Jump to content

Booting from a USB


ed84c

Recommended Posts

OK so those who followed my last thread will know windows has decided to try and digest itself.

 

After talking to YT I have decided to try and parallel run Ubuntu and XP, but this time from a pendrive, as it should be "apparently" a 300% faster boot time.

 

Now lets assume I can boot from a usb device for the time being, anybody tried this? things I need to consider?

 

I reckon a 4Gb pendrive should do the job (XP is 1.5 Gb and Ubuntu is ~ 1 Gb ?), but what about things like cooling? I think I could build a box for it with a fan from an ABS box and take off the little plastic cover.

 

Anyawy any thoughts would be great. From googling I have seen this has been tried but not sure if anybody has it 100% working

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i've had DSL booting from a pendrive (256 MB) i don't see why it wouldn;t be possible, you just need to configure your BIOS to boot from the USB first. if you can't then go get a copy of the superGRUB disk and that'll redirect the boot to the pendrive.

 

ubuntu is 2GB btw.

 

cooling wasn't an issue for me.

 

i don't see how it would boot 300% faster though as the data rates can be slower than a harddrive though the seek latency is MUCH lower.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FYI USB [2.0] is faster, and often times much faster (300%), than a harddrive.

 

You wont be able to get winXP booting from a USB but what you can do is boot Ubuntu and run qemu on a winXP image (eg use dd). Qemu is fairly slow though so don't expect anything amazing out of Windows. It's kind of neat to show people though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FYI USB [2.0] is faster, and often times much faster (300%), than a harddrive.

 

You wont be able to get winXP booting from a USB but what you can do is boot Ubuntu and run qemu on a winXP image (eg use dd). Qemu is fairly slow though so don't expect anything amazing out of Windows. It's kind of neat to show people though.

 

How come XP wont boot from USB?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FYI USB [2.0] is faster, and often times much faster (300%), than a harddrive.

 

Actually no, current hard drive configurations are considerably faster than USB 2.0. USB 2.0 specs at 480 megabits per second. SATA purchased today is either 1.5 or 3.0 gigabits per second. PATA topped out around 1.0 mbps, iirc.

 

What is faster is the seek time of a Flash drive. It takes a "while" (whole entire milliseconds!) for the moving parts of a hard drive to find the requested data. A solid-state thumb drive has essentially no seek time to speak of. This is at the core of why Vista's Memory Boost feature works, when the difference in drive/interface throughput times would suggest that it shouldn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How come XP wont boot from USB?

 

I don't know why it wouldn't. If your computer's CMOS settings support the feature it should work. As far as I know, Windows itself doesn't know (or care) where it boots from.

 

But I've been wrong before. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually no, current hard drive configurations are considerably faster than USB 2.0. USB 2.0 specs at 480 megabits per second. SATA purchased today is either 1.5 or 3.0 gigabits per second. PATA topped out around 1.0 mbps, iirc.

 

What is faster is the seek time of a Flash drive. It takes a "while" (whole entire milliseconds!) for the moving parts of a hard drive to find the requested data. A solid-state thumb drive has essentially no seek time to speak of. This is at the core of why Vista's Memory Boost feature works, when the difference in drive/interface throughput times would suggest that it shouldn't.

 

Interestingly a single USB device can't use the control for all the time, even if it's the only device plugged in, so you get slower speeds than this if you are moving more than a few MB at a time...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know why it wouldn't. If your computer's CMOS settings support the feature it should work. As far as I know, Windows itself doesn't know (or care) where it boots from.

 

But I've been wrong before. :)

It might be able to. According to google it can (always google before posting). I just assumed no cause the only liveCD for Windows I can name is "Bart" which has only "recently" (not sure how recent but at least sense the last time I was at their website) actually released customizable liveCD support. There used to just be the bart operating system and a couple others which were static with what they had; support software and the like.

 

Booting a USB is a little different from a CD. You have to set up a boot sector and do a couple other things (been a while sense I've done this). Just follow the instructions online.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.