Flash Drive Crunching

[LeBo]

Has anyone on the team ever run Boinc on a flash drive. Just wondering if it can be done.

[Nflight]

I am looking to find a Flash Drive that is large enough to replace my current HDD, is that your trying to do? not the Thumb Drive I am thinking about~!

[LeBo]

I have a Sandisk 256mb and a OCZ 2gb flash drive. Thought it might be faster and save wear my HDs.

[Big Whiskey]

I've been running Boinc off a flash drive since June 19
using OCZ MiniKART 2 gig
reformatted to FAT 32 and change the policies to optimize for performence

it crashed once on me, just pulled it out , put it back and restarted Boinc only lost crunching time

Folding and Boinc take 150 mb go with larger volume

I did because I have alot valuable stuff on my hard drive and I didn't want to prematurly burn it out

[LeBo]

What do you mean by "change the policies to optimize for performence"?

[drezha]

Under Computer management, goto Disk Management.

Find the bar that represents the drive.
Click the little button next to it

Ie on mine...it says Disk 6: Removable Media 501Mb Online


Right click that, properties, Polices.
Then change for performance ;)

Have run riesel sieve off a USB stick before..that was when I was sneaker netting risel sieve in Uni PC's...I'd run it off the USB device in the labs to not install anything :)

[gamer007]

I should try. I got a 2gb flashdrive from my trip to the US. Only $45 bucks US! It would be $30,but the mail-in rebate was the US residents only. :roll:

I like Fry's Electronics now. :)

[Strongbow]

I always have a little mem stick with my Linux and BOINC on it, haven't used it that much but it works perfectly when I boot from it (great for the odd Borg)...

http://www.amdusers.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2199

[Big Whiskey]

sorry still waking up :morning:

that enables write caching -stores what being written in ram to check against

without write cache there is chance of the data being written of becoming corrupted

For WinXP
left click flash drive in My Computer chose Properties
chose Hardware menu
highlight your flash drive and click on Properties button at the bottom of the menu
another window will open -Flash Drive~~~~~~Device Properties
chose Policies menu and pick Optimied for Performence, then OK

pretty easy eh!
Screen Shot (http://www3.telus.net/bigwhiskey/pics/Flash%20Drive.JPG)

the only thing is you'll have have to use Safely Remove Hardware program to remove the drive when the computer is on, I just shut down the computer if I need it

I changed to FAT32 for faster write times of the bigger files
NTFS is faster, good for monster files(1Gb or more) but much harder on the drive, not worth it

[LeBo]

Got it set up and running. Thanks guys for your help.