boot from flash.. anyone done it?..

**catboy** · 12-03-2006, 03:07 PM

just wondering if anyones tried installing their OS on a flash card, then using a PCI to USB adapter cable made the "flash drive" a master?.. I was speaking to a friend on friday night who is using vista at his work and found you can boot from a usb device and a bluetooth device now!..

Got me thinking whether booting tiny xp or similar from a flash drive would increase start up speed or if a HDD is just as quick...

b

**Emo** · 12-03-2006, 03:50 PM

LOTS of pple have done that.. most Compact Flash to a CF to IDE adaptor card

I'm about to go that way too as my 3rd hdd failed last week... :/

-Emo

**NeoMatrixJR** · 12-03-2006, 04:10 PM

I boot from a 2GB CF card on an IDE adapter. Search the forums for EWF (Enhanced Write Filter). It will keep you from writing to the card unless you choose to. Flash devices have a lifetime rated on read/writes. By limiting your write usage, you will drastically increase the card's lifetime. Plus there's good tutorials on booting from CF on these pages.

**Rob Withey** · 12-03-2006, 04:27 PM

I boot from a disk-on-module, which is flash on an IDE plug.
Booting from flash is not uncommon.

**catboy** · 12-04-2006, 01:08 AM

is it worth it in terms of speed, or is it just a stability thing?.. CF seems to be getting cheaper and cheaper, so it kind of makes sense. Im not planning on going that way right now as I have an old 8.4gb hdd with my OS and other files on it, however when that dies (which Im sure it will sometime) Im thinking of going this way..

thanks for the replies

b

**2k1Toaster** · 12-04-2006, 01:22 AM

Originally Posted by catboy

is it worth it in terms of speed, or is it just a stability thing?.. CF seems to be getting cheaper and cheaper, so it kind of makes sense. Im not planning on going that way right now as I have an old 8.4gb hdd with my OS and other files on it, however when that dies (which Im sure it will sometime) Im thinking of going this way..

thanks for the replies

b

Speed wise you gain nothing. The card itself can be read from and written to alot faster, but the data can still only flow at IDE speed and iterpretted just as slow. So speed wise, no difference. SOme have reported even slower times.

It is meant for stability like you said. When you live in extreme climates or want the boot drive always working and then a second drive for media.

**Rob Withey** · 12-04-2006, 01:24 AM

Originally Posted by catboy

is it worth it in terms of speed, or is it just a stability thing?.. CF seems to be getting cheaper and cheaper, so it kind of makes sense. Im not planning on going that way right now as I have an old 8.4gb hdd with my OS and other files on it, however when that dies (which Im sure it will sometime) Im thinking of going this way..

thanks for the replies

b

For me it was a size and power consumption thing. These things are much smaller and consume much less power than a laptop drive. I run a separate 8Gb 1" compact flash II hard drive for my media.

**catboy** · 12-04-2006, 05:10 AM

I might have to consider dumping my 8gb hdd for a CF set-up; space isnt the issue for me but the power consumption might be, and its nice to have a reliable drive to load the os from
thanks again guys
b

**NeoMatrixJR** · 12-04-2006, 08:13 PM

You'll save on power and space, but it's actually slower than a hard drive usually, and I have stability problems, but they may be unrelated. One of the nice things for me is that I don't have to worry about the drive locking up when it's too cold (although my media is still on a hard drive).