Using a flash drive as a hard drive

For mobility, I understand. But you are paying a price for this mobility.

1) Flash drives are much more expensive, byte for byte.
2) Going through USB instead of DMA, the data throughput is much slower.

If you use the thumb drive as the main booting device and run Windows off it... imagine if/when someone accidentally unplug the thumb drive... with many opened windows files... it may lead to file corruptions... and you may have to rebuild Windows every time it happens.

If you want a back up, it seems it's much easier to build a OS backup DVD.

If you use a laptop for mobility, you carry the harddrive with you. You can't juse use a computer from a thumb drive.

If you just carry the thumb drive with you, and hope to find a computer that would allow you to boot from the thumb drive... that seems too combersome.
 
If you have an express card slot, kingston IIRC, makes a express card hard drive. easy to remove and from what I read its supposed to be faster then USB 3.0. Never looked in to booting from it so I'm not sure if you can. It must also connect using PCI express rather then USB 2.0
 
Quote from buzzy2:

Use hot-swappable hard drives, same performance as normal HDs, and more stable than flash drives, these are prone to death by short circuiting.
More...

True.
I just love the form factor of flash drives.
 
Quote from Bolimomo:

For mobility, I understand. But you are paying a price for this mobility.

1) Flash drives are much more expensive, byte for byte.
2) Going through USB instead of DMA, the data throughput is much slower.

If you use the thumb drive as the main booting device and run Windows off it... imagine if/when someone accidentally unplug the thumb drive... with many opened windows files... it may lead to file corruptions... and you may have to rebuild Windows every time it happens.

If you want a back up, it seems it's much easier to build a OS backup DVD.

If you use a laptop for mobility, you carry the harddrive with you. You can't juse use a computer from a thumb drive.

If you just carry the thumb drive with you, and hope to find a computer that would allow you to boot from the thumb drive... that seems too combersome.
More...

Good points, thanks.
Looking around, I realized that speed is indeed a big issue. I found this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-flash-drive-superspeed,2691.html
and I guess I'll have to wait.
 
Quote from andy9775:

If you have an express card slot, kingston IIRC, makes a express card hard drive. easy to remove and from what I read its supposed to be faster then USB 3.0. Never looked in to booting from it so I'm not sure if you can. It must also connect using PCI express rather then USB 2.0
More...

Got any link? I couldn't find it.
 
I couldn't find a flash drive from Kingston that plugs in to an Expresscard either.

Could it be something like MyDigital?

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/SP...ssd-solid-state-disk--800009A5-1237840218.jsp


But that begs the question.

Expresscard slots are usually found on laptops, not desktops. If you need to have an Expresscard slot, you most likely have a laptop. If you have a laptop, most likely you have the harddrive that is on it. So what is the "mobility" factor to boot from the expresscard SSD instead of the regular hard drive that is in that laptop?

Very unclear on what you are gaining.
 
Quote from mgookin:

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.
More...

I heard this was true. I just ordered an HP SLATE and I want to try to hack it loading a 64bit OS, a 32GB flash drive and upgrading the 64GB SS HD to a 256 SS HD.
 
Quote from mgookin:

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.
More...

This is quite perceptive...
But we now live in an America...
Where there are so many laws...
That the average citizen commits 3 felonies/day...
And 1 in 40 Americans is in jail or on parole.

http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/

100% of people that surf for free pr0n...
(Which means about 50% of the people who post on ET)...
Will have at least a few "illegal" pics...
Enough to result in mandatory 5 year jail term in Texas, etc.

Or people do stuff like buy prescription drugs on the Net.

Standard procedure for cops is now to seize 100% of your PCs...
And then spend a few months going on a big fishing expedition...
With VERY sophisticated forensic software...
Or even planting some "evidence"...
They will take you down one way or another.

So unless one is a saint like you...
The security options appear to be:

(1) Encryption = Obstruction of Justice

(2) Diskless Computers = No Basis For Seizure, No Local Evidence

So, with USB 3.0, privacy/security options are rapidly moving to #2
 
If this hasn't already been brought up - Windows Activation will be a royal PITA. You will constantly be asked to reactivate windows until finally you have exhausted your activations and even the folks in the India Activataion Center won't be able to help.

Also, SATA is going to be faster than USB and once your OS is loadded and running there isn't much difference where it sits because the OS does not access the HDD often.
 
Quote from Bolimomo:

I couldn't find a flash drive from Kingston that plugs in to an Expresscard either.

Could it be something like MyDigital?

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/SP...ssd-solid-state-disk--800009A5-1237840218.jsp


But that begs the question.

Expresscard slots are usually found on laptops, not desktops. If you need to have an Expresscard slot, you most likely have a laptop. If you have a laptop, most likely you have the harddrive that is on it. So what is the "mobility" factor to boot from the expresscard SSD instead of the regular hard drive that is in that laptop?

Very unclear on what you are gaining.
More...
Thats it, a few companied make them and I thought kingston was one of them. Yes express card slots are on Laptops, I just put the idea out there as another option. Either way they come in USB 2 and PCI, you need PCI as its faster.

Another option is a eSATA external SSD or HDD from a laptop (smaller size)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top