As I’ve said before, computer geeks are packrats by nature, and chances are you have an old clunky PC (or laptop) somewhere in your dwelling that you would like to put to good use but can’t because the hard drive is dead, and you really don’t want to spend the cash on one given the old computer isn’t worth much.
Given the fact that 32GB USB flash sticks are under $35 these days, you may want to consider installing the entire operating system on that and skip the hard drive outright. (To those wondering, 64GB sticks are still a bit on the high end starting at $80 and that’s probably more than you’d be willing to spend.)
In order for this to work, the PC or laptop must have at least one USB 2.0 port and the option either in BIOS or key command on startup to select the USB stick as the boot device.
Things you can and can’t do, and other notes
You’ll have to use Linux
Windows in any edition "doesn’t like" running off of USB. As far as installing Windows to a flash drive, yes, it’s do-able – but that doesn’t mean it will run well. The OS will crash often because it will be running on a storage medium it wasn’t designed for.
If you want to run Windows off USB, be my guest – but know that it probably won’t be stable.
Linux distributions use ext on the other hand, and newer distros (as in ones that use ext3 and ext4 specifically) run happily from USB without complaint.
Slow at first, but once cached runs fairly speedy
When running an OS off USB, yes it will be slow, but only at first. Once the operating system is fully loaded and you launch your apps of choice, they will cache appropriately and things will go along at an acceptable pace. Obviously, the experience won’t be as fast as SATA, but it won’t be slow as molasses either.
Lifespan of USB stick will be shorter than platter-based HDD, but who cares?
Assuming you’d keep the computer running all the time and actively doing something, the USB stick would probably last around 2 to 4 years – but given how cheap USB sticks are, who cares? After 2 years you can simply transfer the entire contents from one stick to another and keep on truckin’. Remember, you don’t have to crack anything open as everything is outside of the case.
"Live" or local install?
If using Linux specifically, you have the option of running the OS in "Live" (similar to booting from CD/DVD) or local-installed mode. Personally, I’d just say install the OS outright to the stick. It’s probably true the stick will be dedicated to the PC or laptop you use it with, so you might as well "go full", so to speak.
$35 too much? You can go cheaper
The bare minimum for most modern Linux distributions is at least an 8GB storage environment, so you could use a dirt cheap 8GB stick for storage duty. I don’t recommend 8 however because after installing some apps, downloading some video and whatnot, you’ll run out of space quick.
I personally recommend a minimum 16GB stick; these start at 16 bucks. At that size you can download without worry, and since you’ll be using the box as a secondary computer on your network anyway, if you start running low on space you can transfer files over the network to your main computer.
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