Treat USB pendrive as SSD?

[SimpleSi]

Just red wine induced thinking here but has anyone tried running Win(7 or XP) off a bootable pendrive instead of an internal hard drive?

 

Was it better or worse performance?

Si

[localzuk]

Just red wine induced thinking here but has anyone tried running Win(7 or XP) off a bootable pendrive instead of an internal hard drive?

 

Was it better or worse performance?

Si

 

I've booted various OS's from USB - it is much, much worse performance. The flash memory in a USB stick is pretty low quality compared to an SSD. Add in the bus itself and its overheads, and transfer speeds are much lower than you'd want. Lower than a standard hard drive in my experience.

[SYNACK]

Windows won't boot off a USB connected drive only WinPE. Speed wise it might be better for some stuff but you'd want a fast one and it would be rather limited by both the USB bus and the lack of speed of the memory. There is also a lower RW cycle count a the memory chips used are lower quality than those used in an ssd as well as the lack of error correction/wear leveling on the USB.

 

You can boot off a USB drive for a quickish boot/op on certain OSs, VMWare ESXi is designed to allow boot from a USB key and you can put many linux distros on one. It is also a feature of Windows 8 but prior versions of Windows were restricted from booting off a portable device.

[SimpleSi]

Ok - Plan B

 

What about an SD Card (in netbook/laptop slot thingy)?

 

Can you boot 7/XP off that?

 

Si

[Arthur]

The only way you will get decent performance out of a USB flash drive is if you buy one of the expensive flash drive-sized USB 3.0 SSDs. e.g. SuperTalent RC8 (£87 for 25GB) or Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 (£98 for 64GB).

 

Should be perfect for a Windows To Go drive.

[localzuk]

Ok - Plan B

 

What about an SD Card (in netbook/laptop slot thingy)?

 

Can you boot 7/XP off that?

 

Si

 

Most SD card readers I've ever seen are USB devices, even the built in ones - they're just hard-wired to the USB bus directly.

 

So, you still end up with the same slowness. The flash involved is even slower than USB too - Class 10 SDHC is 10MB/s, unless you're willing to spend on some of the 'high end' cards (eg. 32GB 600x SD card is £120+).

 

But as I say, you may well find that the reader is hampering the transfer speeds in between.

 

Theoretically, if you could find a bus which could handle it, SD can run at over 800Mb/s, which is ridiculously fast, but I don't think anyone makes cards that fast at the moment.

[localzuk]

The only way you will get decent performance out of a USB flash drive is if you buy one of the expensive flash drive-sized USB 3.0 SSDs. e.g. SuperTalent RC8 (£87 for 25GB) or Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 (£98 for 64GB).

 

Should be perfect for a Windows To Go drive.

 

Note that even with those, you'll want USB3 rather than USB2 to get decent speeds out of them.

[Arthur]

Windows won't boot off a USB connected drive only WinPE.

Unless you use something like WinVBlock or FiraDisk. See the Reboot.pro forums for more details.

 

prior versions of Windows were restricted from booting off a portable device.

Hyper-V Server can boot from a USB flash drive or SD card, just like ESXi.

[localzuk]

Unless you use something like WinVBlock or FiraDisk. See the Reboot.pro forums for more details.

 

 

Hyper-V Server can boot from a USB flash drive or SD card, just like ESXi.

 

And Windows 8 will have Windows to Go, if you're crazy and like Windows 8 that is...

[Arthur]

Note that even with those, you'll want USB3 rather than USB2 to get decent speeds out of them.

That's why I mentioned USB 3.0.

 

USB 2.0 just isn't worth bothering with.

[Arthur]

And Windows 8 will have Windows to Go, if you're crazy and like Windows 8 that is...

One of the best things about Windows 8 (and consequently Windows to Go) is that it will include USB 3.0 drivers out of the box. Unlike Windows 7, you won't have to mess around integrating them using DISM.

[SimpleSi]

Unless you use something like WinVBlock or FiraDisk. See the Reboot.pro forums for more details.

 

That stuff reads like hardcore geeky

Si

PS I'm talking USB 2 - it was an idea to try out on old laptops

[Arthur]

it was an idea to try out on old laptops

Windows 98 Live CD?

 

I suppose you could try UBCD4Win or Ubuntu/Xubuntu, but that's probably not what you are looking for?

[TechieWils]

I actually have an ISO image of xp where you can install it on to a usb stick. You have to edit the cab files so it doesn't flush the USB channels during the installations. I found the instructions a few years ago on how to do it. The speed is poor and it locks it to that hardware type meaning it isn't hardware independent. Also as its a usb with limited read write cycles you could only run it for a month solos before it dies. If any ones interested I can dig up the instructions and/or ISO image.

[plexer]

Take a look at readyboost ReadyBoost - Windows 7 features - Microsoft Windows

 

Ben

[Michael]

I'd agree with others - even if it were possible, USB 3.0 would be recommended. 10x the bandwidth of USB 2.0.

 

If you want the ultimate speed, then a RAM drive is the way to go!