SimpleSi Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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 Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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. 1
SYNACK Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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. 1
SimpleSi Posted June 8, 2012 Author Posted June 8, 2012 Ok - Plan B What about an SD Card (in netbook/laptop slot thingy)? Can you boot 7/XP off that? Si
Arthur Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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 Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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. 1
localzuk Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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 Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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. 1
localzuk Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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 Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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 Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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 Posted June 8, 2012 Author Posted June 8, 2012 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 Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 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 Posted June 9, 2012 Posted June 9, 2012 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. 1
plexer Posted June 9, 2012 Posted June 9, 2012 Take a look at readyboost ReadyBoost - Windows 7 features - Microsoft Windows Ben 1
Michael Posted June 9, 2012 Posted June 9, 2012 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!
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