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This may not really fit on Energy Science forum but I found it kind of interesting and, really, thought Aaron might get a kick out of it. My laptop hardrive crashed a few days ago, I've never seen this happen before but it isn't a software problem and I can hear it going kerplunk, kerplunk as it tries to boot. This was about three hours after I posted a comment on ESF, so I moved it from one in a billion to one in a million that it is some sort of directed attack against me. Sure I talk a lot of smack on this forum, but I have never actually built anything that makes anyone go "wow" and I believe many here have and have shared what they did. That said I was about to go shell out another $400 bucks for another cheap laptop when I said no, I have this broken laptop, I have another from two years ago another from two years before that, it is too wasteful.
So the first step was to make a bootable linux USB drive. I did that, at first, with Unetbootin which later proved to be a problem, but it got the dead laptop back to life. I chose Lubuntu, which is a very small Linux Ubuntu clone that looks like Windows XP, it is fast, it is stable, it is wonderful. The problem is the Unetbootin created bootable USB drive doesn't allow you to write anything to the bootable USB drive, everything disappears when you turn the computer off. This led me to learn about "persistent" bootable linux USB drives. I made a Lubuntu persistent USB drive quite easily, unfortunately I'll need to try and dig out the url if anyone is interested as I actually couldn't bookmark it as I got there with a non-persistent drive.
So now my previously defunct laptop is running off a persistent bootable linux USB drive. There are many advantages which have occured to me and some disadvantges. Regarding advantages, 1) Lubuntu itself is much faster than Windows 7 or whatever crap I had on there, it is also cleaner, less prone to virus attack, no commercial programs, etc. 2) If you run from a USB 3.0 drive to a USB 3.0 port data transfer will be faster than even a fast hard drive platter, even a further improvement in performance. I am currently running off a USB 2.0 drive, if I go to a USB 3.0 drive, maybe 8 instead of 5 bucks, there should be essentially no latancy for most programs that aren't downloading off the internet. 3) While I am not doing it, it is easier to encrypt a drive with Linux 4) When you are finished working, if you like, you simply remove the USB drive, there is no longer any physical connection between the web or your computer and your work. 5) Theoretically, as I'll get to in a moment, no one should need to lug around a laptop for travel anymore, just take the USB with the pre-installed operating system. I don't really know as there are so many non-technical currents involved, heck I don't understand why Microsoft is still in business, but I would think that might be the trend over the next couple years, after that, just have everything on a dockable smartphone.
Disadvantages. 1) Currently, if you want to store more than 4 Gb on a persistent bootable USB it involves a bit of a workaround, nothing that couldn't be easily overcome and really unless you want lots of movies on your USB you likely don't need more than 4 Gb of storage. 2) Currently as most to nearly all computers ship, they look to boot from the hard drive before any USB drive. This means if you put a bootable USB drive in such a computer it will ignore it and boot from the hardrive. Pressing F1 or F2 or whatever it is for the manufacturers computer allows one to go in and easily change the boot order so that the USB drive is looked at before the hard drive at start up but a salesperson or whatnot doesn't want to worry about that. The manufacturers would need to change the default boot order in the BIOS, then the salesman could carry three copies of everything he has worked on, on his own operating system, on his key ring instead of lugging around a laptop computer.
Anyways, and again no future predictions here (i.e. why is Microsoft basically a monopoly with an inferior product against a financially free superior alternative) but technically it looks to me that hard drives are toast. USB drives are faster, more secure, more customizable.
Ciao,
Paul
So the first step was to make a bootable linux USB drive. I did that, at first, with Unetbootin which later proved to be a problem, but it got the dead laptop back to life. I chose Lubuntu, which is a very small Linux Ubuntu clone that looks like Windows XP, it is fast, it is stable, it is wonderful. The problem is the Unetbootin created bootable USB drive doesn't allow you to write anything to the bootable USB drive, everything disappears when you turn the computer off. This led me to learn about "persistent" bootable linux USB drives. I made a Lubuntu persistent USB drive quite easily, unfortunately I'll need to try and dig out the url if anyone is interested as I actually couldn't bookmark it as I got there with a non-persistent drive.
So now my previously defunct laptop is running off a persistent bootable linux USB drive. There are many advantages which have occured to me and some disadvantges. Regarding advantages, 1) Lubuntu itself is much faster than Windows 7 or whatever crap I had on there, it is also cleaner, less prone to virus attack, no commercial programs, etc. 2) If you run from a USB 3.0 drive to a USB 3.0 port data transfer will be faster than even a fast hard drive platter, even a further improvement in performance. I am currently running off a USB 2.0 drive, if I go to a USB 3.0 drive, maybe 8 instead of 5 bucks, there should be essentially no latancy for most programs that aren't downloading off the internet. 3) While I am not doing it, it is easier to encrypt a drive with Linux 4) When you are finished working, if you like, you simply remove the USB drive, there is no longer any physical connection between the web or your computer and your work. 5) Theoretically, as I'll get to in a moment, no one should need to lug around a laptop for travel anymore, just take the USB with the pre-installed operating system. I don't really know as there are so many non-technical currents involved, heck I don't understand why Microsoft is still in business, but I would think that might be the trend over the next couple years, after that, just have everything on a dockable smartphone.
Disadvantages. 1) Currently, if you want to store more than 4 Gb on a persistent bootable USB it involves a bit of a workaround, nothing that couldn't be easily overcome and really unless you want lots of movies on your USB you likely don't need more than 4 Gb of storage. 2) Currently as most to nearly all computers ship, they look to boot from the hard drive before any USB drive. This means if you put a bootable USB drive in such a computer it will ignore it and boot from the hardrive. Pressing F1 or F2 or whatever it is for the manufacturers computer allows one to go in and easily change the boot order so that the USB drive is looked at before the hard drive at start up but a salesperson or whatnot doesn't want to worry about that. The manufacturers would need to change the default boot order in the BIOS, then the salesman could carry three copies of everything he has worked on, on his own operating system, on his key ring instead of lugging around a laptop computer.
Anyways, and again no future predictions here (i.e. why is Microsoft basically a monopoly with an inferior product against a financially free superior alternative) but technically it looks to me that hard drives are toast. USB drives are faster, more secure, more customizable.
Ciao,
Paul
Thanks for the help, mission successful, Ciao -Paul
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