Boot XP off Microdrive?

2L_SS · 12-22-2007, 08:22 PM

I have a magicstor 4 gig ata/ide microdrive and I was wondering if this would be ok to boot XP off of. I wanted to use a CF but I read that you can't boot xp off of flash memory. Is this true???

pokki · 12-22-2007, 10:33 PM

No it's not true. Both microdrives and CF can be used to boot XP.

Last i checked microdrives were prety slow though.

2L_SS · 12-23-2007, 03:10 AM

How slow is slow? Slower than a regular disk type HDD?

pokki · 12-23-2007, 03:19 AM

The last time I checked 2gb microdrives were about 1-3rd to 1/2rd the speed of standard HDD (could be wrong) and about 1/4th the speed of the fastest CF.

Rob Withey · 12-23-2007, 04:56 AM

Microdrives are really slow, even compared to old laptop drives. I use an 8Gb microdrive for the maps and music storage in my setup.

2L_SS · 12-23-2007, 12:24 PM

I originally wanted to use a CF to boot off of but then I looked at the price. I thought that the Microdrive would be a decent substitute but I don't want something that slow. What about a USB flash drive? Has anyone tried that with XP?

pokki · 12-23-2007, 02:36 PM

USB flash drive requires bios support to boot.

Where as CF in an IDE adapter is supported by all PCs.

I'll be surprised if going the USB route saves you more than $10 over the CF card route when buying similar speed products.

As a rough guide i'd estimate drive speeds as follows:
266x CF = 40 MB/sec
150x CF = 25 MB/ec
7200 RPM hdd 25 MB/sec
5400 RPM hdd 18 MB/sec
Microdive 10MB/sec

Speeds will vary between manufacturers so check before you buy anything.

2L_SS · 12-23-2007, 05:02 PM

I think I may have go with the normal style hdd. The speed of the CF would be great but my budget says no. How would a 10,000-15,000 rpm hdd compare to the 266 CF?

SFiorito · 12-23-2007, 05:30 PM

I've used USB flash storage...prior to the new UDMA CF drives it was the best, but the configuration issues aren't worth it compared to these new drives.

2L_SS · 12-23-2007, 06:46 PM

Will any CF card work as a HDD? I found this one here, thats a lot cheaper than the other ones I saw.

SFiorito · 12-23-2007, 11:02 PM

you'll want a CF card that supports UDMA. you'll have to do some research on these forums for more details of compatibility and installation issues.

pokki · 12-25-2007, 07:39 PM

Quote:

How would a 10,000-15,000 rpm hdd compare to the 266 CF?

Prety close, but be aware high RPM HDDs consume more power than slower HDDs.

Quote:

Will any CF card work as a HDD? I found this one here, thats a lot cheaper than the other ones I saw.

Yes I believe any card will work, but per the above for best/acceptable preformace you want one that supports UDMA mode.

That Adata one is prety slow. Adata's line is:
Speedy - slowest
Super - medium speed (80x)
Turbo - fastest (120x - 266x)

2L_SS · 12-25-2007, 09:02 PM

Thanks for all the help, I think I may just go the easy rout and stick with a regular disk type HDD. The CF sounds like it could be a lot faster/durable but this is my first carputer, and I don't want to get in over my head. :-P

pokki · 12-25-2007, 11:23 PM

Good choice.

I'd recomend installing your OS/applications on a small partition (2 or 4GB), and use the rest of the space partioined off as a drive for storing media. This is so if/when you make the swicth to CF for your OS, you should be able to simply clone the partition and be up and running again with minimal downtime.

AcuraTLFan · 12-30-2007, 07:24 PM

My seagate st1 8GB drive has a sustained rate of 8MB/sec. I boot from hibernate from a litely trimed version (nlite) of XP-SP2 in 30sec. Not bad....my 2.5 seagate 100GB 5400rpm boots from hibernate in 25sec.