Run your Operating system from USB flashrom cards
 

I had this idea of running my laptop it's OS from a USB device and decided to
try it out.......it rocks. So far I have flashcards with WinXP, FreeBSD and Linux.
My hard drive don't have just all my files and stuff, no more OS nothing.

Instead of dual boot options this is a far better option. I can switch OS in a
matter of a minute, save lots of diskspace, bring my OS with all my settings
everywhere I go and use it other computers and I can have more than 2
operating systems.

Ok why would you switch OS all the time I know......but it's still funny in a geeky
way. :1orglaugh

Cool :thumbsup

Yep and it works amazingly well.....I'm stunned :thumbsup

How big does a USB flashrom card need to be to hold WinXP?

Isn't it pretty slow though?

hmm,
how do you make it boot from a USB device ?
is that something mb related ?

I use 4G Sandisk Extreme III cards. A 2G card would be big enough aswell :upsidedow

It's not slow at all....booting doesn't take longer and after all, all running stuff
runs from memory so you wouldn't notice it anyway.....but even then you won't
notice the difference between hdd or flash card.

Yup boot it from USB device :thumbsup

works fine I tried that too but you gotta have a decent card/stick

Is it fast enough to handle it proprely thought ? That's a pretty cool idea

Yes it is....they are currently developing hard drives using the same principle.
It's a durable since it doesn't have any moving parts. They have flash hdd drives
of 400 Gigs already. Right now flashcards use 2D (2-way) BUS technology soon
they will have 3D (3-way) Bus tech. Then it will be goodbye for Hard Drives as
we know them. They will be a lot faster, make no noise, have far bigger capacity and be a lot more durable.

I can't wait :winkwink:

Okay I'm a n00b. But when you install W xp for example on your desktop(on that flash thing), and you use the same stick for your laptop, you will have some hardware issues right? I mean possibility your modem is not working etc, since it will use other drivers.

Don't laugh, I know I am a tech n00b:)

Andre

Good idea, but you're doing it the slow way.
You can get CF > IDE adaptors - now THAT's the way to do it.
You'll be amazed at how fast that shit runs w/ one of these suckers.

Yes however you can create hardware profiles for each different computer you
use or store the i386 dir holding all drivers on the flashcard aswell.

Good to hear was not stupid:)

So when I use 2 pc's I would make 2 dirs like

i386pc1
1386pc2

And when I use pc 1 I rename that dir to i386 and when I use pc 2 I would use that dir, and rename that first dir back...

should speed the operating system up a nice chunk too
im saving up to get a higher rpm hard drive myself :)

No the i386 holds all drivers for hardware.....but you can also create hardware
profiles in WinXP and select which hardware profile to use. That way you can
install drivers for laptop and desktop in 2 seperate profiles and switch without
having any hardware issues just by selecting the appropriate hardware profile
depending on the computer you use.

:thumbsup

Cool....I'll buying one these asap....however for the laptop I'll have to stick
to USB :winkwink:

The USB still is amazingly fast though and once the OS is booted most is done
through memory anyway....OS doesn't use a lot of IO anyway.

cool tip for us computer geeks!

Thank you

i'm sure your computer boots up in seconds! :thumbsup

Yup....I'm sure I can come up with some nice ideas and advantages to this
setup......something to think about ;-) I'm using it as an install medium for
installing OS to servers in datacenters. All I need is a USB card reader which
I can hookup and install servers. Previously I did this with network installs
but it takes more time to setup. Now I can save on cdrom devices in servers
and have a bunch of different customised OS versions and install them quickly
on servers :thumbsup