Office Max/Office Depot - 128GB & 256GB Thumb Drive

[MaddMutt]

I was out in town and stopped at Office Depot for a UPS. While in the store, I ran across this sale:

PNY Turbo 128GB USB 3.0 Thumb Drive = $29.99
PNY Turbo 256GB USB 3.0 Thumb Drive = $49.99

I have not installed an OS on a USB stick because I never had one large enough.
I have a couple of 120GB SSD's for benching and $29.99 is cheaper than the SSD's I bought.

They didn't have the PNY's, so the store manager price matched them with Lexar 128GB USB 3.0 drives.

 

[EarthDog]

Are you trying to RUN an OS from a USB stick? Can't say I have done that for benching...are there benefits in doing so over an SSD? I am a bit confused (is it even possible?)!

What we normally do is install it FROM a USB stick to a HDD/SSD... That can be done on pretty small devices. For example, the W7 ISO is less than 4GB... I think W10 is right around there...

 

[Johan45]

If you're going to try to install and run windows from the USB just remember the speeds are nothing like running from SSD

 

[Blaylock]

I tried this once MM for a recovery drive/tool. I have a few "friends" that like to get their rigs infected with viruses all the time so I wanted to make a bootable recovery USB drive that could clean the infected drives. It turned out to be a bigger pain than it was worth and I abandoned the project. I'm interested to see if you get it to work though.

 

[caddi daddi]

I have never tried to install widbloze on a flash drive.
I do run puppy Linux from a 512 mb flash drive and it works great and with puppy you can remaster your own flavor of Linux.

 

[Mpegger]

Be aware that USB sticks have much lower write cycles then a SSD. Installing an OS on one and trying to use it as a everyday option will render it useless in a short time, unless said OS was made for being installed on a USB stick, which only a few tailor made Linux installs have been made to do so.

Also, even with USB 3, write speeds on a USB stick are still slow compared to even a HDD, especially those low priced models. I wouldn't be surprised if they write only as fast as a good USB 2 stick.

 

[MaddMutt]

After I picked them up - bought 5 of them - I realized that they would be slower than a SSD = 500+mb/s the USB is 130+mb/s. It's a great deal for putting music on and playing it in the car It also comes in handy as a extra storage for all of those 3DMark/PCMark files when running a small SSD. Windows loves to have a page file, I can set the USB as a location for my page file.

Windows Vista and 7 - this should also include 8/8.1 and 10 - will NOT let you install windows to an external drive. To get around this, you must make a 1-1 backup of Windows after it is installed on a SSD/HDD.

I got a lecture from Shawn about always having a clean install of Windows when benching I told him that my MAIN SSD - 240GB - has the drivers already installed to boot A: Intel 775,790FX,890FX,990FX Motherboard and Video Drivers for what ever ATI/AMD card I install.

I'll let you know how it goes... This is going to be a slow process with my surgery on the 9th.

 

[EarthDog]

Page file on usb is a bad idea....same reason(slow) and more.