Theoretical computer questions

[OGC]

<p><font face="comic sans ms,sand" size="3">Now that flash drives are getting larger and cheaper I was wondering, Is it possible to install an operating system to a flash drive instead of a hard drive ? Can you have a computer boot from a thumb drive ? How would it be as far as speed goes ?</font></p><p><font face="comic sans ms,sand" size="3"><br />It would seem to me that it would make for a very secure computer if you could turn it off and take the thumb drive (and operating system) with you.</font></p>

[Bob Impact]

USB drivers are built into the OS.&nbsp; You wouldn't be able to run the thumb drive without them.&nbsp; You would need a whole new OS.

[JPMNICK]

you can def do it, as well as have your windows profile stored on the drive so that no matter what comp you use, all your settings are there

[JPMNICK]

<strong>Bob Impact</strong> wrote:<br />USB drivers are built into the OS.&nbsp; You wouldn't be able to run the thumb drive without them.&nbsp; You would need a whole new OS. <p>USB drivers are actually built into the BIOS now, so that computers can boot off of them since most do not ship with a: drives anymore</p>

[Bob Impact]

<strong>JPMNICK</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>Bob Impact</strong> wrote:<br />USB drivers are built into the OS. You wouldn't be able to run the thumb drive without them. You would need a whole new OS. <p>USB drivers are actually built into the BIOS now, so that computers can boot off of them since most do not ship with a: drives anymore</p><p>&nbsp;Well then I say:</p><p><font size="7">PHACE!</font></p><p>to myself.&nbsp;</p>

[patsopinion]

<strong>JPMNICK</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>Bob Impact</strong> wrote:<br />USB drivers are built into the OS. You wouldn't be able to run the thumb drive without them. You would need a whole new OS. <p>USB drivers are actually built into the BIOS now, so that computers can boot off of them since most do not ship with a: drives anymore</p><p>&nbsp;so you could but it would suck(load time would be horrific) </p>

[SinA]

<strong>patsopinion</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>JPMNICK</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>Bob Impact</strong> wrote:<br />USB drivers are built into the OS. You wouldn't be able to run the thumb drive without them. You would need a whole new OS. <p>USB drivers are actually built into the BIOS now, so that computers can boot off of them since most do not ship with a: drives anymore</p><p>&nbsp;so you could but it would suck(load time would be horrific) </p><p>whenever i use a usb device the computer says &quot;this device can perform faster&quot;</p><p>don't just tell me you can perform faster,&nbsp;fucking do it!</p>

[RogerPodacter]

Yeah it is possible to run an OS from a flash drive.&nbsp;

[JustJon]

<strong>SinA</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>patsopinion</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>JPMNICK</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>Bob Impact</strong> wrote:<br />USB drivers are built into the OS. You wouldn't be able to run the thumb drive without them. You would need a whole new OS. <p>USB drivers are actually built into the BIOS now, so that computers can boot off of them since most do not ship with a: drives anymore</p><p> so you could but it would suck(load time would be horrific) </p><p>whenever i use a usb device the computer says &quot;this device can perform faster&quot;</p><p>don't just tell me you can perform faster, fucking do it!</p><p>&nbsp;Stop putting USB 2.0 devices in USB 1.0 plugs.</p>

[cupcakelove]

As long as your motherboard supports booting from usb.&nbsp; It should work just like booting from an external usb hard drive.

[Brad_Rush]

<p>Three&nbsp;years ago in college&nbsp;I&nbsp;messed around with a thing called Knoppix.&nbsp; It was a form of Linux that ran completely off of a CD.&nbsp; I can't imagine it would be too different to do the same with a usb drive.</p>

[feralBoy]

<p>My guess is actually using a USB stick would be super slow.&nbsp; The transfer rate is just way to slow compared to a hard drive plugged into the mother board.&nbsp; Newer computers allow booting from USB devices, but it's not really meant for you to put the whole OS on a usb stick (although you could).&nbsp; It's meant more for recovery, and for using USB floppy drives, or whatever.</p><p>Some firewalls actually boot up off of flash though.&nbsp; Eventually when&nbsp;flash memory becomes cheaper it will replace hard drives.&nbsp; The fact that hard drives have to mechanically spin, limits their speed, and also&nbsp;makes them a power hog.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><p>Now, say&nbsp;flash was cheap and&nbsp;the flash drive&nbsp; was built into the computer.&nbsp; Then that would be faster than a hard-drive, and it would consume less power than a harddrive.&nbsp; THis is probably where laptops will eventually go.&nbsp; They will be lighter, and use less power.&nbsp; After that, I imagine desktops will adopt it.&nbsp; Right now, flash is just too expensive.</p>

[OGC]

<strong>feralBoy</strong> wrote:<br /><p>....</p><p>Now, say&nbsp;flash was cheap and&nbsp;the flash drive&nbsp; was built into the computer.&nbsp; Then that would be faster than a hard-drive, and it would consume less power than a harddrive.&nbsp; THis is probably where laptops will eventually go.&nbsp; They will be lighter, and use less power.&nbsp; After that, I imagine desktops will adopt it.&nbsp; Right now, flash is just too expensive.</p><p><font face="comic sans ms,sand" size="2">Not to mention that you wouldn't have that everpresent worry of your hard drive crashing.</font></p><p><font face="comic sans ms,sand" size="2">Flash memory has dropped quite a bit in the last few years, but it still has a long way to go to be able to replace a hard drive.</font></p>

[Chip196]

<strong>Brad_Rush</strong> wrote:<br /><p>Three&nbsp;years ago in college&nbsp;I&nbsp;messed around with a thing called Knoppix.&nbsp; It was a form of Linux that ran completely off of a CD.&nbsp; I can't imagine it would be too different to do the same with a usb drive.</p><p>Our VPN Mesh machine has Unix base installed on it, but can't do anything without booting off a USB stick.&nbsp; It's a security feature we use.&nbsp; The downside is that if I lose the USB key and the power cycles on the PC my office is without internet connectivity until our corporate office gets me a newly configured USB Stick.&nbsp; Anyway ... I can't imagine that we're too far off from something similar available with Windows.&nbsp; It could be just as effective as Terminal Services or Citrix.</p>

[ralphbxny]

I read these to learn, but this is way over my head.

[SatCam]

The highest speed USB (2.0) can run at is 480 megabits/sec. The highest speed most new harddrives can run at is 1500 megabits/sec - 3000 megabits/sec. So yes, booting off a USB drive is somewhat impractical because under optimal conditions it can perform at only 1/3rd to 1/6th of the speed of a harddrive.

[RogerPodacter]

I've seen people run knoppix off usb flash drive.&nbsp;

[zentraed]

<p>Yes, you can boot off of flash drives. Support has been included in the BIOS for the last few years. Also, flash has one serious advantage over hard drives: Random Access Time. Modern hard drives are blazingly fast at copying sequential data, but when they have to jump around the disc surface, they're horrifically slow (that's what that 8-10ms number represents). Flash drives can access any region of the memory with equal speed.</p><p>&quot;Hybrid&quot; hard drives are about to hit the market and will essentially be required for notebooks with the Vista label starting next year. They speed bootup and save battery by using flash memory to hold the most commonly accessed portions of the hard disk. Also, you can plug in a usb flash drive and use it as a swap drive for increased performance in Vista. Random access speed is more critical for virtual memory than sustained read speed. </p>