[Novalug] Booting (several PCs) from USB drive

rarob@comcast.net rarob@comcast.net
Tue Jan 8 12:53:33 EST 2008


Jay, 
  I don't think so.  My recollection on USB is that you can only have one
controller on a USB hookup, that being the computer.  Firewire on the 
otherhand is more of a peer-to-peer setup.  I've heard (within Mac circles
at least) of sharing scanners and harddrives between multiple systems.
  I'd be hesitant to use writable drives like this though, as I don't believe 
there are any features to prevent data races (each of 3 PC's writing
to the boot logs for instance).   Might be easier to get a pen-drive computer 
with an ethernet port and set it up as a server, let the other computers net
boot from it.
  Just my $0.02....

Rob

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Jay Hart" <jhart@kevla.org>
> Ok, again going with a clustered solution.
> 
> I want to know if I mount a USB based flash drive, or a drive with a USB
> interface, if I could connect the drive into a USB hub, with each PC having it
> set to boot from USB, and then having a UBS cable connected to the hub, would
> this work?
> 
> The layout would look like:
> 
> USB drive -----> Hub ------->>> PC 1
>                    \-------->>> PC 2
> 
> What I'm looking for is a way to boot 2 or 3 PCs, from the same drive.
> 
> Comments???
> 
> Jay
> 
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