[ale] Boot of USB drive

[Robert Reese]

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Hi David,

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On 1/27/2004 at 8:09 AM David Corbin wrote:

>I'm contemplating getting a USB hard drive.  Is it possible to boot
>off  these?  What issues should I be aware of?

The booting from usb is a function of the motherboard.  The bios, to
be exact.  You need to determine if yours will allow you to boot via
usb.  Note that some of the bioses don't necessarily state 'usb', but
may in fact say 'auxiliary', 'external', or other variations.

I do know it's possible, because I've accidentally booted off one
before on my own computer.  It was terribly funny/disturbing, booting
to Windows 98 when it wasn't loaded on my computer!


>I'm thinking it might be easier than building two matching
>development  environments and keeping both of them up-to-date.

I don't know what your needs are for OS and the environment, but keep
in mind that USB 1.1 is going to be awfully slow.  Plus, these
thumbdrives are just beginning to become reasonable for 512mb - about
75% of the size of a CD.

Cheers,
Robert Reese~

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