Slashdot | Basics of RAID: "For those who have run out of internal space in their boxes, and who don't have external SATA or expensive hardware boxes, you can run RAID over Firewire.

The problem, however, is that out of the box Windows refuses to 'promote' an external disk to dynamic, which is required on all post-NT4 rigs for RAID.

The solution is to add a semi-documented Registry flag, EnableDynamicConversionFor1394 [google.com].

HOW TO: Convert an IEEE 1394 Disk Drive to a Dynamic Disk Drive in Windows XP [microsoft.com]

Couple that with a cheap 4-bay firewire JBOD box and any spare old enclosures and you are set!

I run 2TB in various RAID configs on my Windows server (main and near-line storage). Have done so since 2002. No problems with the external boxes. The support for external firewire RAID is a little gnarly in Windows 2000 - volume must be mounted as a named virtual directory and cannot be mounted as a letter drive. Later Windows give you both options.
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