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#1 2007-12-11 15:55:32

ModestUser
Member
Registered: 2007-11-16
Posts: 4

root partition on usb stick -> faster system?

Hi *,

I am wondering if there would be significant speed-up by putting the root partition (or maybe just /usr) on a fast USB stick. I know that computer chess enthusiasts put their tablebases (some GB) on flash drives to speed up computation (many random accesses with low fragments of data read). The transfer rate is usually below that of hard drives, but the latency is way lower. My idea is that program launches should be performed much faster, then. My root partition is below 8 GB. I could not find anything on this topic. Of course, you could also boot from the usb stick, but since there is not much data involved, this will probably not have great effect.

What do you think? Has anyone tried this, yet? (I would try it immediately but i am lacking fast 8 GB stick. They are not that cheap.)


:x

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#2 2007-12-11 16:54:49

exiguous
Member
Registered: 2007-11-11
Posts: 44

Re: root partition on usb stick -> faster system?

Wouldn't that have a tendency to burn out the USB stick a great deal faster than if it were used for backups or for occasionally moving files from one machine to another? As you say, 8 GB sticks are not cheap and it would be annoying if it suddenly up and died on you. neutral

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#3 2007-12-11 16:59:58

lloeki
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From: France
Registered: 2007-02-20
Posts: 456
Website

Re: root partition on usb stick -> faster system?

flash wears on write access, not read. since it's its root, there's no problem with wear. heck he could even put his /home, /var and /tmp there. the thing that would kill flash for sure is putting swap on it. as for /tmp, a ram disk is of good use too, so as to reduce the wear further.


To know recursion, you must first know recursion.

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#4 2007-12-11 17:15:32

exiguous
Member
Registered: 2007-11-11
Posts: 44

Re: root partition on usb stick -> faster system?

lloeki wrote:

flash wears on write access, not read.

Quite right. I really shouldn't post on an empty stomach. smile

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#5 2007-12-11 17:27:10

lilsirecho
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Registered: 2003-10-24
Posts: 5,000

Re: root partition on usb stick -> faster system?

Faunos already installs an archlinux OS with 500 packages from flash drive...check it out!!

EDIT:  The Faunos system boots in 45 seconds...

Last edited by lilsirecho (2007-12-11 18:06:50)


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#6 2007-12-12 00:27:42

ModestUser
Member
Registered: 2007-11-16
Posts: 4

Re: root partition on usb stick -> faster system?

This is really interesting, using FaunOS for booting and root partition, and have the harddrive containing the home directories. A weekly pacman -Syu won't hurt the flash memory. Even better, i should have my configuration files on it. Using a friends computer while having dwm, full access to my bookmarks, mcabber accounts etc. Wow! Have to sit down! :-) Thanks for that inspiration! I will have to check out the details.


:x

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