hard drive or flash drive

[hearson]

I am a new user
Iam running:
Ububuntu with Linux 2.6.32-25-generic
Kubuntu 10.04.1
KDE 4.4.2
grub Version: 0.97-29Ubuntu60
Machine: Dell M90 laptop
Intel CPU 32 bit
I am running it on a 16 GB usb 2.0 flash drive. The system runs well and I am quite impressed with it.
My question is, do you all think it would run a little faster on a standard sata
hard drive ? I don't have room on my windows drive, but it would be simple to remove two screws and slip in my Kubuntu Drive. I have a extra caddy

[dibl]

Re: hard drive or flash drive

I hate to say "it depends", but ...

Are you running it as a "Live CD" that boots from the USB drive, or is it actually installed and configured on the USB flash drive as if the flash drive were a hard drive?

If it is "Live CD", then it will be a bit faster, but not a lot faster, to set it up that way on a SATA drive. If it is actually installed and configured to run on the USB stick, then yes, it will be a lot faster installed on a SATA drive.

You say "slip in" your Kubuntu drive -- that's a little confusing -- USB sticks don't typically "slip in". Do have a second 2.5" SATA hard drive, and space (and connectors) for it inside the M90? If so, then yes that's the faster way to go.

[Detonate]

Re: hard drive or flash drive

What dibl said+ the speed of your USB is definitely much slower that sata. It's even slower that IDE. Also, with just 16GB if you plan on using this install a lot you are going to run out of disk space quickly. And there is the reliability factor. Flash drives have been known to fail after a lot of usage. Much more that a regular hard drive.

[hearson]

Re: hard drive or flash drive

Thank you so much. Iwill remove my windows sata drive and replace it with a new 2.5 sata. If I ever need windows, I can just switch drives. I may even get a 1/2 TB and make two partitions. It is not a live cd . Kubuntu is installed on the flash drive. I configured the flash drive as a bootable drive in windows 7. The browser is very fast, but some things load a little slow. I thought the 2.0 usb was slowing it down. The sata being more reliable than the flash is all I needed to know.
Thank you all

[Ole Juul]

Re: hard drive or flash drive

I didn't pick up on the form factor here, but generally if one wants to keep "Windows" and add a good and functional other OS (Linux, of course) then it is easier and better to just add the second drive and put on your new OS. Then you can read and write to your old drive as much as you want. Set the default to boot into the new one. For the $45 bucks for a 1/2 TB drive these days it saves a lot of headaches.

[Guest]

Re: hard drive or flash drive

I am running the 1 gb flash drive, the system runs quite well, there is nothing problem, and I got 16gb flash drive yestoday, I think it will be OK yet.

[josefko]

Re: hard drive or flash drive

I think that a flash disk doesn't survive long enough. I destroyed USB flash disk in several minutes when I formatted it with RaiserFS. You can write to one point max. 10000x. But RaiserFS is worse in writing to one point than Ext4.