XP on SSD flash drive?

npx RemoveThis @no.spam wrote:
> Can XP install on an SSD flash drive? or does it not have the drivers,
> can it only install on a regular hard disk?

If you find the right web site, there are all sorts of little bits
of trivia, about optimizing the OS for use with an SSD (not all the
suggestions are absolutely necessary, but some of them make good
sense). For one thing, you want to disable the updating of "last accessed"
information, as that cuts down on nuisance writes to the drive. The drive
may benefit from partition re-alignment. The default choice of starting
at sector 63, is not good for the new 4K sector hard drives (so-called
"Advanced Format") or for SSD drives (SSDs may be handling data internally,
in 128KB blocks).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?48309 (Partition-alignment)

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?43460-Making-XP...o-SSD-f

If you want good drive life, get one with SLC flash memory, as it
is supposed to last about 10x longer than MLC. MLC is cheaper. Wear
leveling ensures that the blocks get closer to equal numbers
of write cycles to them. Some drives will have a rating, such as
"you can write 20MB/sec of data to this drive, for the next 5 years",
to indicate what drive life can be expected.

You will immediately be able to use your new SATA SSD with the
OS, since to the OS, it looks like a hard drive. Some of the more
modern OSes, recognize the device is an SSD and have software
tuned for it. With WinXP, it is just going to think it is a
regular drive. By using all that tuning crap, you improve
the behavior of your new drive, with respect to the older OS.

Particularly annoying with SSDs, is the drop in performance
associated with their handling of used and free blocks. Some
pathological usage patterns, can cause the drive to slow right
down. There are yet more articles about this, and how to fix it.

New vs Used SSD Performance
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/13

Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2829/1

If you get anything from this exercise, it'll be lots of
research and added links to your bookmarks file.

Have fun,
Paul
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

wrote in message

> Can XP install on an SSD flash drive? or does it not have the drivers,
> can it only install on a regular hard disk?

You would not want to. Compared to magnetic disks, flash disks are very
slow. They also have a limit of less than 1,000 rewrite cycles, thus wearing
out in no time at all.
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

"Pegasus [MVP]" wrote in message

>
>
> wrote in message

>> Can XP install on an SSD flash drive? or does it not have the
>> drivers,
>> can it only install on a regular hard disk?
>
> You would not want to. Compared to magnetic disks, flash disks
> are very slow. They also have a limit of less than 1,000
> rewrite cycles, thus wearing out in no time at all.
==
From Wikipedia:

A USB flash drive consists of flash memory data storage device
integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) 1.1 or 2.0
interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and
rewritable, much smaller than a floppy disk, and most weigh less
than 30 g (1 oz).[1] Storage capacities in 2010 can be as large
as 256 GB[2] with steady improvements in size and price per
capacity. Some allow 1 million write or erase cycles[3][4] and
have a 10-year data retention cycle.

======

The write or erase cycles stated are somewhat more than your
figures but still one wouldn't want the OS on a flash drive.
==
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

In news:eZnAhx30KHA.5828.Rmv@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl,
Doug W. wrote in message

>>
>>
>> wrote in message
>
>>> Can XP install on an SSD flash drive? or does it not have
>>> the drivers,
>>> can it only install on a regular hard disk?
>>
>> You would not want to. Compared to magnetic disks, flash
>> disks are very slow. They also have a limit of less than
>> 1,000 rewrite cycles, thus wearing out in no time at all.
> ==
> From Wikipedia:
>
> A USB flash drive consists of flash memory data storage
> device integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) 1.1 or
> 2.0 interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and
> rewritable, much smaller than a floppy disk, and most weigh
> less than 30 g (1 oz).[1] Storage capacities in 2010 can be
> as large as 256 GB[2] with steady improvements in size and
> price per capacity. Some allow 1 million write or erase
> cycles[3][4] and have a 10-year data retention cycle.
>
> ======
>
> The write or erase cycles stated are somewhat more than your
> figures but still one wouldn't want the OS on a flash
> drive. ==

I dont' think a million cycles would take long when you
consider that the registry is constantly being read and
written to even when the computer is thought to be idle.
Intuitively it feels like less than a year's worth of use. The
technology is moving fast though; it's interesting to follow
it.

HTH,

Twayne`
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

On Sat, 3 Apr 2010 16:24:02 -0600, "Doug W." wrote:


I have a Toshiba 16GB Flash drive, use it for daily backup one to three
times a day. I did not know nor did I take the time to find out more.
Now it really worry me, any idea how many rewrite before it fail?

Thanks

>A USB flash drive consists of flash memory data storage device
>integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) 1.1 or 2.0
>interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and
>rewritable, much smaller than a floppy disk, and most weigh less
>than 30 g (1 oz).[1] Storage capacities in 2010 can be as large
>as 256 GB[2] with steady improvements in size and price per
>capacity. Some allow 1 million write or erase cycles[3][4] and
>have a 10-year data retention cycle.
>
>======
>
>The write or erase cycles stated are somewhat more than your
>figures but still one wouldn't want the OS on a flash drive.
>==
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

"dwn >" wrote in message

> On Sat, 3 Apr 2010 16:24:02 -0600, "Doug W." wrote:
>
>
> I have a Toshiba 16GB Flash drive, use it for daily backup one
> to three
> times a day. I did not know nor did I take the time to find
> out more.
> Now it really worry me, any idea how many rewrite before it
> fail?
>
> Thanks
>
>>A USB flash drive consists of flash memory data storage device
>>integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) 1.1 or 2.0
>>interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and
>>rewritable, much smaller than a floppy disk, and most weigh
>>less
>>than 30 g (1 oz).[1] Storage capacities in 2010 can be as
>>large
>>as 256 GB[2] with steady improvements in size and price per
>>capacity. Some allow 1 million write or erase cycles[3][4] and
>>have a 10-year data retention cycle.
>>
>>======
>>
>>The write or erase cycles stated are somewhat more than your
>>figures but still one wouldn't want the OS on a flash drive.
>>==
>>
>>
Perhaps with the prices dropping every year you could afford to
back-up to another flash drive as well for extra backup
insurance.

==
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

"dwn>" wrote in message

> On Sat, 3 Apr 2010 16:24:02 -0600, "Doug W." wrote:
>
>
> I have a Toshiba 16GB Flash drive, use it for daily backup one to three
> times a day. I did not know nor did I take the time to find out more.
> Now it really worry me, any idea how many rewrite before it fail?
>
> Thanks
>
SNIP

>
No one can tell you that information.

A flash drive can fail the first time it is used or after many thousands of
cycles. I have one older 256 MB drive that has been written to at least
10,000 times with full erase or format over 100 times. Now, do I depend on
that drive to store non-recoverable data. Absolutely not. To depend on a
flash drive as a sole backup mechanism is flirting with disaster. You would
be better served to backup to a USB, Firewire or SATA external hard drive.
They are normally more dependable but, of course, they can fail also.
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

No because we don't encourage nor support people asking questions
which are considered to be for fun and not for serious computing.
OS should always be installed on a fixed hard disk so that it
doesn't move or taken away by unscrupulous people. If you want
something that can help you to access NTFS file system from which
you want to create a backup then I suggest download a Windows 7
recovery disk or Windows Vista recovery disks from here:


<[URL="http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/"]http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/[/URL]>

hth


npx.Remove RemoveThis @no.spam wrote:
>
> Can XP install on an SSD flash drive? or does it not have the drivers,
> can it only install on a regular hard disk?
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

hp.com has two
programs that will
allow xp to install
on a flash drive.

one program formats
the drive and the other
creates a boot sector.

it's a fun project but
in my opinion when
I created a xp usb

it was basically not
useful and found a
better use for the
usb.

another consideration
that should be taken
into account is if your
machine can boot via
usb.
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive? 

Of course, as long as it is seen as an internal drive. Further reading
below.

[URL="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=installing+xp+on+SSD&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai="]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=installing+xp+on+SSD&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=[/URL]

npx.Del.DeleteThis@no.spam wrote:

> Can XP install on an SSD flash drive? or does it not have the drivers,
> can it only install on a regular hard disk?
 >> Stay informed about: XP on SSD flash drive?