Jeff Matthews Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 It would be cool if possible and transparent. Anyone know how? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Sargent Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Yeah, I have got to believe that's possible. On the topic of flash: I picked up a PNY SDHC 16gb class 10 card last week for $32 shipped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 My research so far says it's not so possible, but I wish it was. They are getting very cheap. Here's 128 gigs for $265. http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5013991&CatId=3787 For $265 to have everything in your pocket, that ain't bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 It does seem there is a nicely developing system of portable apps for flash drive use here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 It is totally possible, there are several online projects for it. Right now it is limited (ish) to Linux based operating systems. Chrome OS is probably the one getting the most attention these days as OS on a Stick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted January 16, 2011 Author Share Posted January 16, 2011 So far, it looks lole the Open Office Suite works nicely, as does FireFox and Thunderbird. Thunderbird is a free Outlook. Not bad. All this great stuff for free. I wish I understood more about Linux. It might be the way to go, but I don't know how it integrates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 However, you can use the new SS internal drives which are faster but a bit more dangerous. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 My research so far says it's not so possible, but I wish it was. They are getting very cheap. Yes, it is totally possible. We do it all the time at work. We got compete Vista systems running off of 8-gig compact flash cards (granted, the install is severally stripped down with a lot of unnecessary crap stripped out). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilbert Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 It would be cool if possible and transparent. Anyone know how? If it's possible, you will be able to assign it in the Boot Sequence of your PC's BIOS. Personally, I've never seen, heard of, or worked on a BIOS that offered this, but on the other hand, I'm not a PC geek or guru. I just like messing with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 However, you can use the new SS internal drives which are faster but a bit more dangerous. JJK Solid state drives are incredibly fast but their limited read/write and cost make them not the best option right now for heavy use computers. A better option are the SS+HDD hybrid drives which provide a good bit of the speed of a solid state drive with the longevity of a standard spinning HDD. Also, you can get a 500gb labtop hybrid drive for around $100 now! Insane right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted January 16, 2011 Author Share Posted January 16, 2011 So far, I am finding the flash option to still be quite good and am setting it up to make the transition to having my life on a flash drive. Open Office is actually quite good, even though you have to familiarize yourself with how to access the features. Mozilla Thunderbird is pretty much just like Outlook for all practical purposes, except it does not incorporate the calendar and tasks. It works great. Mozilla Sunbird is the other piece of the puzzle for the calendar and tasks. These work almost exactly like Outlook. And they are all free! Even habitual software pirates can seemingly replace MS Office and relieve their consciences. Seriously, though, I very much like the idea of having all my e-mails, calendar and documents everywhere I go. Plus, the Mozilla Firefox portable is good, too., That way, the bookmarks and settings also go wherever I go. All of these maintain everything on my flash drive. That way, I can plug it into any computer, do what I want, and leave without ever leaving a trace of my personal stuff behind. Nice! Keeps from having to keep two computers in-sync, and also when you set up bookmarks and such, you don't have to go and set them up on the other computer. All settings, data, etc. just go wherever you go. This will keep me from having to cart my laptop around with me. I can keep the office desktop and just pop my flash drive in my pocket to go back and forth and have all my stuff wherever I am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 However, you can use the new SS internal drives which are faster but a bit more dangerous. JJK Haven't run into any danger yet. I've converted 4 computers in my home and all my staff computers at work to all SSD. It's a no brainer. Every machine improves in performance by at least twice, and my 64 bit dual processor workstation by nearly 5 times. Boot is about 20 seconds, shut about the same, and some video is rendering at 4X or better. Visio loads before I can get a hand on the keyboard. It almost makes Windows tolerable. With Linux the darn thing would probably anticipate my actions...[] Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Dave, Which particular drive are you using? JJKizak, Could you say more about the dangerous part? I've never heard anyone mention that before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted January 16, 2011 Author Share Posted January 16, 2011 How about a link to these drives you are describing, Dave? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 However, you can use the new SS internal drives which are faster but a bit more dangerous. JJK Solid state drives are incredibly fast but their limited read/write and cost make them not the best option right now for heavy use computers. A better option are the SS+HDD hybrid drives which provide a good bit of the speed of a solid state drive with the longevity of a standard spinning HDD. Also, you can get a 500gb labtop hybrid drive for around $100 now! Insane right? ???? I run a 80 gig Intel SS MLC Hard drive the slowest factor is the hard drive it is copying from but again they are not for long term storage. That is what my raid 6 is for, sorta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 TigerDirect Houston Directron here in town is where I've gotten all but a couple of those I am using. I have Intels and Vertex. Of course the prices may be a bit of a shock given the sizes, but bear in mind we are only talking about OS, programs, and swap file for most needs. 64gb is plenty for most, 80 adequate for almost everybody. At work I've added 80 work drives for video editing and rendering, but that isn't necessary if you don't do that sort of thing. Point is that for a 150.00 or so per machine you can double or better the speed of any old computer as well as making it much more reliable. I've yet to see a burp out of these things. If you have a good working machine, just clone it to one of these and keep the original system drive as a backup. Of course, if it's not a new install it's a good idea to dump all the programs and such you don't need first. It's also a good idea to relocate your Documents and Outlook files to another drive if they are large. Of course, if your whole C will fit, the no problem. Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image will both clone larger to smaller drives as long as their is adequate space on the target. Guess I am "geeked" today as I successfully repurposed a 6 year old HP as a Windows Home Server. It's working great so far and I'll like report on it's media usefulness once I've had it on line for a while. It's very busy right now backing up every computer in the house automatically. Very sweet for a 100 bucks and a days effort. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Solid state drives are incredibly fast but their limited read/write and cost make them not the best option right now for heavy use computers. Well, that at least appears to be both a contradiction in terms and precisely the opposite of my experience. The offer far more price performance than any other upgrade, whether RAM or CPU, and I epitomize "heavy user" on Friday having batch processed 5,000 jpg's from still res to 1280X720, then sequenced them to HD, then rendered the output to Silverlight...all by lunch. It would have taken until tomorrow with the same machine before upgrading the system and work drives to SSD's. Size is irrelvant to work drives. Only performance counts. As to their service life, that's something I've not really looked into as per the system/work thing. How long is ANY OS partition in service? And, while I am just going on gut here, seems rational SSD would have greater archival ability given the lack of moving parts. Further, a lot of drives are killed by shock. Not an issue with these. Anyway, how long the last isn't an issue for system use when the OS changes every couple of years as well as the CPU/RAM speeds as well. Also, the prices are dropping incredibly fast and I think it safe to say stamping out SSD's is a lot cheaper than building mech drives. If mech drives are around in three or four years I'll be really surprised. Like the CRT, their time is come... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 The danger with the SS drives is if they fail they are totally dead and data cannot be recoverd. This was what I read on the Sony forum and New Egg reviews which have reported several failures. I am intrigued however on the performance increase stated by Mallette in rendering video, one of the most difficult processes for the computer to accomplish. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 SS's are internal drives? How are these different than flash drives? Must be faster, I presume, but how are they different such that they are faster? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 The danger with the SS drives is if they fail they are totally dead and data cannot be recoverd. Of course that is true. However, system drives usually aren't recoverable either and have to be rebuilt ground up. That's why I didn't understand what you were talking about. I've not put data on a system drive for over 10 years, including email. I always relocate email and MyDocs to another drive afer much pain and heartbreak. Experience is a dear teacher... Anyway, I mentioned that the best way is to do the install on a standard HDD, then clone it and save the HDD as a BU. Then, if it's important, re-image or use a fully recoverable BU software regularly. In my case, I just set up an old PC with Windows Home Server and think it may be the best MS product ever. It's handleing nightly backups on all my PC's nicely and automatically. No HDD, SSD or otherwise, is bullet proof, though certainly it makes sense that a high quality SSD should be more reliable than any mechanical device. Time will tell, but as long as you keep backups it is well worth whatever the risk may be. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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