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USB Flash Drives RAID 0 on Linux - Pair of SanDisk Ultra 32gb CZ48 USB 3.0

I was able to create a Linux RAID 0 Array with two (2) SanDisk 32gb Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drives.  I opted for RAID 0 - Striping as it would give me one logical 64gb Drive with theoretically 'double' the speed.



Due to the Linux Test Machine having only USB 2.0 ports, the theoretical max it could achieve is limited by USB 2.0 max speed of 480mbits/sec (roughly 60mb/sec).  Initial test of Single USB Flash Drive -- 30mb/sec Read Speed.


Create RAID 0
I installed mdadm.  It was conveniently located in the Ubuntu Software Center.  Reviewed other users guides and none worked exactly as described, but after reviewing each one, I was able to piece together the necessary terminal commands and steps to take.

Steps Taken:
  1. sudo -s
  2. Enter Admin Password
  3. mdadm -Cv /dev/md0 -l0 -n2 /dev/sdc /dev/sdd
  4. mke2fs /dev/md0
  5. mount /dev/md0 /mnt/samsung
I had to also mess around in disks to get things to work.  And then renamed the Lost+Found folder to 'USB Files' as that was only folder that allowed me to edit data on the new RAID Array.

End Result - Yes it's faster
It did improve speeds by 50% on READ to 46mb/sec.  This might be the most I can expect on USB 2.0 ports and perhaps on a USB 3.0 machine I could see some serious boost.  I was experiencing about 75mb/sec READ on a Windows PC w/ USB 3.0 ports and perhaps it would enjoy 150mb/sec + if that were a Linux machine!



The plus-side, I now have a logical 64gb USB Flash Drive and don't feel 'as bad' in buying two (2) 32gb drives...when I should have gotten another bad-ass 64gb CZ80 Extreme.  To make it even better...this running RAID 0 makes it technically faster than the a single CZ80 could have ever been in a USB 2.0 port.  And perhaps make it on par in READ speed at least on a USB 3.0 port.

Is this Practical?  Not Yet.
This isn't practical at the moment.  One technical problem I haven't figured out is how to automatically get the RAID Array identified and mounted properly without having to manually access it in the DISKS utility.  If that were automated and allow the USB Flash Drives to instantly build the RAID Array mount...that be awesome. 



The other downside...the USB Flash Drives must work as a pair and on a Linux Environment that can recognize them.  Maybe that's okay as I'll only use these in the Lab.

Disks Benchmark
I tried the Disks Utility - Benchmark and it gave me results of 70mb/sec READ and 20mb/sec WRITE.  I'm skeptical of the READ speed as I was only able to get at most 54mb/sec, but the WRITE speed seems reasonable and I did observe that on actual file transfers.


Another possibility of why I'm not observing 70mb/sec READ speeds is maybe the laptop's HDD is the bottleneck?  The WD 250gb HDD is giving me about 47mb/sec which is what I was observing in the data transfer from the RAID USB's.


And for comparison...I also did a Benchmark of a single USB Flash Drive.  The RAID improved the READ speed, however...interestingly the Avg Access Time is better on the single USB Flash Drive vs. the RAID.





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