I'm planning on building a fast and robust (as possible) unRAID solution.  So far, I intend using an Asus P5B-E motherboard which has 8x onboard SATA 300, and PCI-e Gigabit LAN (successfully tested in another thread).

 

I'm now looking for a robust Flash boot option.  Instead of hanging a USB drive out the back of the server, I was wondering if anyone could confirm if something like a "Transcend IDE Flash Module" Hard Disk Drive would work? (The 256MB ones are not too expensive).

http://www.transcendusa.com/products/ModDetail.asp?ModNo=26&SpNo=1&LangNo=0

 

These are small Flash drives built on the back of a 40 pin IDE connector.  The beauty of this approach is that you can just plug the drive straight into the motherboard's IDE connector, for a robust internal boot solution.

 

I have tried booting from an old IDE hard drive without any problem, so I guess the only issue would be whether these drives have the required "Flash GUID" for the registration key?

 

Yes, the registration would be an issue.

 

Two alternatives:

1. Use a really small USB Flash device such as the Sony Micro Vault.  I know there's another one out there even smaller (hard to believe), but offhand can't remember who makes. it.

 

2. You can get an adapter cable like this and mount the USB Flash device inside your case using tie-wraps.  This could be even more secure than the IDE plug-in.