Win2K booting from Compact Flash

[pete]

Like the title says, I'm wondering if it's possible to boot w2k from compact flash? I'm aware that writing to the card will quickly thrash it, but this is more for a proof-of-concept setup than a big roll-out and we have a load of 4Gb drives we could use for page files and logs.

We're currently thinking of re-using old hardware (P2 500Mhz, 128mb) as front-ends for electronic registration and are looking at ways of speeding up boot times.

Any thoughts on whether this is a good idea are welcome, I don't think it's the best solution, but booting from the original drives is _slow_. If it doesn't work , we'll be looking more closely at Plan B (thinstation).

Well you can with XP so I guess you could with W2K.

Just need a IDE > CF adapter. Install to normal HDD then image to CF Card

[plexer]

Yup no probs at all a compact flash card appears to the host as if it were a hard drive.

Ben

[ChrisH]

Id say you would be better of looking at thinstation if your registration system will support going thin.

[webman]

Yep, can confirm the CF/IDE adapters (can be had for <£10) show up as a standard IDE disk and work fine.

[CyberNerd]

We run Compact flash drives for booting thinstation on some machines as they were cheaper than HDD, it won't be faster than a hdd though (look at the read speed of most CF cards).
We are moving more towards PXE booting everything, so in future I'll just be using the CF cards to hold a PXE bootrom (rom-o-matic) then PXE boot.

[pete]

Pretty much as I thought. SMT like the idea of recycling hardware, but I'm not convinced about the benefit, especially given the initial whinging that will begin when staff have to use it.

Anyone have a good (cheap / edu discount) supplier of itx boards?

@chris
I'm not sure if it will work via thin clients, we're looking at PARS.

[CyberNerd]

Anyone have a good (cheap / edu discount) supplier of itx boards?

Matt Brindle from www.icp-epia.co.uk is quoting me for 53 M10000's right now
01527 406895
We've bought 100+ of these and find them excellent quality and perfect for thinstation.
The Morex 3688B cases are also nice.

[pete]

@cybernerd
cheers - are you going for the fanless version (EPIA-MS10000E)? If not, how noisy are the fans?

[CyberNerd]

We've got some fanless 600MHz but now we have the M10000's with fans.
The fans are small 1.5 inch 12v 0.1Amp (quiet)