Author Topic: Flash drives (Read 319 times)

maddog · « **on:** December 11, 2006, 12:01:39 PM »

See flash drives are now up to 16 gigs...... How much faster would it be to install winxp on a flash and boot from there?

Maddog

Krusty · « **Reply #1 on:** December 11, 2006, 12:25:16 PM »

Flash drives are meant for storage, not for real-time access speeds. DDR1 or DDR2 will always be better for that. They're [DDR1 and 2] built for speed and integrated directly into the system. They don't have to run through a USB interface.

Also, I don't think you can set your boot preference to a USB port.

If you COULD I'm sure you'd find your system horribly slow, due to the read/write times to the jump drive.

It really is meant for storage only. If you run files directly off of a jump drive you can (and eventually will) corrupt the drive.

Most folks don't realize that. It's happened to me. Work on the desktop, save the file locally, then copy to the drive when you're done. When accessing, copy the file to the desktop then open the file. That is the proper way to use them to ensure no corruption of the drive. I'm pretty sure windows would screw it over within 10 seconds, and corrupt it.

maddog · « **Reply #2 on:** December 11, 2006, 01:42:32 PM »

USB controllers get initialized by BIOS.... At least mine..... Thought this would be faster boot times vis-à-vis disk.....

Krusty · « **Reply #3 on:** December 11, 2006, 07:40:15 PM »

Doubt it. I know my SATA drive is way way faster than my 128MB jump drive. When I copy files to and from the jump, I have to sit there and wait for the progress meter. When I copy files from one HD to the next it's a bare blip on the meter and it's done.

The jump drives aren't made for speed. That's why they don't cost as much as DDR2 ram does. They ARE a memory cell, but if you made your RAM out of the same stuff your system would tank at the slightest of tasks.

llama · « **Reply #4 on:** December 11, 2006, 11:23:13 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty

Also, I don't think you can set your boot preference to a USB port.

Krusty, how old is your compuer?

Pretty much ANY PC built within the past two years (and 3 years for high-end hardware) can boot from a USB device, including USB external hard drives, thumbdrives, and even USB cardreaders with a CF or SD card in them. Heck, I have a few floppyless PCs in my lab that I boot from a CF card (running DOS and Norton Ghost) every stinking day.

The key is that the drives must be formatted to be bootable, and you have to set your BIOS to boot from it. This website lists at least half a dozen ways to format the drive:

http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

but by far the easiest is the HP format tool, which even includes DOS and takes care of everything (partitioning, setting the partition active, formatting, "sys"-ing, etc.) with one click.

Wanna run Windows XP from the drive?

http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Boot_Windows_XP_from_a_USB_flash_drive/0,139023769,339271777,00.htm

Note that this is really the "PE" version of Windows XP, but it still works for most things.

To get to the original question, such boots are far from instantaneous, but they are faster than using a Floppy or Zip disk. Imagine booting DOS 5 from your 100 MB hard drive hooked up to your 386-33 from 1989 - that's how fast booting DOS from a Flash Drive is on your P4@ 3GHz.

-Llama

Krusty · « **Reply #5 on:** December 12, 2006, 12:10:17 AM »

My mobo is only a few months old, and the one before that from the beginning of this year. Neither one mentioned USB drive in the boot order menus on the BIOS.

Rocket · « **Reply #6 on:** December 12, 2006, 06:21:51 AM »

My new system has the USB port as a bootable device in the boot order. I know many people running Linux or Winblows from jump drive with very good luck. Speed wise I couldn't comment on how that works but it makes it nice to be able to take you whole OS and boot the machine at work with so that you don't have to be stuck with a generic system

(Or on trips where you may have to use a shared system)

S!
Rocket

Meatwad · « **Reply #7 on:** December 12, 2006, 07:09:20 AM »

Heres a review from Toms Hardware about winXP on a flash drive

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/09/09/windows_in_your_pocket/index.html

llama · « **Reply #8 on:** December 12, 2006, 01:42:51 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty
My mobo is only a few months old, and the one before that from the beginning of this year. Neither one mentioned USB drive in the boot order menus on the BIOS.

Krusty,

Well, all motherboards are different, but I bet this would work:

1. Get a flash drive or memory card you can test with. It will be reformatted so save any files on it elsewhere.

2. Go to that website I mentioned to get a tool to format that device as bootable. I prefer the older HP utility (version 2.06) but it might not work for everyone. Format it bootable via any of the methods listed there.

3. Once formatted, insert the formatted device and reboot. Look for a message on the BIOS/Boot screen that says something like "Press F8 for Boot Menu." It may be a different key, and it may be called something other than "Boot Menu." My gaming rig calls it the "BBS screen." You may need to tell your BIOS to display status messages at boot up before you see the message that tells you what key to press. Anyway, press that key to get that menu.

4. With the menu up, you should see many things, including but not limited to: Hard Drive, Optical Drive, Floppy Drive, Network, Firewire, Hard Drive #2 and/or #3 and/or #4, and then there will probably be "USB something." It may USB Flash, or USB Hard Drive, or USB IDE Device, or USB Reader, or something else. Pick whatever USB option appears.

5. If you formatted the drive for DOS, you should then probably get a DOS prompt after a few seconds. Congratulations!

Incidentally, this is one of the methods for booting into DOS to program older Thrustmaster sticks "under" Windows XP. I've outlined the process at http://www.warrenernst.com/thrustmaster in "The Book of Thrustmaster: Windows Vista and XP Edition."

-Llama

maddog · « **Reply #9 on:** December 12, 2006, 06:12:08 PM »

Theres got to be a fast boot device that saves setting etc..... What ever happened to "bubble memory" I knoe gigabyte has their IRAM but the reviews on newegg are not that good as it clears itself occasionally...... Something like that would be great....

MD