Using a flash drive as a hard drive
- Thread starter 9999
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Of course you can use it the same as a HDD but if you want to boot from it, you have to be able to tell your BIOS to put it in sequence before the internal physical drives.
Most manuf's like Dell & HP control this and won't let you have anything other than an optical drive before a HDD but go ahead and check.
Most BIOS's on home built systems (where you bought a box, mobo, hdd's, psu, gpu, etc) will work to use a bootable usb.
And did you know that you can use flash memory as RAM with a Windows 7 system? Connect the flash memory, go to "My Computer" and right click the flash and select "Ready Boost" and it will use it as RAM. Note: Does not work with all flash memory but most.
If you're able to get your BIOS to allow you to boot from USB, you can search online for tutorials on how to configure a compact, efficient OS install on a USB.
Most manuf's like Dell & HP control this and won't let you have anything other than an optical drive before a HDD but go ahead and check.
Most BIOS's on home built systems (where you bought a box, mobo, hdd's, psu, gpu, etc) will work to use a bootable usb.
And did you know that you can use flash memory as RAM with a Windows 7 system? Connect the flash memory, go to "My Computer" and right click the flash and select "Ready Boost" and it will use it as RAM. Note: Does not work with all flash memory but most.
If you're able to get your BIOS to allow you to boot from USB, you can search online for tutorials on how to configure a compact, efficient OS install on a USB.
Isn't booting very slow from a flash drive? (I haven't booted from flash before, only flashed firmware.)
BTW.... Dell Precision T3400 does allow booting from flash drive. I presume other Precisions do also.
Also, my neighbor asked me what Dell he should get to replace his old Dimension 8400. (Apparently he, too, has had good luck with Dell.) I told him, Precision T3500 from Dell Outlet. He got one with X5650 CPU for $1320 with tax and shipping... would have been $3,100 from Dell's retail site, and $2,000-$2,100, if parts bought from Newegg for BIY.
He also said, "It's faster than the $3,000 HP units my company bought this summer."
If you set your system to boot from usb, anyone can come up with a destruction stick and wipe you out, copy your drive(s), etc.
If you're looking for a way to eat your entire history when the cops crash through the door, maybe you'd be better off reconsidering what you're doing that warrants such preparation.
By the way, if the cops want your history, they already have it. They know more about you than you do and they can track everything you do from offsite.
If you're looking for a way to eat your entire history when the cops crash through the door, maybe you'd be better off reconsidering what you're doing that warrants such preparation.
By the way, if the cops want your history, they already have it. They know more about you than you do and they can track everything you do from offsite.
Actually I'm not concerned about cops. Nothing to hide, nothing to be worried about. The main reasons for such a setup are backup/safety in case of major crash, virus, hijacking and the like, and mobility. Meaning, I can run my stuff from pretty much anywhere. I run usually 2 virtual systems at the same time, one for trading only and the other for games, browsing & such. I was thinking about loading one v.s. on the flash drive and work from there. Am I nuts?