Trainz on a Flash Drive

DARTrider

Goofy Fictional RR Owner
Hey everyone! I've been wanting to know if this is possible for a long time. I've been thinking of getting a 1TB Flash Drive to store my Trainz saves on so I can carry it around with me an use it on any machine running Windows, so I don't clog up my computer's hard drive. However I'm still unsure of what could happen if something went wrong. Is there any problems with using your save on multiple computers? What could happen if something went wrong? Please advise!

Thank you!
 
Hey everyone! I've been wanting to know if this is possible for a long time. I've been thinking of getting a 1TB Flash Drive to store my Trainz saves on so I can carry it around with me an use it on any machine running Windows, so I don't clog up my computer's hard drive. However I'm still unsure of what could happen if something went wrong. Is there any problems with using your save on multiple computers? What could happen if something went wrong? Please advise!

Thank you!

Don't do it, dude! A flash drive is way too slow compared to a regular hard disk including those external USB hard drives by Western Digital or Seagate. The other issue with regular flash drives is longevity. The flash memory isn't as robust as a regular SSD and will die rather quickly and suddenly.

Since my desktop computer, a Dell XPS 8950 for that matter, doesn't have much space for internal drives. To be able to use my hard drives, I purchased an external USB enclosure from B&H Photo.

Oyen Digital Mobius Pro 5C 5-Bay USB Type-C External 3N5-C-M B&H (bhphotovideo.com)

This box handles 5-hard drives, both SSDs and regular hard disks and the drives can be removed or inserted on the fly. The box cost me $350 and arrived the next day. The setup was easy and worked right off the bat. I currently have 3 hard drives installed including one that I run the TRS22-Plus beta from.
 
Don't do it, dude! A flash drive is way too slow compared to a regular hard disk including those external USB hard drives by Western Digital or Seagate. The other issue with regular flash drives is longevity. The flash memory isn't as robust as a regular SSD and will die rather quickly and suddenly.

Since my desktop computer, a Dell XPS 8950 for that matter, doesn't have much space for internal drives. To be able to use my hard drives, I purchased an external USB enclosure from B&H Photo.

Oyen Digital Mobius Pro 5C 5-Bay USB Type-C External 3N5-C-M B&H (bhphotovideo.com)

This box handles 5-hard drives, both SSDs and regular hard disks and the drives can be removed or inserted on the fly. The box cost me $350 and arrived the next day. The setup was easy and worked right off the bat. I currently have 3 hard drives installed including one that I run the TRS22-Plus beta from.

Wow! Thanks a bunch for the information. I’ll definitely consider that.
 
I'm not sure your idea will work on 'any' Windows machine as some files are installed under Windows itself and your Windows account but still and interesting challenge. I have installed TR12 onto a bootable Linux USB stick but then its self contained and uses far less resources all round, as for TRS19/22 I'm not sure. Peter
 
Hi

I just use ordinary SSDs connected to USB3 ports and don't bother with a case for them. The adapters came from Amazon - just search for "usb3 to ssd adapter" and you'll find plenty to choose from. I have two installs, TRS22 on a 2Gb Samsung SSD and TRS19+ on a 500Gb San Disk one. These have run perfectly for months, just ensure they are attached to USB3 ports or they won't be fast enough.

I leave them uncased to make sure that they run cool as I lost a couple of internal SSDs a couple of years ago to heat when the fan power board failed on my computer and I didn't notice for a few minutes.

Regards

Brian
 
JBOD, an old IT term for cobbled together Hard Drives

You Folks are as usual, a wealth of information........Immediately after reading said contents here,

I thought of JBOD too, an old IT term for cobbled together Hard Drives to form at cost savings, a larger hard drive with whatever you could bring to the Table, Chewing Gum and Bailing wire in my day.......

John I like your device you mentioned......And I just so happen to have a Bunch of older drives, that I save and use occasionally for Backups! Never know when you need them in pince Eeehhhh?

And I really want to play with Linux on Flash Drive too, but your right about Fragility on Flash Drive, I too am a victim of Fried SSD on my Asus Laptop, and it cost me 5 weeks of hard work repairing, restoring Trainz and other programs. I had Backups too, But that wont be the same thing as Imaged Drive, Backup which I did not make! Dummy me, cost me dearly....

I don't need Windows for Trainz, I would much rather run it on Linux with little to nothing programs, to interfere with FPS and other Graphics issues. Memory Load Etc........I bet trainz would run like a Quarter Horse in a contested Race, you could catch that horse it was blazingly fast....

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Definition JBOD (just a bunch of disks)

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What is JBOD?

JBOD, which stands for just a bunch of disks, is a type of multilevel configuration for disks. It refers to a collection of disks in a computer system or array combined as one logical volume.
JBOD is used by organizations that need an efficient on-premises storage method. It offers huge amounts of storage and can be configured depending on the user's needs. JBOD is the opposite of partitioning, where individual drives are segmented into smaller volumes, as JBOD combines drives into larger unit volumes.
In a JBOD storage architecture, multiple hard drives or solid-state drives (SSDs) are placed together in a single housing. Data is written to a JBOD configuration in a sequential way, avoiding the more complex steps involved in writing data seen in redundant array of independent disks (RAID) systems.
JBOD_mobile.jpg
This is an example of disks in an array to form a JBOD configuration. How is JBOD used?

JBOD configurations have multiple individual disks presented to a server with no amalgamation, pooling or structure applied. JBOD is used in storage scenarios such as when:

  • Data needs to be archived.
  • Video surveillance storage is required.
  • Tape drives need to be replaced.
  • Media storage is needed.
  • Short-term storage is needed before data is optimized for long-term archival storage.
  • Large amounts of data in the terabyte to petabyte range need to be stored.
  • Data needs to be written to storage quickly.
  • High availability is required.
What are the benefits of JBOD?

Benefits of JBOD include the following:

  • Avoids waste by combining odd-sized drives without loss of capacity.
  • It is cost-effective.
  • Provides independent storage scaling.
  • Reduces the clutter of multiple external drives.
  • Supports hot-swappable drive bays.
  • Offers quick read and write speeds.
  • Storage can be easily added to the system.
  • Integrates with existing or new servers.
  • Supports high availability.
What are the drawbacks of JBOD?

JBOD does come with some drawbacks, however, including:

  • It does not offer redundancy or data protection, so if a disk is lost, the data is permanently gone.
  • Even though the sequential read and write speeds are quick, RAID tends to perform better comparatively.
  • Because of its performance, JBOD may be better suited for secondary storage, as opposed to primary storage.
JBOD vs. RAID

RAID is a way of storing the same data in different places on multiple hard disks or solid-state drives in order to protect data in the case of a drive failure. There are different RAID levels but not all provide redundancy.
RAID and JBOD are both storage technologies; however, they each use different methods to store data for different use cases.
Rather than configuring a storage array to use a RAID level, the disks in a JBOD array are either spanned or treated as independent disks. Spanning configurations uses a technique called concatenation to combine the capacity of all of the disks into a single, large logical disk.
Although some RAID levels also concatenate disks, numbered RAID levels generally use striping, mirroring or a combination of the two.
The collection of disks in JBOD should not be set up to act as a RAID configuration. RAID arrays write data across multiple disks for the purpose of storing data redundantly or to stripe data across multiple disks to get better performance than one disk could provide on its own. Typically, a RAID array appears to the operating system as a single disk.
Choosing a configuration

RAID should be used if additional speed and protection from disk failure are needed. The redundancy of saving the same data on multiple drives provides a quick way to restore data if that data is lost.
JBOD, however, should be used when a lot of local storage is needed. By comparison, RAID does not allow for as much storage, because a lot of space is used for redundancy. RAID 0 is the only RAID type that does not sacrifice storage capacity, but users cannot remove disk drives in RAID 0 without also losing the data on the drive. JBOD is also fast with its read and write speeds, especially when using non-volatile memory express SSDs.
Learn more about RAID and potential RAID alternative storage options in this article.
This was last updated in September 2021
Continue Reading About JBOD (just a bunch of disks)






 
Blue,

That's exactly how I run things. It's all JBOD with drives setup for various purposes. The Oyen box works perfect for what I need, and the drives are hot swappable. I do go through the eject process in Windows just to be on the safe side though. The good thing about the box is it handles large disks I think up to 15 GB, which makes the box great for video and music storage. I use mine for Trainz data, my documents, and a separate drive for other stuff. I also have some regular backup drives such as the backup hubs by Seagate which have extra USB ports on them. While the USB ports are great while the drive is on, I keep the drives off and only turn them on when I need them since they're used for backup purposes and not regular data.

Like you, I managed some huge RAIDs on servers, while they have their advantages in that setup, I don't think they're worth it for our needs. Many people configure RAID 0 setups at home without realizing that if a drive dies, they lose everything due to lack of recovery. The other RAID configurations, while providing the redundancy and data integrity, run at a performance cost. With that said, I've had my success with a JBOD setup and I've used this for years without issue.
 
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