SQL Server running data off of USB / Firewire hard drive

Does anyone have any experience setting up SQL server with the data
stored on an external (USB / Firewire) hard drive.

This setup would be used by 1 or 2 users for data analysis, it would
not be intended as a production server.

If anyone has tried this, I am interested in any idea of what size
database (in GBs) could be analyzed effectively off of an external hard
drive on a fast (dual-core) laptop.

Thank you,

Matt

I did it once with a 600mb database, just to see if I could hit it with my
Access front-end.

It worked, but was really slow.

USB2.0 Corsair thumb drive.

--
Kevin Hill
3NF Consulting
http://www.3nf-inc.com/NewsGroups.htm
http://kevin3nf.blogspot.com


<mrobins@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1161979342.604648.155240@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Does anyone have any experience setting up SQL server with the data
> stored on an external (USB / Firewire) hard drive.
>
> This setup would be used by 1 or 2 users for data analysis, it would
> not be intended as a production server.
>
> If anyone has tried this, I am interested in any idea of what size
> database (in GBs) could be analyzed effectively off of an external hard
> drive on a fast (dual-core) laptop.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Matt
>

It depends upon the amount of data, type of data, size of dataset, and
whether or not the user have other things to do while they are waiting, and
waiting, and waiting.

The disk will be a major 'bottleneck'.

I think that you will find 400mb/sec burst throughput to be horrendously
slow for analysis purposes.

--
Arnie Rowland, Ph.D.
Westwood Consulting, Inc

Most good judgment comes from experience.
Most experience comes from bad judgment.
- Anonymous

You can't help someone get up a hill without getting a little closer to the
top yourself.
- H. Norman Schwarzkopf


<mrobins@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1161979342.604648.155240@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Does anyone have any experience setting up SQL server with the data
> stored on an external (USB / Firewire) hard drive.
>
> This setup would be used by 1 or 2 users for data analysis, it would
> not be intended as a production server.
>
> If anyone has tried this, I am interested in any idea of what size
> database (in GBs) could be analyzed effectively off of an external hard
> drive on a fast (dual-core) laptop.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Matt
>

I regularly restore to and query from a 500GB external USB 2.0 drive.

The best sustained data transfer rate I have seen is ~30 MB/sec, which is
about 15% that of a good SCSI RAID.

The databases are usually in the 50 - 100GB. With patience it is good enough
for a single user.

Keep the system db's - especially tempdb - on the local laptop hard drive.
If you plan on doing any writing put the tlog on the local laptop hard
drive.


<mrobins@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1161979342.604648.155240@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Does anyone have any experience setting up SQL server with the data
> stored on an external (USB / Firewire) hard drive.
>
> This setup would be used by 1 or 2 users for data analysis, it would
> not be intended as a production server.
>
> If anyone has tried this, I am interested in any idea of what size
> database (in GBs) could be analyzed effectively off of an external hard
> drive on a fast (dual-core) laptop.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Matt
>