floppy disk would a task of grand proportion and quite frankly not worth the cost/time/and most likely not succeed.

Posts like this, though may create "interesting" conversation but open up the OP to portions of the community that could/would redicule, and possible attacks.

 

Let keep these types of fantastic questions to a minimum.