Flash drive as swap

FLCLFan · 2008-10-07 23:42:49

Hey people.,

I'm trying to take my old flash drive that i dont use and turn it into some extra swap space for my computer so it doesnt always have to write to my disk. How do I go about doing this?

Thanks

cactus · 2008-10-07 23:54:10

mkswap /dev/<flashdriveBusID>
swapon /dev/<flashdriveBusID>

Add an entry to /etc/fstab for it.

You might want to do mkswap -L swapFlash /dev/<flashdriveBUSID> instead, then you can add the entry to fstab to have it mounted based on label instead of hardcoded busid. Or you could use UUID. Up to you.

FLCLFan · 2008-10-08 01:00:07

Cool, it works

Thank you!

nowala · 2008-10-08 07:32:17

Perfect!!!!!!!!!:D

Gruntz · 2008-10-08 07:35:51

and... what is the deal with using flash drive as swap?

fukawi2 · 2008-10-08 08:25:06

I did a lot of Googling on it this afternoon (quiet day at work) and the general concensus across all the mailing lists for various distros is that it's a bad idea due to:
a) Limited lifetime of flash memory with so much write activity
b) Slow transfer speeds, even compared to PATA/SATA/SCSI, especially on USB 1.1

AD28 · 2008-10-08 09:15:46

THW did a segment on that last month:

USB Thumb Drive Vs. Hard Drive : 10 Years of Storage Development

Arch Linux

#1 2008-10-07 23:42:49

Flash drive as swap

#2 2008-10-07 23:54:10

Re: Flash drive as swap

#3 2008-10-08 01:00:07

Re: Flash drive as swap

#4 2008-10-08 07:32:17

Re: Flash drive as swap

#5 2008-10-08 07:35:51

Re: Flash drive as swap

#6 2008-10-08 08:25:06

Re: Flash drive as swap

#7 2008-10-08 09:15:46

Re: Flash drive as swap

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