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RaptorSA
Executive Member
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2008
- Messages
- 5,562
....Or as I call it: "Something I've always wanted to be able to do, and do it right, even if it's just for the **** of it".
"The Microsoft Marketing Machine"... nu-uh... *shakes head*...or the lack thereof....
How the hell did I miss this feature?
You'd think the average Power User would be going ape**** over the potential of this.
A Portable Windows 8.1 USB OS Drive (of your choosing: SSD, Hybrid SSD, Flash etc. of course) that seamlessly boots from whatever hardware it's plugged into).
And we're not talking complicated, convoluted, confusing, unstable and lowest common denominator crap like you get with Windows Preinstallation Environment boot disks.
Applications etc. completely unoblivious to the fact that it's running from USB (no seriously, even SQL Server 2014 Enterprise doesn't have a clue)... Drivers -once installed- seamlessly switch in and out between systems without Windows missing a beat.
Now, you might say, why the hell would I want to Nerf my/a system by running it from something as slow as USB...? Good question. According to internet forum wise asses the world over even USB 3.0 with its 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s) bandwidth (or 10 Gbit/s, 1.25 GB/s for USB 3.1) will PROBABLY suck balls when it comes to latency in comparison to dedicated SATA controllers... makes sense.
So I igonred the Wise-ass Web and did some testing using a cheap-ass Nexstar USB 3.0 Casing and my spare Samsung 120GB Evo SSD, and here's the thing: it isn't slow.
And I don't mean "good enough", or "fine, for what it is"... you can check out the benchmarks yourself (notice the latency difference between my Notebook SATA II controller and the USB 3.0 Port on the little Atom PC, fine it's just SATA II but still, you'd think it'll at least have more direct access to the Memory/CPU Bus).
So for now I've only tested it between my USB 3.0 Atom Tablet and the my old-school Asus i7 Gaming/Dev Notebook and it's perfect.
(Notebook only has USB 2.0, and even at its pathetic 30MB/s transfer rate it still kicks the snot out of any 7200RPM Mechanical Drive during real-world testing... low latency FTW!).
It took some reading, testing and tinkering to get that locked down UEFI BIOS bullcrap on the Asus T100 Tablet to play nice with the BCD Boot entry but I think I've got it now... Just ask if you're having trouble.
http://betanews.com/2014/01/13/run-...ly-from-a-usb-drive-on-any-computer-for-free/
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/devices/windowstogo.aspx
P.S. I'll post the drive benchmarks image link later.
"The Microsoft Marketing Machine"... nu-uh... *shakes head*...or the lack thereof....
How the hell did I miss this feature?
You'd think the average Power User would be going ape**** over the potential of this.
A Portable Windows 8.1 USB OS Drive (of your choosing: SSD, Hybrid SSD, Flash etc. of course) that seamlessly boots from whatever hardware it's plugged into).
And we're not talking complicated, convoluted, confusing, unstable and lowest common denominator crap like you get with Windows Preinstallation Environment boot disks.
Applications etc. completely unoblivious to the fact that it's running from USB (no seriously, even SQL Server 2014 Enterprise doesn't have a clue)... Drivers -once installed- seamlessly switch in and out between systems without Windows missing a beat.
Now, you might say, why the hell would I want to Nerf my/a system by running it from something as slow as USB...? Good question. According to internet forum wise asses the world over even USB 3.0 with its 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s) bandwidth (or 10 Gbit/s, 1.25 GB/s for USB 3.1) will PROBABLY suck balls when it comes to latency in comparison to dedicated SATA controllers... makes sense.
So I igonred the Wise-ass Web and did some testing using a cheap-ass Nexstar USB 3.0 Casing and my spare Samsung 120GB Evo SSD, and here's the thing: it isn't slow.
And I don't mean "good enough", or "fine, for what it is"... you can check out the benchmarks yourself (notice the latency difference between my Notebook SATA II controller and the USB 3.0 Port on the little Atom PC, fine it's just SATA II but still, you'd think it'll at least have more direct access to the Memory/CPU Bus).
So for now I've only tested it between my USB 3.0 Atom Tablet and the my old-school Asus i7 Gaming/Dev Notebook and it's perfect.
(Notebook only has USB 2.0, and even at its pathetic 30MB/s transfer rate it still kicks the snot out of any 7200RPM Mechanical Drive during real-world testing... low latency FTW!).
It took some reading, testing and tinkering to get that locked down UEFI BIOS bullcrap on the Asus T100 Tablet to play nice with the BCD Boot entry but I think I've got it now... Just ask if you're having trouble.
http://betanews.com/2014/01/13/run-...ly-from-a-usb-drive-on-any-computer-for-free/
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/devices/windowstogo.aspx
P.S. I'll post the drive benchmarks image link later.
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