SDHC as SSD?

[viclaw]

Hello,

I have a really old Dell Inspiron 4150 and I wanted to add a SSD to it to make it boot faster as it's quite slow.

To start with I wanted to boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive but on the BIOS boot menu there wasn't the option to do this. The boot menu gives the options Internal HDD, Cardbus NIC, and Onboard NIC. I have the lastest BIOS but Dell only supported it to 2003.

As there is an option to boot from Cardbus I was wondering whether it would be possible to use a Cardbus adapter with a SDHC in it with Windows XP on to boot and use as a SSD. Or may be attached a USB flash drive to a USB Cardbus?

If not, would another option to use a MicroSD in an SD adapter which is in the Cardbus adapter to boot.

Any help would be apprieciated.

Many thanks

Vic

 

[Pyroflea]

The problem with flash memory is that it degrades from writing. SSDs are different, as they use wear-leveling algorithms, and have a few gigabytes (the amount depends on the size of the drive) more than the advertised capacity. Standard flash memory such as CF cards and SD cards will wear very quickly from numerous small writes.

 

[sminlal]

Actually flash memory cards do use simple wear leveling, but it's not nearly as sophisticated as that of an SSD. The big problem is that they don't have the RAM cache or multiple internal read/write channels that an SSD does - so they're a LOT slower than an SSD.

 

[Pyroflea]

Actually flash memory cards do use simple wear leveling, but it's not nearly as sophisticated as that of an SSD. The big problem is that they don't have the RAM cache or multiple internal read/write channels that an SSD does - so they're a LOT slower than an SSD.

I stand corrected. I still stand by my claim that they will wear faster than SSD's however.

 

[viclaw]

OK, but in theory could SDHC be used as a SSD? I understand that they aren't as good as SSD but due to my machine being so old it's an option I'm looking into.

Also, does anyone know of any software that can tell you the spec of your current HDD? I have Cpuz but it doesn'tt tell you anything about the HDD.

Thanks

Vic

 

[Pyroflea]

An SDHC should work, in theory. I'm unsure about how you would go about interfacing it so that the BIOS would recognize it as a bootable drive, but I'm sure Google will answer that question. Compact Flash cards will also work, I know this for a fact, but are probably a bit more expensive. Again, some quick researching will most likely answer all your questions.

 

[Shadow703793]

OK, but in theory could SDHC be used as a SSD? I understand that they aren't as good as SSD but due to my machine being so old it's an option I'm looking into.

Yes. HOWEVER, be aware that this would still be slower than booting off of a modern 7200.11/.12 drive.

The only real reason to use CF/SD cards as boot devices for something like a pico ITX set up,etc.

 

[viclaw]

Hello,

That's fine as the HDD that I'm using is really slow and old. Do you know of any software that can analysis the specifications of a HDD?

Thanks

 

[Shadow703793]

^ Download HD Tune Pro (trial) run the benchmarks. Then post the results here.

 

[Rob Cooke]

An SDHC should work, in theory. I'm unsure about how you would go about interfacing it so that the BIOS would recognize it as a bootable drive, but I'm sure Google will answer that question. Compact Flash cards will also work, I know this for a fact, but are probably a bit more expensive. Again, some quick researching will most likely answer all your questions.

sorry to bust in. i,m new 2 this stuff on internet.but vaguely familiar with hardware..i am also interested in using some kind of cheap flash memory as a bootable ssd. i don,t care about speeds or bench marks yet.just how to for now. i,ve read as much as i can and there is such a product on the market.it takes 6 sdhc cards and raids them as an ssd and plugs into a pci slot. i forget if it said if it was bootable or not.i don,t see why it couldn,t be. so could not something very similar with flash memory ,card readers,usb hub,usb pci expansion card be possible?i,ve read yes and no.it seams in theory yes.practicality no.but it still looks 2 me worthwhile as i have most of the stuff just kickin around and the practality issues are based ssd being cheaper now vrs. performance of such a homemade configuration.i don,t care about any of that i just want know if it can b done or not and how 2 go about it