USB Stick as main HD?

Kiopa_Matt

Banned
May 13, 2011
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You guys ever attempted this? My laptop took a shit again, so to get through the weekend before having the HD replaced, I just installed Linux Mint on a 32GB USB stick and ran with that.

I have to admit, I'm pleasantly impressed with how well it works, and I can barely tell I'm running on a 32GB USB stick versus a 1TB internal HD. I'll definitely get the HD replaced, but I think I'm going to have to keep this solution as well.

Quite handy, as it makes me completely computer independent, and would have came in great loads of times while traveling. No need at all for my computer. All I need is the USB stick with my Linux Mint install configured the way I need, and I can work just as efficiently from any computer in the world. Most of everything I need is either on my network, or on the internet somewhere.

It's actually kinda liberating. All I need is this little 2 inch USB stick, and it connects me to my entire career, work life, clients, projects, everything. How convenient.
 


I also enjoys the freedom that comes with most Linux OS and would try out Ubuntu or Cent OS next week on USB.
 
It depends how much your custom IDE Hits the disk. If you are mostly writing code and using a browser and shell, sure, little disk bandwidth needed.
 
In high school, I had to use a pay phone if I wanted to call someone.

I used a pay phone in high school too. Only I didn't pay.

I used a radio shack tone dialer modified with a 6.5536 frequency crystal to generate the analog tones that the phone company sent from the payphone to say I deposited money.

One day the operator was listening in when the phone requested I deposit more money. The operator said "next time deposit real money"... and then connected me anyway.

That operator was cool.
 
I have about 6 different portable OS drives, but not a single one of them knows how to boot up without logging into the TOR network automatically. ;)

One day our phones will have our portable OSs on them, so you never need your own computer anymore, you'll just go up to any basic, public PC like the ones at the library and reboot it into being your main PC... Completely secure, too.
 
When I had my Blackberry I kept a bootable Ubuntu on an SD card in it. Most useful if you need access to data on a machine that can't boot from its own system drive or network. (so long as you can set USB as the first boot device in the BIOS of course).
 
I did this when I first got to Mexico because I was between computers.

It's actually kinda liberating. All I need is this little 2 inch USB stick, and it connects me to my entire career, work life, clients, projects, everything. How convenient.

This is not without its downsides. At least backup on Dropbox or something. Wait until you misplace that little stick and start shitting bricks.