I am not very experienced with Linux, but I would like to be able to install the Home Server onto a USB thumbdrive, so that I can boot the fully installed operating system from the thumbdrive.
I am not talking about installing the "live" version onto a thumbdrive, so that a DVD-less system can boot from it - I know how to do that.
I want to install the operating system from the "live" system so that I can the boot up a fully functioning OS from the thumbdrive.
I want to do this so that I can use the system to share large SATA disks over my network without using space on one of them for the OS.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I've actually never tried to do that. However, possibly one way would be to create a live CD or USB drive, boot from that, then select to install and choose a second USB flash drive to install it on? (Not sure the last part will work - depends if you're allowed to select external drives for OS installation - as I said, I've not tried it).
However, not sure it's a great idea.
First, flash drives aren't designed to run as OS drives so they don't have life-prolonging features you find in SSDs (smart flash useage etc).
Second, flash drive controllers are notoriously slow - they might deliver great read speeds (if you buy the right one) but the file controllers themselves tend to be awful. That means finding individual files will likely be much slower than HDDs or SSDs, which may slow down the whole boot time considerably.
I'm not saying "don't do it" - well, I probably am - but just be aware of these issues and don't expect it to run as fast as it would from an SSD.
Cheers, Darren.
Thanks Darren,
I was aware of most of the points that you mentioned about why I shouldn't do this. But I just thought that I would give it a try - could be fun! I'll give it a go in the near future, just have to do a few backups first.
Cheers
Ian
Let us know how you go. I'd be curious to know if it actually worked! :)
Cheers, Darren.