- Joined
- Nov 27, 2014
- Messages
- 9,293
Today I saw an add for a SanDisk 256GB flash drive for $40 which got me thinking. Why couldn’t I use one of those to replace my boot drive. I have an SSD drive on my system now, but it’s getting full and I was thinking about upgrading it. It’s a 128GB drive.
I was thinking I could clone my internal drive over to this flash drive and then go into the bios and force the system to boot from the flash drive. It might not be as fast as my current internal SSD, but it would be twice as big which would extend the life of this machine (currently 6 years old) at least a few more years for $40 and a little time at the computer. I don’t have anything but programs on the internal SSD (no data) and the machine also has a 2TB HD for data.
Swapping out the internal drive would cost more and be a bit difficult. I had the machine built for me. It is very small and the internal components are hard to get to. It’s a fanless PC which is basically a heat sink and messing with the internals can cause problems. So I’d like to stay out of it.
So for you PC pros, would this work? I don’t see why it wouldn’t and from a 3.0 USB port, it should be a pretty quick boot and quick program loader.
Alternatively, I was thinking to just put it in the computer (plug it in a USB port) and just load any new programs to that drive instead of my HD.
I was thinking I could clone my internal drive over to this flash drive and then go into the bios and force the system to boot from the flash drive. It might not be as fast as my current internal SSD, but it would be twice as big which would extend the life of this machine (currently 6 years old) at least a few more years for $40 and a little time at the computer. I don’t have anything but programs on the internal SSD (no data) and the machine also has a 2TB HD for data.
Swapping out the internal drive would cost more and be a bit difficult. I had the machine built for me. It is very small and the internal components are hard to get to. It’s a fanless PC which is basically a heat sink and messing with the internals can cause problems. So I’d like to stay out of it.
So for you PC pros, would this work? I don’t see why it wouldn’t and from a 3.0 USB port, it should be a pretty quick boot and quick program loader.
Alternatively, I was thinking to just put it in the computer (plug it in a USB port) and just load any new programs to that drive instead of my HD.