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Development => PC, Mac & Vintage Computers => Topic started by: Ephraim Becker on February 09, 2016, 07:52:07 PM

Title: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Ephraim Becker on February 09, 2016, 07:52:07 PM
I had a 64GB 2.0 USB flash drive and I tried reformatting the flash drive to the ext4 file system to put Arch Linux which i'm going to build my distro on. Unfortunately, the flash drive went through a lot of reads\writes due to a lot of errors during partitioning and it's no longer detected by any computer. Is there any other external storage to put Arch Linux on to start work on my Linux distro that doesn't wear out as much as my 64GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive? Which external storage should I go with? Is a Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive any better?
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Travis on February 09, 2016, 08:03:04 PM
What did you use to reformat it? Was this within a Linux system (this is the best place to do this, I think). Unless the stick was really cheap or defective, I wouldn't expect it break that easily. If you're saying it isn't recognized in Windows, this is probably because you formatted it as ext4, which Windows won't recognize because it doesn't support ext4. Same if you have a partitioning problem. It may be that you just need to find a way to repartition it properly and reformat it with a filesystem Windows can recognize (FAT or NTFS). But if you boot up a Linux distro, and you can't partition it there, either, and it worked before, then maybe there is something going on.

Anyway, though, either an external HDD or SDD should work just fine.
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Ephraim Becker on February 09, 2016, 08:05:13 PM
What I mean by "Windows doesn't recognize it" is that the light on the flash drive doesn't turn on and the computer makes it like the flash drive is not inserted
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Travis on February 09, 2016, 08:07:55 PM
Just to be absolutely sure, did you try rebooting first just to make sure there isn't some glitch happening?
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Ephraim Becker on February 09, 2016, 08:08:26 PM
Quote from: Travis on February 09, 2016, 08:07:55 PM
Just to be absolutely sure, did you try rebooting first just to make sure there isn't some glitch happening?
Yes
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Yuki on February 09, 2016, 08:14:33 PM
If you're on a Linux system (such as a live CD), you can definitely check with GParted or the Terminal if it's still there, there's many ways to do that. On Windows, the best thing you can do is the system asking you to format it after you inserted your drive.
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Ephraim Becker on February 09, 2016, 08:16:45 PM
Quote from: Juju on February 09, 2016, 08:14:33 PM
If you're on a Linux system (such as a live CD), you can definitely check with GParted or the Terminal if it's still there, there's many ways to do that. On Windows, the best thing you can do is the system asking you to format it after you inserted your drive.
The flash drive is finished. The light doesn't turn on. Nothing. It's now a garbage flash drive. I want to know what external storage device is better for putting Arch Linux on.
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Travis on February 09, 2016, 08:23:32 PM
I'd probably go with an external HDD, then. I don't have any personal experience yet with SDDs, though a decent one shouldn't be a problem. HDDs are cheaper, though.
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Yuki on February 09, 2016, 08:28:58 PM
USB drive isn't bad to boot on, neither is an external hard drive (one on USB 3 is the best), maybe even a SD card (that one isn't the best at all), right now I'm using PXE for booting, which is kind of tricky to configure, but it works pretty good.

My router (which as OpenWRT on it) has a TFTP server that serves an iPXE image (with the DHCP server telling its filename and where to download it), my computer boots on its network card, which loads that image (actually you can just add it to your computer's bootloader, it would still work), from there I can download a kernel and initramfs from my server and boot on it and mount a remote NFS drive as the root. Everything on my setup is stocked on another computer and none of it locally, so theorically I can boot on my Arch Linux installation from anywhere on my home network, provided it's wired to my router.
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Ephraim Becker on February 09, 2016, 08:37:24 PM
Should I go with a Solid State Drive or a Hard Disk Drive?
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Travis on February 09, 2016, 08:39:51 PM
Personally, I'd say use whichever you have lying around. Or flip a coin. It's not likely to make a big difference in the long run for what you're doing.
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on February 09, 2016, 08:40:26 PM
SSD is faster for OS installs, but more expensive. You could store the OS and softwares on a SSD and your music, songs, random files on an hard drive maybe.
Title: Re: Best external memory to start my Linux distro on
Post by: aetios on February 09, 2016, 08:46:59 PM
I wouldn't put arch on an external drive at all. Just install it over your current windows, cuz you don't need windows :trollface: